Star Power
Marine plastic pollution does not always lie on the surface of the ocean, nor does it always float to the top in the media. It’s usually the stuff of page 8, where editors who are not on the front lines of the oceanic plastic harvest park news items about the latest dreary research findings.
Last year, the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live, was in a dither about media reports concerning estimated billions of microbeads—those tiny plastic pellets found in body scrubs and toothpaste—littering the bay, and the unfortunate fish that mistake them for food. Plastic on Hawaiian beaches has apparently reached a critical mass of unsightliness. I recently saw stories about it in two places! So news about marine plastic pollution does occasionally make it onto land.
I wrote The White Boats to enwrap the angsty marine plastic pollution message in an entertaining story that will hopefully affect broader awareness of the problem. Maybe that’s the solution to marine plastic pollution’s low media profile—more entertainment!
Disasters, both natural and human-made, have long been fertile ground for big-budget, special effects-driven motion pictures. Movies about errant asteroids, forest fires, and killer tornadoes, volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes and perfect storms, as well as human-generated environmental catastrophes such as climate change, imperiled species, contaminated towns, poisoned drinking water, and nuclear apocalypses never fail to draw—and please—large audiences. Maybe what's needed to get the word out is a big, sprawling movie about marine plastic pollution. Hollywood has so much material to work with, too!
For lead actors, I’m thinking a galaxy of stars—Denzell Washington, Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Melissa McCarthy. The movie would need a plot; let’s trap a boatload of children who are away at sea camp in a plastic debris field in the middle of the ocean. To boost the sympathy quotient, the kids would have a mascot on board, maybe rescue dog—half Scottie, half Corgi—named “Dog,” and they would be accompanied by a curious dolphin whose clever antics provide a constant source of amusement.
When the boozy captain of the sea camp boat heedlessly tosses a lit cigar butt into the plastic debris field—WHOOSH—it ignites, sending towering flames into the upper atmosphere. The fire quickly spreads and soon grows to the size of Connecticut—or is it Texas?
Will the dolphin reach a cruise ship that happens to be in the vicinity in time to alert the passengers, portrayed by my galaxy of stars? Can the passengers save the children from the burning plastic? Will Dog’s frantic barking awaken the passed-out captain before flames engulf his boat?
Or maybe they can just make a movie based on my novel.
Last year, the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live, was in a dither about media reports concerning estimated billions of microbeads—those tiny plastic pellets found in body scrubs and toothpaste—littering the bay, and the unfortunate fish that mistake them for food. Plastic on Hawaiian beaches has apparently reached a critical mass of unsightliness. I recently saw stories about it in two places! So news about marine plastic pollution does occasionally make it onto land.
I wrote The White Boats to enwrap the angsty marine plastic pollution message in an entertaining story that will hopefully affect broader awareness of the problem. Maybe that’s the solution to marine plastic pollution’s low media profile—more entertainment!
Disasters, both natural and human-made, have long been fertile ground for big-budget, special effects-driven motion pictures. Movies about errant asteroids, forest fires, and killer tornadoes, volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes and perfect storms, as well as human-generated environmental catastrophes such as climate change, imperiled species, contaminated towns, poisoned drinking water, and nuclear apocalypses never fail to draw—and please—large audiences. Maybe what's needed to get the word out is a big, sprawling movie about marine plastic pollution. Hollywood has so much material to work with, too!
For lead actors, I’m thinking a galaxy of stars—Denzell Washington, Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Melissa McCarthy. The movie would need a plot; let’s trap a boatload of children who are away at sea camp in a plastic debris field in the middle of the ocean. To boost the sympathy quotient, the kids would have a mascot on board, maybe rescue dog—half Scottie, half Corgi—named “Dog,” and they would be accompanied by a curious dolphin whose clever antics provide a constant source of amusement.
When the boozy captain of the sea camp boat heedlessly tosses a lit cigar butt into the plastic debris field—WHOOSH—it ignites, sending towering flames into the upper atmosphere. The fire quickly spreads and soon grows to the size of Connecticut—or is it Texas?
Will the dolphin reach a cruise ship that happens to be in the vicinity in time to alert the passengers, portrayed by my galaxy of stars? Can the passengers save the children from the burning plastic? Will Dog’s frantic barking awaken the passed-out captain before flames engulf his boat?
Or maybe they can just make a movie based on my novel.
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