Anja Krieger wrote and created a podcast about plastic pollution and biodiversity. She graduated from the MIT Knight Science Journalism Project and worked as a reporter and audio producer for the German National Public Radio for ten years. She is now the scientific editor of the Helmholtz Climate Initiative in Berlin, Germany. Originally published on Undark.

The mahi mahi dragged by the crew looked spectacular. Its yellow and green body was bright and shiny, dotted with dazzling blue spots, and had a long dorsal fin from head to tail on the top. Its destiny is the oven on board, where fish common in Hawaiian waters will be grilled to feed the hungry sailor team.

In the belly of the mackerel, the sailors found a flying fish, and it ate a small ball that looked like a fish egg. Squeezing them out of its body, the crew found that it was a more synthetic thing: plastic. Not exactly a delicious addition to the menu.

In her first book, “Thicker than water: seeking a solution to the plastic crisis“Environmental reporter Erica Cirino used this anecdote to reveal the degree of plastic penetration in the food chain. She traced the story of plastic pollution from the creation of synthetic polymers in the 19th century and the discovery of their pollution side effects in the 1970s to today’s The plastic crisis covers the entire life cycle of materials, from extraction and production to use and disposal.

How much plastic ends up in our waterways is still an ongoing research question, but estimate exhibit It is in the range of millions of tons per year. We now know that it is not just fish that bear the burden of garbage.more than 900 marine species Ingest or entangle marine plastics, including whales, seals, turtles and fish. Research shows that even small organisms like corals, plankton and microorganisms interact with the remnants of our abandoned society.Some calculate 90% of seabirds will swallow plastic at some point in their lives. This is just the ocean.Ecosystems of rivers, lakes, air, and soil are contaminated by visible garbage and microplastics-maybe even Nanoplastics, They are the same size range as the virus.

During her investigation, Cirino presented a lot of facts and data, known and unknown, and critically and comprehensively examined possible solutions, from cleanup and bioplastics to recycling and politics. She elaborated on how science is trying to understand this problem. But she also put the plastic issue in a larger context, showing the environmental injustice caused by plastics to communities and countries near production plants or polluted, and the injustice and long history of cheap garbage rich countries that want to get rid of.

Cirino embarked on her five-year journey in Los Angeles, boarding a sailing boat bound for the Great Garbage Strip in the Pacific, a notorious area between Hawaii and California, where plastic and other garbage accumulate into what some people call ” “Plastic soup” place. When a small group of sailors and scientists sampled water to produce plastic, Cirino documented their research. In this almost windless area, a few miles away from the coast, sailors will encounter swarms of garbage plastic products every day. When they skim the water with manta rays (also used for plankton sampling), they will find small pieces in them. plastic.

After losing the ship’s engine and rudder, the crew managed to reach Hawaii and met with environmentalists on the notoriously littered Camilo Beach on the Big Island of Hawaii.

At the back of the book, Cyrino sails in Icelandic waters, home to huge whales and tiny plankton. Investigate microplastic pollution in the Great Lakes; observe that researchers carefully clean and analyze plastic fragments in the laboratory; visit communities and activists near the infamous “cancer alley” plastic production plant in Louisiana; then go to Thailand, which is a The cheapest and dirtiest plastic dump in the world. She also discussed the impact of plastics and their additives on human health.

At the same time, Cirino provided a fascinating glimpse into the emerging field of plastic pollution research—a field that initiated some research in the early 1970s and then stagnated—from the mid-1980s onwards to be classified as “ocean debris.” In the late 1990s and early 2000s, this issue attracted widespread public attention. At that time, the Great Pacific Garbage Strip was discovered. Scientists discovered that the microplastic particles on the beach were crushed in the sea and washed back to the shore.

In the past 20 years, with the increase in plastic production, the number of research projects and studies has increased significantly. This field of research is still in the process of establishing standard procedures and definitions. Sailors, scientists, activists, caring citizens and innovators with superb ideas have all contributed to the current knowledge system-this knowledge is still full of unanswered questions, including: How harmful and destructive is plastic?

Cirino insists that plastic is just a very obvious symptom of a broader systemic problem: the emergence of a society, it loses contact with the surrounding things and forgets what it cannot live without. She proved that biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution and many other factors that accelerate global change are collectively exerting tremendous pressure on species, ecosystems, and ultimately on us.

As in the award-winning 2020 documentary “The story of plastic,” Cirino traced the impact of the plastic crisis on humans: environmental racism and global unjust systems have pushed the burden of pollution on underserved communities and people living in poverty, as well as places where regulation and control are loose. Plastic pollution The consequences of waiting for the environmental crisis may eventually hit everyone at some point, but their distribution is not equal. On the contrary, she revealed that they are an integral part of the unjust system.

The history of plastic contains two interesting parallel stories. One is that plastics are part of the stage of human progress-a stage that is still active-striving to defeat and dominate nature. “Plastic is a typical material for industrialization. It was created to challenge nature and the shortness of life in games,” Cirino pointed out.

Another story is that plastics also help save animal lives—just like fossil fuels. Before coal and oil were used to light up lights and houses, the oil in whale blubber did the job. Before billiard balls and combs were made of plastic, the elephants had to give their ivory and tortoise shells for humans to make.Plastic also played a key role drugTo help save human lives. However, the era of fossil fuels, including plastics, is accompanied by consumerism, one-off lifestyles, and huge long-term disadvantages, including climate change, pollution, and so on. It amplifies the injustice caused by colonialism and racism.

Cirino’s timely book ties all these clues together in a fascinating way, whether she is reporting on the sea, in a laboratory, or from the front lines of the affected people (the so-called “fenced communities” living near petrochemical plants). Her works are often evocative. For example, during the early morning shift of a Pacific cruise ship, she noticed the color spectacle in the dawn sky and the rhythm of the ship. “Smooth phsssssh-phssssh-phssssh A steel hull that passes through gentle waves; repeated Papa P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop Every time the wind stops or changes direction, the sail will swing; rattle Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang The mainsail shackle on the tall aluminum mast. But then her fantasy was interrupted by a boatmate who pointed out a plastic fish box floating in the sun.

It is the immersive moments like this that make “Deeper Than Water” so special, beyond the abundance of grim statistics and explanations about plastic pollution and its global impact. Cirino reveals a mentality in which listening, close observation, cooperation and empathy coexist with the harsh facts she reports.

Nowhere is clearer than when the big fish mahi-mahi caught by the crew on the ship was slaughtered. Cirino is a well-trained wildlife recoverer, and his gaze has not looked away. Instead, she recorded this cruel moment and shared the pain she felt when she lost a creature. “There,” she wrote, “I learned that life is beautiful, wild, and painful. In its pure and primitive state, the sea may reveal the truth. The sea can show us what we need in life, There is nothing we can live on.”