Portrait of the Gulf Stream

£12.99

Érik Orsenna’s passion and concern for the future of the Gulf Stream was the motivation behind this book, “Portrait of the Gulf Stream”. In it he raises the questions: What is the Gulf Stream? Is it a simple river passing through the Atlantic? Where does it start and where does it end?
Orsenna read, investigated, travelled, sailed and met with specialists, scientists, sailors and explorers who all contributed to a better knowledge of the Gulf Stream. Orsenna describes himself as a ‘wanderer’ rather than a scientist, so he journeyed from the violent swirls off the coast of Florida to the maelstroms of Norway, from the shores of Scotland to the legendary approach to Nantucket, on land or on the sea, to meet scholars and discover the secrets of this powerful and mysterious ocean current.

He invites us, readers, to join him on his voyage of discovery, full of fascinating references from Socrates to Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe to Hemingway, who all wrote about the sea and the currents, as well as explaining the theories of Arago and Coriolis, and the latest scientific discoveries.

Orsenna is a wonderfully erudite narrator who weaves between poetry and science to offer a portrait of the Gulf Stream so we can marvel at this amazing river of seawater, which reaches widths of 150km and depths of 1,200m. His journey also leads to a reflection on climate change, and what the currents could mean for our way of life if they changed.