Within the past century, however, humans have flattened the coral reefs on the continental shelves and scraped the sea
grass beds bare; a dead zone bigger than New Jersey grows at the mouth of the Mississippi; all the world's cod fisheries have collapsed.
He watched the man lift the baby again and walk along the
grass between one
bare flower
bed and the next, holding the bundle high so he could whisper to her, rocking her gently, strolling along slowly in the brilliant moonlight.