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Moře plastu
Mnohé z toho, co jste slyšeli o plastech není pravda. Recyklace je složitější než je prezentováno – pouze méně než devět procent plastů, které vytvoříme, se znovu použije a většina skončí v oceánu. Znečištění plasty se neomezuje jen na volný oceán – jsou ve vzduchu, který dýcháme a v potravinách, které jíme. Podle posledních výzkumů jsou mikroplasty i v naší krvi.
V knize Moře plastu se Erica Cirino vydává na cestu po světě a seznamuje čtenáře s vědci a aktivisty, kteří vyprávějí skutečný příběh plastové krize – z paluby plachetnice, která loví plasty, až do laboratoří, které provádějí výzkum mikroplastů a chemických látek. Erica Cirino vykresluje obraz toho, jak znečištění plasty ohrožuje nejen lidské zdraví, ale celý život na planetě.
V knize Moře plastu se Erica Cirino vydává na cestu po světě a seznamuje čtenáře s vědci a aktivisty, kteří vyprávějí skutečný příběh plastové krize – z paluby plachetnice, která loví plasty, až do laboratoří, které provádějí výzkum mikroplastů a chemických látek. Erica Cirino vykresluje obraz toho, jak znečištění plasty ohrožuje nejen lidské zdraví, ale celý život na planetě.
264 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2022
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337 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 18, 2025
"My parents had gone through the Great Depression, and the scarcities they endured made them appreciate what they had. My father would sometimes say, “Waste not, want not.”
Thicker Than Water covers a pressing global problem. Plastic has become ubiquitous in our modern world. Almost everything we use in our day-to-day lives involves plastic. But this convenience comes with an enormous cost.
Sadly, although the book had its moments, the writing ultimately fell short of my expectations. More below.
Author Erica Cirino is the Communications Manager of the Plastic Pollution Coalition and the author of Thicker Than Water (Island Press, 2021).
Erica Cirino:
Cirino writes with a fairly lacklustre style here, and I found the narrative flow kind of meandered around somewhat aimlessly. This was my biggest gripe. She drops the quote above at the start of this review, and it continues:
She says this about the pervasive nature of the threat:
Unfortunately, in a trend that is all too common in many contemporary science books like this, the author manages to shoehorn in a bunch of leftist nonsense; somehow. She's got many blurbs in here that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter - like "equity," Juneteenth, George Floyd, and even the word "latinx" to talk about Latin people. This picks up as the writing progresses, with the last ~25% of the book being almost a mindless word salad of leftist idiocy, replete with screeching about "systemic" racism and climate change. God, these people are insufferable...
********************
I wanted to give this one a higher rating, but the dry writing and addition of superfluous leftist nonsense made the book an arduous trek.
I wouldn't recommend it.
2 stars.
Thicker Than Water covers a pressing global problem. Plastic has become ubiquitous in our modern world. Almost everything we use in our day-to-day lives involves plastic. But this convenience comes with an enormous cost.
Sadly, although the book had its moments, the writing ultimately fell short of my expectations. More below.
Author Erica Cirino is the Communications Manager of the Plastic Pollution Coalition and the author of Thicker Than Water (Island Press, 2021).
Erica Cirino:
Cirino writes with a fairly lacklustre style here, and I found the narrative flow kind of meandered around somewhat aimlessly. This was my biggest gripe. She drops the quote above at the start of this review, and it continues:
"...Getting from a culture of reusables to a throwaway society didn’t happen by accident. Because plastic was wasteful, advertising campaigns had to accustom consumers to the idea. It took a very concerted effort, over years. I remember when companies started advertising wastefulness as a virtue and something to be desired. The ads made a massive new push for a plastic revolution. “Use once; throw away” was one common tagline. “Disposable” was another."
She says this about the pervasive nature of the threat:
"Plastic is so permanent because of its structure at a molecular level. All substances existing on Earth—natural and manmade, living and nonliving—are made of chemical molecules held together with electricity. Think of all substances as clumps of stuck-together Lego bricks: The Lego bricks (molecules) that make up a substance snap together to create something, but with enough force, the bricks can be pulled apart, and the appearance—and sometimes chemical composition or state—of the substance will change when their bonds are broken.
We think of the plastic items we use every day—a list that, if you have kids, may include those beloved Danish plastic toy bricks, in addition to things like plastic straws and smartphones—as relatively unchanging things. But the reality is that they are made up of elemental molecules that, with enough heat, electrical or chemical energy, or physical force, should be capable of being pulled apart.
