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Beacon Press
The following review appeared in the December 2017 issue of CHOICE. The review is for your internal use only. Please review our Permission and Reprints Guidelines or email permissions@ala-choice.org.
Science & Technology
Earth Science
Junk Raft is not a textbook in any sense of the word. It is more a diary of a Pacific Ocean voyage conducted by the author and a colleague on a raft constructed of plastic debris recovered from the Pacific Ocean. The destination was the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a “swirling gyre of plastic pollution” in the Pacific Ocean. Much of the purpose of the book is to highlight the problem of floating plastic garbage in the world’s oceans, but also to investigate the problem of microscopic plastic debris that results from the breakdown of larger floating plastic objects in the oceans. The book is written from an activist point of view, so little science creeps into the text. It is quite biased in favor of good (environmentalists) versus evil (plastics manufacturers). From this reviewer’s reading of the text, the author appears to believe that any science that does not conform to the environmental-activist position is inherently dishonest and not to be trusted. The book is a quick read and would be a good supplement in an environmental sciences class, provided a balanced source is available.
--M. S. Field, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency