| Description |
xi, 225 pages ; 24 cm |
| 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. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
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. |
| 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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NATURE -- Ecosystems & Habitats -- Oceans & Seas.
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NATURE -- Environmental Conservation & Protection.
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BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Personal Memoirs.
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| Genre/Form |
Travel writing.
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| Other Form: |
Online version: Eriksen, Marcus, 1967- Junk raft. Boston : Beacon Press, 2017 9780807056417 (DLC) 2017012072 |
| ISBN |
9780807056400 (hardcover) |
|
0807056405 (hardcover) |
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