| Description |
225 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Summary |
"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. |
| Contents |
Chapter 1 Synthetic Seas 1 -- Chapter 2 Junk & Gyre 15 -- Chapter 3 IMUA 29 -- Chapter 4 Junk-o-philia: Our Obsession with Stuff 45 -- Chapter 5 Thrown Away 55 -- Chapter 6 Coming Unscrewed: The Little Fish in a Big Sea 67 -- Chapter 7 "Junk In, Junk Out" 73 -- Chapter 8 Guadalupe Loop: The Recycling Myth 81 -- Chapter 9 Too Wasteful to Value: ChicoBag vs. Plastic-Bag Lobby 93 -- Chapter 10 Waves and Windmills: A Case for the Eco-Pragmatist 107 -- Chapter 11 Wasting Away: The Fate, Fallacy, and Fantasy of Ocean Cleanup 119 -- Chapter 12 Synthetic Drift: Human Health and Our Trash 129 -- Chapter 13 Little Fish Bites Big Fish 143 -- Chapter 14 A Plastic Smog 157 -- Chapter 15 Great Divide: The Linear vs. Circular Economy 169 -- Chapter 16 A Revolution by Design 185. |
| Subject |
Eriksen, Marcus, 1967- -- Travel -- Pacific Ocean.
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Plastic marine debris -- Environmental aspects -- Pacific Ocean.
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Microplastics -- Environmental aspects -- Pacific Ocean.
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Marine pollution -- Pacific Ocean.
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| ISBN |
9780807056400 |
|
0807056405 |
|
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