Book: Alanna Mitchell 'Sea Sick' (2009)

Did you know that, according to the sorts of scientists who crank out obscure trivia, every tear you cry eventually ends up in the ocean? This is relevant here because Mitchell's book might cause you to shed tears of pure rage. Tackling the difficult subject of ocean change (a massive contributing factor to global climate change), she lists example after example of horrifying things that the human race has done to the seas and everything in them, including plastic islands, oxygenless 'dead zones' of water where nothing can live, and entire species fished to the brink of extinction. Thankfully she also lists things that can, could, and should be done to try and halt (or at least assuage) the potentially catastrophic effects of ocean and climate change. The question, as always, is whether enough people will give enough of a damn to change anything at all.

Sore subject aside, it's fascinating just to follow her research expedition as she travels the world visiting coral reefs, universities, Australians, starving Tanzanian villagers, floating laboratories, a marine conference in China, a paleoecological dig in Spain, and the bottom of the sea. I learned a ton of incredibly cool facts about phytoplankton (which produce about half of the world's atmospheric oxygen) and corals, and some rather less cool facts about modern fishing practises and why there are certain types of seafood we simply oughtn't to eat.

In case you might think that Mitchell is simply a paranoid alarmist or a bleeding-heart crackpot commie Canadian liberal, I'd like to point out that she was named by Reuters as the best environmental reporter in the world. That's hardly the title of a crackpot, rather the label of a great writer and a fanatically accurate researcher. Please do read her book.

Film: 'RiP!: A remix manifesto' (2008)

There are a host of reasons why this might be the coolest thing I've seen all year. It's certainly one of the most relevant, given the neverending debates, arguments, and all-out warfare surrounding the issue of copyright infringement. Because I've only got 300 words here I can't just gush about how much I love this movie, so here are two of the aforementioned host of reasons:

1. The concept! This is an open source film. All of the footage is freely available on the Open Source Cinema site under a Creative Commons license; you are allowed - nay, encouraged - to download it, copy it, slap it together with new stuff and/or in new ways (in short, remix it) and make your own damn movie.

2. Cory Doctorow's in it. And if that's not enough cool in one place for you, there's also Lawrence Lessig, about whom I am in total agreement with filmmaker Brett Gaylor: this man is the coolest lawyer in the world. Still not enough? Okay, how about pirate cartoonist Dan O' Neill, legendary musician Gilberto Gil, and Bittersweet Symphony capoeira in the slums of Rio? Oh, and did I mention that a good deal of the film centres on kickass mashup artist Gregg Gillis, better known as the infamous Girl Talk?

Go watch this intelligent, informative, levelheaded, and terrifyingly to-the-point film. It's affordable and readily available (hell, the whole thing's on youtube - though if you like it and you've got some spare change, you can make a donation). Form your own opinion (or borrow a few from other people and make a philosophical mashup). I see this project's message as an invitation to help create the world we want to live in, and that is gloriously cool.

Film: 'The End of the Line' (2009)

 Imagine a world with no fish. This should bother you. If it does, watch this film. If it doesn't (you hate fish, you never eat them; or, you love fish, but you know there are plenty of them in the sea), watch it anyway. I'm f*cking serious this time, kids. Most of what I review here is for my own amusement, and I don't really mind whether or not you seek it out beyond the reviews. This one is different; I really, really want you to go and watch it.

Yeah, I know - I hate nature docs, and I never recommend them. This is not a nature doc. This is a documentary about the horrifying impact human appetite and avarice has on the no-longer-natural world. Ever gone out for sushi? Surf 'n' turf? Made good old-fashioned chowder, or baked a nice filet of haddock? Do you know where the filling in your tuna sandwich was caught, and how? These are easy questions to answer, though the simple-enough answers may lead you towards rather more frightening truths.

Please watch the film. It's easy to get, via netflix or a library. Make your friends watch it. Make your mom watch it (maybe she'll stop making that really horrible salmon casserole every time you visit). I know it's tough. I know you don't want to know what your fellow humans have done to the world you live in, and how you've inadvertently helped them out with that. I sure as hell wish I didn't have to know any of it. But I do know, and I want and wish and hope and pray for you to know too, because I would like to have some world left for us to keep on living in.

For more information regarding what this is all about (and what you can do about it), visit  http://endoftheline.com/campaign/.

You can (and I hope you will) also read journalist Charles Clover's book, The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat, upon which this film was based.