Yet, instead of breaking down into simple molecular components, like organic substances do, plastic breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces, pieces that remain plastic forever—as far as scientists can tell today. As soon as a plastic item is manufactured, it begins breaking up into bits. In the oceans, it may take a plastic item anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of years, depending on the item and the conditions to which it is subjected, to completely break up into a collection of plastic particles.23
Plastic’s inevitable breakup at sea is greatly accelerated by heat and the sun’s rays, as well as the physical pounding of strong rains, waves, and wind, which break the bonds that hold plastic molecules together. Buoyant plastic floating on or just beneath the sea surface is exposed to the greatest amounts of sunlight, heat, and physical forces, so it tends to break up faster than plastic items that sink to the seafloor, where there is little to no sunlight and less movement.24
Plastic, the poster-child material of industrialization, was created to defy nature, to game the ephemerality of life. And so, plastic persists..."
Unfortunately, in a trend that is all too common in many contemporary science books like this, the author manages to shoehorn in a bunch of leftist nonsense; somehow. She's got many blurbs in here that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter - like "equity," Juneteenth, George Floyd, and even the word "latinx" to talk about Latin people. This picks up as the writing progresses, with the last ~25% of the book being almost a mindless word salad of leftist idiocy, replete with screeching about "systemic" racism and climate change. God, these people are insufferable...
********************
I wanted to give this one a higher rating, but the dry writing and addition of superfluous leftist nonsense made the book an arduous trek.
I wouldn't recommend it.
2 stars.
January 23, 2022
I want to press Thicker Than Water into everyone's hands. The subject is one I generally knew, but the particulars were startling--Cyborg babies, for example.
Erica Cirino is a fantastic guide. She travels all over the world and gives her readers a nuanced understanding of plastic and how it is impacting different places. She talks with all kinds of environmental heroes and it's fascinating to learn what people are doing in response to plastic. The section on plastic alternatives was particularly interesting.
As an environmentalist, I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the problem of plastic, but while I was listening to this book, I felt empowered. Knowledge is important. The book has a helpful call for action. As for me, I'm going to email 85° Bakery and encourage them to rethink wrapping each pastry in plastic. And, of course, the most important action is to contact your legislator.
Erica Cirino is a fantastic guide. She travels all over the world and gives her readers a nuanced understanding of plastic and how it is impacting different places. She talks with all kinds of environmental heroes and it's fascinating to learn what people are doing in response to plastic. The section on plastic alternatives was particularly interesting.
As an environmentalist, I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the problem of plastic, but while I was listening to this book, I felt empowered. Knowledge is important. The book has a helpful call for action. As for me, I'm going to email 85° Bakery and encourage them to rethink wrapping each pastry in plastic. And, of course, the most important action is to contact your legislator.
Read
April 5, 2022Reviewed for School:
Imagine you are out at sea, the wind whipping your hair in front of your face, sunburn on your shoulders, bare feet and sea salt damp clothes. You’re out on the top deck of a sailboat in the dazzling Pacific Ocean, when suddenly your view is captured by a massive whirling vortex of garbage. And this is where our story begins. This is no fantasy.
Thicker than Water starts at the eastern edge of the North Pacific Gyre, or the North Pacific Garbage Patch. It follows a Danish sailboat called the Christianshavn and its crew of six, The Captain Torsten, a carpenter named Rasmus, the ship’s co-owner Henrik, Malene, a plastic researcher, Kristian, the lead scientist, Chris, the other American, and Erica the narrator of this story. The crew is on a quest to recover plastic samples from the gyre, a swirling patch of garbage located off of the coast of Japan, as well as samples of micro plastic and nano plastic which are too small to discern with the human eye.
Plastic does not deteriorate. It was this that was once a captivating marketing technique, convincing the masses that plastic should be used for everything and then could be disposed of. This is why we have such an issue with single use plastics. In fact, though it’s been calculated that 8.3 billion metric tons have been produced since the 1960s, only a very small percentage of that sheer quantity has been found. The question then is where did all the plastic go?
Well, as one might guess, our culture of waste and consumption has some very dire consequences on the life of our oceans, and therefore us in return. If you’ve ever been interested in the destruction of coral reefs, or how animals die from plastic consumption, look no further.
