Eye-opening and compelling the overlooked world of freight shipping revealed as the
foundation of our civilization On ship-tracking Web sites the waters are black with dots.
Each dot is a ship each ship is laden with boxes each box is laden with goods. In
postindustrial economies we no longer produce but buy and so we must ship. Without shipping
there would be no clothes food paper or fuel. Without all those dots the world would not
work. Yet freight shipping is all but invisible. Away from public scrutiny it revels in
suspect practices dubious operators and a shady system of "flags of convenience." And then
there are the pirates. Rose George acclaimed chronicler of what we would rather ignore sails
from Rotterdam to Suez to Singapore on ships the length of football fields and the height of
Niagara Falls she patrols the Indian Ocean with an anti-piracy task force she joins seafaring
chaplains and investigates the harm that ships inflict on endangered whales. Sharply
informative and entertaining Ninety Percent of Everything reveals the workings and perils of
an unseen world that holds the key to our economy our environment and our very civilization.
