Review: You can argue about the
environment, whether the crisis is manmade or natural, and what we should do
about it until you are blue in the face.
The problem most of the green movement is faith based and is actually
volatile to true science. But trash is
an exception. Trash is clearly a
man-made object, and as humans we are terrible at disposing of it in a
consistent, efficient, and clean manner.
Any walk about your community or even a local nature area will
demonstrate how we fail at this, with litter accumulating everywhere you look.
But this book is not about trash in general, rather it focuses on the
world of disposable plastic and how it works it way into our water supply,
especially the Pacific Ocean. Captain
Moore starts out talking about sailing with his family as a youth and
experiencing clean oceans; that it would be rare to see any floating
trash. Fast forward to getting stuck in
the gyre (I am not an ocean guy, but I took this to mean the part of the ocean
that is not in the currents, thus relatively “trapped” sections the size of very
large states) and noticing lots of debris; mainly plastic as it tends to
float. This began the personal mission
that would fill up his life; Why is there so much plastic in the ocean, and
where did it come from?
The mistakes I think most people make when talking about plastic is they
believe it is easily recyclable. The
truth is a lot more complicated as you cannot take a bottle and make another
bottle; rather you make something less down the chain. And that all plastic is recyclable while the
truth is there are thousands of varieties of plastic and more being invented
all the time. Also plastic never really
breaks down, it just becomes small and smaller insomuch sea creatures begin
ingesting it, and then so do we. And the
sheer volume of plastic in our world today is staggering. I am sitting here using a chair, computer,
keyboard, Ipod, water bottle, watch, desk, phone all containing plastic
materials right now. Even my shirt
buttons are plastic. It is truly
everywhere.
We are literally killing ourselves with plastic in our disposable age,
and it seems no one cares. No when I
read this book I do come away with the desire to completely remove all plastics
from life, besides that would be impossible.
Take travel for instance, you would be unable to drive a car or take an
airplane anymore. In situations like
these I look to the pragmatic steps we can take right now. Number one plastic polluter – disposable
shopping bags. We can all take steps to
reduce our usage right there for a start.
Then start looking for more areas where plastic makes inroads to your
disposable lifestyle and start implementing small changes. Use real dishes and utensils, buy products
based on less packaging material or even non-plastic materials, buy larger size
containers of items you do use that the non-plastic choice isn’t readily
available (i.e shampoo, etc), and please, please, please clean up your own mess
and your communities whenever you can.
You probably won’t change the world, but you can significantly alter your
little corner of it. The only knock on
the book is it is a little dry and not accessible to the average reader. When you read the book you will get the irony
because Captain Moore recounts the years it took him to get more academic to be
taken seriously by the scientific community.
But the audience here is just regular concerned citizens and the book
could have used a lot more anecdotes to fill out the statistics. For example, he mentions the sinking of a
cruise ship, losing all aboard, due to the propeller getting caught in a
abandon plastic fishing net only in passing.
A few paragraphs on that could have awakened a whole population of
cruise go-ers to the possible dangers.
Please read this book, or at least watch Captain Moore’s short video I have
attached here to get a feel for his message.
There are changes you could be making to create a safer world for all of
us.
Publisher: Avery
Copyright: 2011
Pages: 337
ISBN: 978-1-58333-424-9
Quick Review: 3 ½ Stars out of 5.
Why I Read It: I had heard about this subject before and was excited to read
the book when I saw it.
Where I Obtained the Book: My local library
Synopsis: A prominent seafaring
environmentalist and researcher shares his shocking discovery of the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean, and inspires a fundamental
rethinking of the Plastic Age and a growing global health crisis.
In the summer of 1997, Charles Moore set sail from Honolulu
with the sole intention of returning home after competing in a trans-Pacific
race. To get to California, he and his crew took a shortcut through the
seldom-traversed North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a vast "oceanic
desert" where winds are slack and sailing ships languish. There, Moore
realized his catamaran was surrounded by a "plastic soup." He had
stumbled upon the largest garbage dump on the planet-a spiral nebula where
plastic outweighed zooplankton, the ocean's food base, by a factor of six to
one.
In Plastic Ocean, Moore recounts his ominous findings and
unveils the secret life and hidden properties of plastics. From milk jugs to
polymer molecules small enough to penetrate human skin or be unknowingly
inhaled, plastic is now suspected of contributing to a host of ailments
including infertility, autism, thyroid dysfunction, and some cancers. A call to
action as urgent as Rachel Carson's seminal Silent Spring, Moore's sobering
revelations will be embraced by activists, concerned parents, and seafaring
enthusiasts concerned about the deadly impact and implications of this man made
blight.
Author Biography: A third generation resident of Long Beach, California,
Captain Charles Moore grew up in and on the Pacific Ocean. His father was an
industrial chemist and avid sailor who took young Charles and his siblings
sailing to remote destinations from Guadalupe Island to Hawaii. Charles
attended the University of California at San Diego where he studied chemistry
and Spanish.
After 25 years running a woodworking and
finishing business, Charles founded Algalita Marine Research Institute in 1994.
In 1995 he launched his purpose-designed, aluminum-hulled research vessel,
Alguita, in Hobart, Tasmania, and helped organize the Australian Government's
first "Coastcare" research voyage to document anthropogenic
(human-caused) contamination of Australia's east coast. Upon his return to
California, he became a coordinator of the State Water Resources Control
Board's Volunteer Water Monitoring Steering Committee and developed chemical
and bacterial monitoring methods for the Surfrider Foundation's "Blue
Water Task Force." As a member of the Southern California Coastal Water
Research Project's Bight '98 steering committee, he realized the need for and
provided a research vessel so that Mexican researchers from Baja California
could participate for the first time in assessing the entire Southern
California Bight along the coastline from Point Conception to San Diego.
Oceanographic Research Vessel Alguita
and its Captain found their true calling after a 1997 yacht race to Hawaii. On
his return voyage, Captain Moore veered from the usual sea route and saw an
ocean he had never known. "Every time I came on deck to survey the
horizon, I saw a soap bottle, bottle cap or a shard of plastic waste bobbing
by. Here I was in the middle of the ocean and there was nowhere I could go to
avoid the plastic." Ever since, Captain Moore has dedicated his time and
resources to understanding and remediating the ocean's plastic load. Along with
collaborators from the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project he
developed protocols for monitoring marine and beach micro-plastics which are
now used worldwide.
Other Reviews: Kirkus, Huffington Post
JT also ate the same meal and loved it and for a picky 10 year old that is not bad....he hates anything normal like hamburgers and chicken...loves seafood and vegetables. He loved the idea of food wrapped in a corn husk. 
Smoked Apple and Uncured Bacon Chicken and thought that one pouch was plenty for the both of them and it made quite an enjoyable meal...easy....fast....and delicious, along with another nights dinner just waiting in the freezer for a busy evening. I tried the 
Beef in Red Wine Sauce and was impressed by the flavor and the texture. It was like a home cooked meal but without all the home cooked fuss. WAY to go 
