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HUMANITY has always treated the oceans as infinite 鈥� an inexhaustible source for fish and a limitless sink for waste. Marine biologist Callum Roberts aims to change that.

In Ocean of Life, he takes us on a comprehensive tour of the ways human activity is altering Earth鈥檚 oceans 鈥� mostly for the worse 鈥� and outlines what we can do about it.

It is a depressing tale. Roberts shows how over the past few centuries we have fished out the seas, changed the climate, acidified the oceans and caused massive dead zones on the sea floor. We have polluted with plastic, chemicals and noise, spread diseases that devastate marine life and transported invasive species willy-nilly around the globe.

鈥淲e have polluted with plastic, chemicals and noise, and transported invasive species willy-nilly鈥�

And worse is to come. If climate change continues unabated, we face a future of rising sea levels, likely loss of most coral reefs, and shifting currents 鈥� potentially including the end of the Gulf Stream, which helps keeps Europe unusually warm for its latitude.

After reciting this catalogue of ills, Roberts spends the second half of his book grappling with solutions. Here he professes a sense of optimism, because the way forward is clear. It requires more prudent management of fishing to restore collapsed fish populations, which, after a recovery period, may even lead to increased fish catches. Already marine protected areas have had great success in boosting the abundance of fish and the ecosystems that support them. Roberts鈥檚 impassioned and convincing case for setting aside far more of the oceans in such protected areas is the strongest part of this section of the book.

We also need to utilise carbon capture, more renewable energy and possibly geoengineering to halt warming, while placing tighter controls on pollution 鈥� including agricultural run-off.

The bad news is that we have known all this for years, sometimes decades, and that hasn鈥檛 helped much. Nor does Roberts offer any new strategies or game-changing technologies to reverse our failures. The good news is that what we must do is plain. All we need is the political and social will to do it. Anyone who reads this book will come away with more of that.