demand

Do you like to eat fish?

What kinds of fish do you like to eat?

possible effects

What would the effect of the loss of most of the fish we eat have on other organisms?

What would explain the effect of one species population on another species population?

industrial revolution

the Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840

What was the Industrial Revolution and what effect did it have on society?

responsibility

According to Kurlansky what does the survival of the planet depend on?

Charles Darwin

Who is Charles Darwin and why is he significant?

How did Darwin describe the order of nature and how did he view nature?

animal kingdom

How are plants and animals organized?

natural selection

natural selection is the process in nature by which, according to Darwin's theory, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characters in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated

Describe natural selection and how it affects species.

impact

Why should we worry about life in the sea?

species survival

What is the relationship between numbers and the variety of species and the health of the environment?

causes

According to Kurlansky, what are the major causes of the destruction of the World's oceans?

overfishing

deplete the stock of fish in (a body of water) by too much fishing

pollution

the presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects

climate change

a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels

"Most of the fish we eat, most of the fish we know, could be gone in the next fifty years" (Kurlansky XI). A World Without Fish starts out with this statement. This quote is what the whole book is about; the possible extinction of fish, why this could happen, and what we as humans can do about this. The introduction chapter of this book contains very important and interesting information on fish. Mark Kurlansky mentions the organism organization system in the introduction chapter as well: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. He also mentions some thoughts that Charles Darwin recorded in his book On the Origin of Species. Kurlansky also pondered why humans have no trouble killing animals that are part of our own Kingdom, Phylum, and Class but not of our own species. He says that vegetarians do not do this, however they also do not care about killing organisms in other Kingdoms as well. The ideas in the introduction are very interesting and create a spark for the fire that is A World Without Fish.