This book is divided into three general sections: The personal experience on the ocean, the consumption and production of plastic on land, and the solutions. Erica does a fairly deep dive into the harm that comes from these miniscule bits of plastic that serve as sponges for toxic chemicals, as well as coatings of plasticizers and chemical treatments that are toxic and alluring to marine organisms. From water bottles, to straws, to old fishing nets, to even microbeads, every single item of plastic floating in our oceans can cause untold harm.
I had not really considered the production of plastic, only that we were causing choking hazards for sea turtles and such. I suppose it would make sense that something so easily created and impenetrable to breaking down would also contribute to most of the world’s carbon emissions and pollution. Plastic is created by fossil fuels and natural gas. It’s indestructible. It just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. And with attempts at destruction like incineration, the chemical reactions that occur produce carbon. Even production by large industries spews out large amount of carbon, chemicals, and toxic waste. This pollution seeps into soil, into rivers, into the very lives of people like you and me.
I cannot forget to mention all of the results of plastic that are probably floating around in our own bodies.
Erica tells this story for the public. She speaks as both an observer and a participant, as someone who is part of a research team, and someone who is having an experience, and I think that is how she effectively gets your attention.
“Out at sea, time is not measured in hours or minutes, but by the intensity of the burning sun, the oscillating fade-sparkle-fade of thousands of stars and specks of glowing algae, the size and shape of the moon, the furor or calm of the sea. Out there, the distractions of a modern life are abandoned on land, leaving one with nothing but her soul and most vivid dreams- and most tormenting demons. Out there, I learned, life is beautiful and wild and painful, and in its pure rawness, the sea has the potential to reveal the truth. The sea can show us what it is in life we need, and what we can live without.”
Her writing is beautiful. For a book about plastic, she’s able to reel you in (haha) at the beginning and keep your attention, because you feel like you could be having this experience as well. Maybe we won’t be the ones discovering millions of tons of micro plastic and sitting in a lab while fancy technology is used to break down the chemical compositions of the samples retrieved from the mid ocean layer. But we might be the ones sitting with a group, eating our breakfast, taking part in the beautiful world around us while pondering how we might make the earth a cleaner better place after all the impact we’ve had. We might marvel at the amazing things that humans have accomplished and shake our heads in bewilderment of where we’ve gone wrong.
Despite the lyrical start, I did feel that the middle dragged a bit. Erica’s personal experience soon turns into a pretty anxiety inducing section about the history and science of single use-plastics, the additives and chemicals that we are breathing in every day, the corporate institutions who are destroying low income, primarily minority neighborhoods, and the sheer impossibility of reversing the damage that has been done by plastic which continues to permeate our everyday lives. I admit this section was pretty striking, which is necessary to understand the gravity of the situation.
However, too much fear leads to as much inaction as not enough urgency. I feel paralyzed to combat the situation, despite the solutions presented in the last section of the book.
Additionally, I think it is just slightly misleading to call this a book about plastic in our oceans, when it is much a book about plastic in our world, both in the ocean and on land. It is an informative look at plastic’s harm, but if you’re looking only for how to reduce waste in the ocean, well maybe you’re not going to find 100 % what you’re looking for. If you had any doubts that plastic was a big deal in our environment, then there is only one major conclusion to draw. We need to stop creating and using plastic before the situation, much like the North Pacific Gyre, spirals out of control.
Imagine you are out at sea, the wind whipping your hair in front of your face, sunburn on your shoulders, bare feet and sea salt damp clothes. You’re out on the top deck of a sailboat in the dazzling Pacific Ocean, when suddenly your view is captured by a massive whirling vortex of garbage. And this is where our story begins. This is no fantasy.
Thicker than Water starts at the eastern edge of the North Pacific Gyre, or the North Pacific Garbage Patch. It follows a Danish sailboat called the Christianshavn and its crew of six, The Captain Torsten, a carpenter named Rasmus, the ship’s co-owner Henrik, Malene, a plastic researcher, Kristian, the lead scientist, Chris, the other American, and Erica the narrator of this story. The crew is on a quest to recover plastic samples from the gyre, a swirling patch of garbage located off of the coast of Japan, as well as samples of micro plastic and nano plastic which are too small to discern with the human eye.
Plastic does not deteriorate. It was this that was once a captivating marketing technique, convincing the masses that plastic should be used for everything and then could be disposed of. This is why we have such an issue with single use plastics. In fact, though it’s been calculated that 8.3 billion metric tons have been produced since the 1960s, only a very small percentage of that sheer quantity has been found. The question then is where did all the plastic go?
Well, as one might guess, our culture of waste and consumption has some very dire consequences on the life of our oceans, and therefore us in return. If you’ve ever been interested in the destruction of coral reefs, or how animals die from plastic consumption, look no further.
This book is divided into three general sections: The personal experience on the ocean, the consumption and production of plastic on land, and the solutions. Erica does a fairly deep dive into the harm that comes from these miniscule bits of plastic that serve as sponges for toxic chemicals, as well as coatings of plasticizers and chemical treatments that are toxic and alluring to marine organisms. From water bottles, to straws, to old fishing nets, to even microbeads, every single item of plastic floating in our oceans can cause untold harm.
I had not really considered the production of plastic, only that we were causing choking hazards for sea turtles and such. I suppose it would make sense that something so easily created and impenetrable to breaking down would also contribute to most of the world’s carbon emissions and pollution. Plastic is created by fossil fuels and natural gas. It’s indestructible. It just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. And with attempts at destruction like incineration, the chemical reactions that occur produce carbon. Even production by large industries spews out large amount of carbon, chemicals, and toxic waste. This pollution seeps into soil, into rivers, into the very lives of people like you and me.
I cannot forget to mention all of the results of plastic that are probably floating around in our own bodies.
Erica tells this story for the public. She speaks as both an observer and a participant, as someone who is part of a research team, and someone who is having an experience, and I think that is how she effectively gets your attention.
“Out at sea, time is not measured in hours or minutes, but by the intensity of the burning sun, the oscillating fade-sparkle-fade of thousands of stars and specks of glowing algae, the size and shape of the moon, the furor or calm of the sea. Out there, the distractions of a modern life are abandoned on land, leaving one with nothing but her soul and most vivid dreams- and most tormenting demons. Out there, I learned, life is beautiful and wild and painful, and in its pure rawness, the sea has the potential to reveal the truth. The sea can show us what it is in life we need, and what we can live without.”
Her writing is beautiful. For a book about plastic, she’s able to reel you in (haha) at the beginning and keep your attention, because you feel like you could be having this experience as well. Maybe we won’t be the ones discovering millions of tons of micro plastic and sitting in a lab while fancy technology is used to break down the chemical compositions of the samples retrieved from the mid ocean layer. But we might be the ones sitting with a group, eating our breakfast, taking part in the beautiful world around us while pondering how we might make the earth a cleaner better place after all the impact we’ve had. We might marvel at the amazing things that humans have accomplished and shake our heads in bewilderment of where we’ve gone wrong.
Despite the lyrical start, I did feel that the middle dragged a bit. Erica’s personal experience soon turns into a pretty anxiety inducing section about the history and science of single use-plastics, the additives and chemicals that we are breathing in every day, the corporate institutions who are destroying low income, primarily minority neighborhoods, and the sheer impossibility of reversing the damage that has been done by plastic which continues to permeate our everyday lives. I admit this section was pretty striking, which is necessary to understand the gravity of the situation.
However, too much fear leads to as much inaction as not enough urgency. I feel paralyzed to combat the situation, despite the solutions presented in the last section of the book.
Additionally, I think it is just slightly misleading to call this a book about plastic in our oceans, when it is much a book about plastic in our world, both in the ocean and on land. It is an informative look at plastic’s harm, but if you’re looking only for how to reduce waste in the ocean, well maybe you’re not going to find 100 % what you’re looking for. If you had any doubts that plastic was a big deal in our environment, then there is only one major conclusion to draw. We need to stop creating and using plastic before the situation, much like the North Pacific Gyre, spirals out of control.
November 11, 2022
This book gave a nice, balanced look at the amount of plastic that is found in our waterways, oceans and lakes all over the world. It gave some basic history to the discovery of plastic, how it was originally used and what is has turned into today, with many plastics either burned as waste, escaping from outdated water treatment systems, or simply not able to be recycled due to the chemical compound.
The author used her own experiences to show what plastic is doing in our oceans and water systems. This was a personal research project, not a retelling of articles found on the internet. I liked her approach to roll up her sleeves, talk to people, look firsthand at the problem and report on it in a fair and balanced approach without focusing "blame" on any particular company or government.
With examples from all over the world including Indonesia, Denmark, Hawai'i and Lake Erie, I found this to be well worth reading as someone who is looking for facts, not opinions. If you pick up this book looking for who to "blame" you will be disappointed.
My only wish is that it had more photographs, but I know those can be expensive to print in small-press runs.
The author used her own experiences to show what plastic is doing in our oceans and water systems. This was a personal research project, not a retelling of articles found on the internet. I liked her approach to roll up her sleeves, talk to people, look firsthand at the problem and report on it in a fair and balanced approach without focusing "blame" on any particular company or government.
With examples from all over the world including Indonesia, Denmark, Hawai'i and Lake Erie, I found this to be well worth reading as someone who is looking for facts, not opinions. If you pick up this book looking for who to "blame" you will be disappointed.
My only wish is that it had more photographs, but I know those can be expensive to print in small-press runs.
November 9, 2021
Erica is an engaging writer.
April 16, 2025
I thought this provided a really comprehensive overview of the impacts of plastic pollution and challenges in tackling it. While not all the info was new to me (I work in plastic pollution advocacy), I still learned so many new things that I’m excited about! Namely:
1. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and fat from fish all enrich soils with an enormous impact—scientists have traced a specific type of nitrogen found only in the oceans to bodies of decaying salmon, all the way to the towering cedars in the Pacific Northwest.
2. When zooplankton graze on algae, algae release dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which attracts other hungry animals. Many marine animals like turtles don’t just mistake plastic waste for prey based on optics (ex. The sea turtle and a floating grocery bag it thinks is a jellyfish)- it’s because microplastics also emit DMS, providing a foraging cue for animals who rely on both sight and smell for food.
3. Corals often mistake microplastics for zooplankton, their consumption of which has been linked to bleaching and disease. Corals are the “ocean’s canaries” - and plastic pollution contributes factors to an already grim outlook given ocean acidification and climate change.
4. Microplastics and chemicals are lipophilic, more prone to accumulating in fatty tissues and stowed away in fat cells that carry them to the brain and other vital organs. This is known as the “vector effect.” I’m sure this is why newer studies are finding so much plastic in human brains.
5. Many petrochemical plants in Cancer Alley are literally (and knowingly) built on the graves of enslaved people—and continue to harm their descendants to this day.
Finally, a new favorite quote:
“Much of our waste problem is to be accounted for by the intentional flimsiness and unrepairability of the labor-savers and gadgets that we have become addicted to... The truth is that we Americans, all of us, have become a kind of human trash, living our lives in the midst of a ubiquitous damned mess of which we are at once the victims and the perpetrators.”
—Wendell Berry
1. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and fat from fish all enrich soils with an enormous impact—scientists have traced a specific type of nitrogen found only in the oceans to bodies of decaying salmon, all the way to the towering cedars in the Pacific Northwest.
2. When zooplankton graze on algae, algae release dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which attracts other hungry animals. Many marine animals like turtles don’t just mistake plastic waste for prey based on optics (ex. The sea turtle and a floating grocery bag it thinks is a jellyfish)- it’s because microplastics also emit DMS, providing a foraging cue for animals who rely on both sight and smell for food.
3. Corals often mistake microplastics for zooplankton, their consumption of which has been linked to bleaching and disease. Corals are the “ocean’s canaries” - and plastic pollution contributes factors to an already grim outlook given ocean acidification and climate change.
4. Microplastics and chemicals are lipophilic, more prone to accumulating in fatty tissues and stowed away in fat cells that carry them to the brain and other vital organs. This is known as the “vector effect.” I’m sure this is why newer studies are finding so much plastic in human brains.
5. Many petrochemical plants in Cancer Alley are literally (and knowingly) built on the graves of enslaved people—and continue to harm their descendants to this day.
Finally, a new favorite quote:
“Much of our waste problem is to be accounted for by the intentional flimsiness and unrepairability of the labor-savers and gadgets that we have become addicted to... The truth is that we Americans, all of us, have become a kind of human trash, living our lives in the midst of a ubiquitous damned mess of which we are at once the victims and the perpetrators.”
