Junk raft : an ocean voyage and a rising tide of activism to fight plastic pollution / Marcus Eriksen.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Boston : Beacon Press, [2017]Description: xi, 225 pages ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780807056400
- 0807056405
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 363.738 E68 | Available | 33111008792943 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
An exciting account of an activist scientist's unorthodox fight in the growing movement against plastic marine pollution and of his expedition across the Pacific on a home-made "junk raft"
News media brought the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch"-the famous swirling gyre of plastic pollution in the ocean-into the public consciousness. But when Marcus Eriksen cofounded the 5 Gyres Institute with his wife, Anna Cummins, and set out to study the world's oceans with hundreds of volunteers, they discovered a "plastic smog" of microscopic debris that permeates our oceans globally, defying simple clean-up efforts. What's more, these microplastics and their toxic chemistry have seeped into the food chain, threatening marine life and humans alike.
Far from being a gloomy treatise on an environmental catastrophe, though, Junk Raft tells the exciting story of Eriksen and his team's fight to solve the problem of plastic pollution. A scientist, activist, and inveterate adventurer, Eriksen is drawn to the sea by a desire to right an environmental injustice. Against long odds and common sense, he and his co-navigator, Joel Paschal, construct a "junk raft" made of plastic trash and set themselves adrift from Los Angeles to Hawaii, with no motor or support vessel, confronting perilous cyclones, food shortages, and a fast decaying raft.
As Eriksen recounts his struggles to keep afloat, he immerses readers in the deep history of the plastic pollution crisis and the movement that has arisen to combat it. The proliferation of cheap plastic products during the twentieth century has left the world awash in trash. Meanwhile, the plastics industry, with its lobbying muscle, fights tooth and nail against any changes that would affect its lucrative status quo, instead defending poorly designed products and deflecting responsibility for the harm they cause.
But, as Eriksen shows, the tide is turning in the battle to save the world's oceans. He recounts the successful efforts that he and many other activists are waging to fight corporate influence and demand that plastics producers be held accountable. Junk Raft provides concrete, actionable solutions and an empowering message- it's within our power to change the throw-away culture for the sake of our planet.
"An exciting account of an activist scientist's unorthodox fight in the growing movement against plastic marine pollution and of his expedition across the Pacific on a home-made "junk raft" Over the past several years, the news media has brought the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch"--The famous swirling gyre of plastic litter in the ocean--into the public consciousness. When Marcus Eriksen cofounded the 5 Gyres Institute with his wife, Anna, and set out to study marine pollution, they found that the reality is even more dire: instead of a stable mass of litter, they discovered that a "plastic smog" of microparticles permeates the world's oceans, defying simplistic clean-up efforts. What's more, these microplastics and their toxic chemistry have seeped into the food chain, threatening marine life and humans alike. Far from being a gloomy treatise on an environmental catastrophe, though, Junk Raft tells the exciting story of Eriksen's fight to raise awareness and solve the problem of plastic pollution, contributing to a fast-growing movement to stem the tide of trash. Eriksen writes of his voyage from Los Angeles to Hawaii aboard his homemade "junk raft," and along the way he recounts the successful efforts to fight corporate influence and demand that plastics producers take responsibility for a problem they've created. Eriksen provides concrete, actionable solutions and an empowering message: it's up to bold, brash, unapologetically activist "citizen scientists" to challenge the status quo for the sake of the planet"-- Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Synthetic seas -- Junk & gyre -- IMUA -- Junk-o-philia: our obsession with stuff -- Thrown away -- Coming unscrewed: the little fish in the big sea -- "Junk in, junk out" -- Guadalupe loop: the recycling myth -- Too wasteful to value: Chico bag vs. plastic-bag lobby -- Waves and windmills: a case for the eco-pragmatist -- Wasting away: the fate, fallacy, and fantasy of ocean cleanup -- Synthetic drift: human health and our trash -- Little fish bites big fish -- A plastic smog -- The great divide: the linear vs. circular economy -- A revolution by design -- Embrace.