Critical Review On Alanna Mitchell

Rough Draft of Critical Review
Book: Seasick
Author: Alanna Mitchell
Student: Roberto Rubortone
Student #: 0398811


Alanna Mitchell is a Canadian journalistand author many books relating environmental problems, but emphasizing it more with the ocean and all its components.

In her book “Seasick” she tries to explainhow humans are affecting the ocean, directly and indirectly too.

The tone used in this book is rather aggressive than soft, meaning that she does not try to show allthe problems with a sense of “repair”; she tries to argue that if we do not do something about this, life as we know it now might not be available for nextgenerations. Next, I’ve included a quote from the book that shows how her tone is used.

"The issue is that all over the world, ocean scientists, in groups ofspecialists who rarely put their information together, are finding that global climate change and other human actions are beginning to have a measurable effect on the ocean. Thevital signs of this critical medium of life are showing clear signs of distress."


The fact that the author actually goes where the marine environment is damagedto do the research, creates a sense of trust when you read her book. It is like she transports you to the place she was once doing research. You actually get a senseof sickness while you are reading what we as humans are doing to the environment.

Something that really helps her arguments is that as she is travelling,studying the environment, she spends a lot of time with scientists and specialist that support everything that she is saying, giving official support to her arguments.