—Wendell Berry
December 29, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed the journey of the book, which is an odd thing to say given the subject matter was far from cheerful. Erica Cirino takes us on a journey to sea into the Pacific garbage patch and then around other parts of the world examining the plastic problem. Essentially the book covers how this incredibly useful and problematic material came to dominate our lives, why it is so hard to remove from our environment and explores the many good and bad things people are doing to try and deal with it. I was surprised how much I learned, thinking I knew a great deal about the plastic crisis already from documentaries and articles I have read over the years. She touches on environmental racism, corporate greed, which countries are doing what (most African countries are doing far more than many developed nations) and the innovations which may help reduce the problem. Plastic is so hard to get rid of and repurpose but technology is slowly finding ways and we are left with this conclusion: We are stuck with the problem now, so the best thing to do is to find ways of using whatever plastic we have already created, rather than creating more and burning / landfilling what we have already. Great read.
October 21, 2022
Thicker than Water by Erica Cirino should be required reading. Not only in schools, but for every human being living on planet earth. Erica's adventures around the world are incredible and frighteningly enlightening. The sheer amount of research put into this project alone make it one of the most fascinating books I've read in a LONG time. It's mind-blowingly amazing to realize the level at which we've become addicted to plastic. And more terrifying is that the worst offenders (single-use plastic) are still being mass produced and pushed on us. The amount of plastic bags, water bottles and food packaging products are increasing, not lessening. I know we cannot live without plastic in our modern generation (we're way too dependent on it), but there are measures we can take to be more responsible with this deadly environment-animal-human-killing toxic product. After reading this book, I'm looking at the world with much different eyes. I can't fix the problem, but I can certainly do my small share to reduce chemical waste.
December 6, 2021
A game-changer of a book, Cirino details the ubiquitous and insidious nature of plastic and how it has steadily, over the past 60 years, become a dangerous pillar of modern existence. From the Pacific Ocean, to a lab in Denmark, to St. James Parish in Louisiana, this book takes us all over the globe to give us the truth about plastic in our oceans, air, and everything in between by amplifying the voices of the scientists, activists, and artists who are on the frontlines of this crisis. She details how change can truly only happen if we are willing to change our daily habits and societal structures. Gripping, informative, and accessible, I believe this book should be required reading for anyone who wishes to break free and no longer be a "plastic person."
February 25, 2023
A cautionary tale that demands “pay attention, look at your own daily practices and the environment around you”. A history of good intentions, motivated marketing, and purposeful cultural change that ultimately benefitted bottom lines rather than people. Scary hypotheses regarding plastics within our own bodies and the results of having a substance that attracts toxins and a pathogenic microbiome. Even scarier that fossil fuels are actively in bed with plastics to keep relevant in an emerging energy marketplace. Overall, it compiled lessons from elementary school, but in a way that the parts add up to so much more than their sum; it deepened my awareness of how we are literally DUMPING on both local and international communities that are deemed “lesser”. Read this.
February 11, 2023
3.5 stars
Very informative and I really enjoyed how the author brought things to light with no apology. A couple of times it felt that shew as playing to dramatic effect, everyone standing around the mahi mahi they had caught, holding their breath to check for microplastics, but those instances were few and far between. She was able to provide the information without coming across as preachy, which is the downfall of novels of this type.
Very informative and I really enjoyed how the author brought things to light with no apology. A couple of times it felt that shew as playing to dramatic effect, everyone standing around the mahi mahi they had caught, holding their breath to check for microplastics, but those instances were few and far between. She was able to provide the information without coming across as preachy, which is the downfall of novels of this type.
May 31, 2023
Plastic is problematic and polluting throughout its lifecycle. This book illustrates this clearly and thoughtfully. A fantastic summary of the plastic pollution crisis - yes it is a crisis - and what is at stake.
May 20, 2023
A bit dense, but I liked the mix of memoir and science. It's pretty bleak and very honest.
July 31, 2023
Highly informative and well researched account of the plastics crisis. Even though the information on plastics is horrifying, the author brings you along on a compelling and comprehensive story.
February 21, 2024
Not bad. Not soap-boxy which is rare in this genre.
January 24, 2025
A first hand account of the plastic pollution problem and how it is affecting our oceans, what is causing the problem and potential solutions.
March 28, 2025
I like reading books by scientists because they start out with a compelling story and then slowly turn into a research article. A very good book! Super depressing, but I'm glad it was written.
January 6, 2025
Very informative. Greatly embarrassed by Formosa Plastics. It's pretty clear than we should all become advocates of systemic change and hold corporations and governments accountable.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews