Junk Raft: An Ocean Voyage and a Rising Tide of Activism to Fight Plastic Pollution
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Junk Raft: An Ocean Voyage and a Rising Tide of Activism to Fight Plastic Pollution Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

4.3 out of 5 stars 40
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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 listeners 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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  1. Listening Length
    8 hours and 4 minutes
  2. Author
    Marcus Eriksen
  3. Narrator
    James Patrick Cronin
  4. Audible release date
    July 4, 2017
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Beacon Press Audio
  7. ASIN
    B071FJFRJX
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 8 hours and 4 minutes
Author Marcus Eriksen
Narrator James Patrick Cronin
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date July 04, 2017
Publisher Beacon Press Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B071FJFRJX
Best Sellers Rank #372,559 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#312 in Ecosystems & Habitats
#605 in Environmental Conservation
#1,403 in Ecosystems

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
40 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lia
5.0 out of 5 stars If you love the ocean and adventure, buy this book!!!
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2017
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A thrilling combination of adventure and romance as the author details a personal journey that carries the reader along as we explore the rise of ocean plastic pollution.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening, I am very inspired to take action
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2023
Wow. Maybe I have been living in a bubble? I will be changing all of my habits around plastics going forward. The author does a fantastic job of capturing the severity of this issue.
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Avid Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Eclectic Assortment
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2017
Marcus Eriksen is a man on a mission, which he sums up in the Prologue as “…to end the throwaway culture” (p. x). “Easier said than done,” the cynic might snort. However, the author is enough of a pragmatist to realize that the human race has no other choice. Either we clean up our act or we drown in a sea of our own waste. He pulls no punches when he states forthrightly of his fellow Homo sapiens: “As short-lived, short-sighted, bipedal, big-brained primates preoccupied with war and sex, we risk consuming and overpopulating until we collapse” (ibid.). Ericksen holds out hope in that, if our race can change its ways, we can yet save our planet, and thus, ourselves.
Part seafaring adventure story and part anti-plastic pollution polemic, Eriksen relates the tale of his putting together a pontoon boat of sorts out of discarded plastic bottles and an eclectic assortment of cast off stuff, including the fuselage of a Cessna 310 airplane to serve as a cabin. Christening this barely seaworthy craft “Junk Raft,” he and a friend/navigator set sail from Long Beach, California, and drift with the wind and currents across the North Pacific Ocean until, 88 days later, they make landfall at Waikiki, Hawaii. Entries from the journal he kept along the way are interspersed with both vignettes of his former life as a battle-hardened United States Marine and his newfound career as an environmental scientist. Slowly and methodically, he builds an ironclad case of why oft-hyped “solutions,” such as recycling and incineration, just don’t work. The bottom line is that, these days, plastic in some form is everywhere, from the guts of the fish they catch and filet on the deck of their raft to the calcified lumps trapped within the bleached bones of camels out in the middle of the desert. As Ericksen makes plain, the problem with plastic is that it doesn’t rot, degrade, break down or any other term one would care to use. Plastic simply gets shredded by the elements into smaller and smaller pieces, until it becomes what is known as “microplastics.” You might not be able to see it, but it’s still there.
As befitting the academic rigor of one trained to parse fact from fiction, there is an ample selection of citations to books, websites and scholarly journals in the “Notes” section of the book.
While some might scoff that his was a mere publicity stunt, it is evident from the man’s passionate language and sound reasoning that he risked his life for his principles. With luck and pluck, he succeeded, not only in bringing his voyage to a joyous conclusion but also in bringing a well told tale of a clear and present danger to the attention of the reading public.
Review by Michael Bemis.
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William Carpenter
3.0 out of 5 stars The Problem of Plastics in the World's Oceans
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2017
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
Eriksen's book tells the story of his journey from California to Hawaii on a raft made out of pop bottles and other recyclables - most of which were plastic. Eriksen, an environmental activist, and Joel Paschal, sailor and conservationist, make the trip to publicize the harmful effects of plastic pollution in the world's oceans.

Many of the book's 16 chapters start with a short incident or two about the trip followed by a lengthy polemic about the negative effects of plastics on our environment. His information about plastics and their many harmful effects on marine life and the environment is interesting and useful. Though I am personally sympathetic to his cause, the technical details become repetitious and tiring after several chapters. Each chapter is full of acronyms for various chemicals, industrial groups, and environmental groups. Keeping it all straight is difficult at times.

The author has a very important thesis and advocates the advantages of approaching plastics as part of a move to a circular economy, rather than the linear economy that we are currently using. Simplified, the idea is that plastic producers do not pay the total cost of their product - which would include recycling, reuse, and recovery of the materials at the end of their life cycle. Instead, these costs are passed on to taxpayers and municipalities that have to pay to dispose of mountains of single-used water bottles, and all the thousands of other forms of plastic in our garbage. In a circular economy, products would be designed to be reused, more than once, and then the material is recovered for other uses. This extended producer responsibility (EPR) is, not surprisingly, unpopular with the producers. It requires up-front design and increases the producers costs, which makes it difficult to implement in a political environment that favors corporations.

This is an excellent book for someone wanting to learn more about marine pollution and the problems of plastics in the oceans. It is much less satisfying for readers looking for an exciting account of an ocean voyage on a pop-bottle raft.
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Top reviews from other countries

Sophie T.
5.0 out of 5 stars Junk it ain't!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2018
Verified Purchase
A compelling account of Marcus's momentous journey - not only on a raft made of junk - but his voyage in understanding the issues and reasons why our oceans are full of plastic and how we can stop this flow of pollution.
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K. Cartin
4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 7, 2018
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Great book, written well, very thought provoking.
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