An exciting account of a scientist’s expedition across the Pacific on a home-made “junk raft” in order to learn more about plastic marine pollution A scientist, activist, and inveterate adventurer, Eriksen 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.
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"A much-needed wake-up call for the public to pressure politicians to finally tackle an often-overlooked but deadly form of pollution.”
— Booklist
“A stimulating, thought-provoking, and factually grounded read.”
— Nature“The thrills and chills of rafting packaged with a compelling call to action.”
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Marcus Eriksen is the director of research for the 5 Gyres Institute, an environmental science and advocacy nonprofit organization that he founded with his wife, Anna Cummins, in 2009. With firsthand experience on more than twenty ocean-crossing expeditions, he has written extensively on the impact of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans and has published research on the distribution of plastics in the subtropical gyres. He is the author of Junk Raft: An Ocean Voyage and a Rising Tide of Activism to Fight Plastic Pollution and My River Home: A Journey from the Gulf War to the Gulf of Mexico.
James Cronin began his audiobook career at twelve years of age opposite Christopher Lloyd in The Pagemaster. An Earphones Award–winning narrator, he has recorded over one hundred audiobooks across an extensive range of genres. A classically trained stage actor with an MFA from the University of Louisville and a degree in philosophy, he has spent his years since college performing as an actor and a comedian on stages all over the world. He has performed everything from the classics to original material in Ireland, Scotland, Serbia, and Israel, as well as all across the United States.