Short Synopsis
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.

Full Synopsis
On ship-tracking websites, 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. We buy, so we must ship. Without all those dots, the world would not work.

Freight shipping has been no less revolutionary than the printing press or the Internet, yet it is all but invisible. Away from public scrutiny, shipping revels in suspect practices, dubious operators, and a shady system. Infesting our waters, poisoning our air, and a prime culprit of acoustic pollution, shipping is environmentally indefensible. 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.

“Consistently absorbing . . . Timely as well as deft . . . George's spirited book cracks open a vast, treacherous and largely ignored world.” ---New York Times

“Consistently illuminating in-depth analysis . . . An eye-opening maritime exposé.” ---Kirkus

"George provides an engaging, much-needed, and in-depth tribute to shipping’s essential role in providing worldwide goods and services." ---Booklist

“A fascinating account of the international ocean shipping industry and the arena it operates in, the largely ungoverned open seas.” ---The Seattle Times

"George's love for the journey shines through, but her romantic leanings never take over her clear and sobering presentation of her central argument: shipping is hard on its employees and the ocean, but we cannot live without it." ---Shelf Awareness