Nancy Blackett, captain of the sailing dinghy Amazon, dread pirate, and child of the imagination of the British novelist Arthur Ransome, is duly famous for her many bold and brave exploits undertaken alongside her younger sister Peggy, the crew of the sailing dignhy Swallow – being Captain John and his siblings Susan, Titty, and Roger – and their friends Dick and Dot in Ransome’s classic series Swallows & Amazons. To the multiple generations of readers who have come to love these delightful books, amongst whom I most enthusiastically count myself, Captain Nancy is also particularly well known for her ability to swear creatively, frequently exclaiming “jibbooms and bobstays!” or “barbecued billygoats!” at the appropriate moment in the stories. Upon opening the package Columbia University Press that contained a copy of the newly published book Megalodons, Mermaids, and Climate Change; Answers to Your Ocean and Atmosphere Questions by Dr. Ellen Prager and Dave Jones, I immediately thought how superbly appropriate the beginning of the title would be to have been included in Captain Nancy’s collection of colourful and creative oaths: “megalodons and mermaids!”
Written as a collection of questions and answers about matters oceanic and atmospheric, Prager and Jones combine their extensive experience in these fields and “use frequently asked and zany questions about the ocean and atmosphere to combat misinformation and make science engaging and understandable for all.” As ours is such a disturbingly benighted age in which the very idea of science itself is questioned by far too many who lack even the rudiments of understanding of it, leading to such breath-taking developments as people blaming meteorologists for causing hurricanes, such a down-to-Earth, easy-to-understand book as this is a most welcome one indeed. Now if only the vast number of those who most need to read it will do so… (As they most likely won’t, it will at least help those who will do so to discover clear and easy-to-use explanations to keep ready-to-mind for holiday suppers with “that one particular uncle” and other encounters with the poorly educated as needed.)
