For this year’s World Environment Day, the UN Environment Program is leading a campaign to #BeatPlasticPollution.
I have a book set to release in 2024 with Orca Footprints, What Poo Can Do: How Animals are Fighting the Climate Crisis, that tackles plastic pollution in the first chapter on whales. The book I’m currently writing, BUGS TO THE RESCUE: USING MICROBES TO PROTECT AND POWER THE PLANET (under contract with Orca Footprints for publication in 2025), also has a section on plastic.
I look forward to sharing both these nonfiction middle grade books with the world! In the meantime, I’m challenging myself to follow the recommendations in What Poo Can Do and find out more about using algae as an alternative to petroleum-based plastic for BUGS TO THE RESCUE.
I’m also recognizing World Environment Day by sending a copy of my recently released nonfiction middle grade book, Evolution Under Pressure, to the winner of my giveaway–Luiza Junqueira–and donating a copy to the Rossland Public Library. In some ways, these feel like little things but I’ve been researching small things (from microplastics to microorganisms) and I can tell you that they do make a difference!
“Small change, small wonders—these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life. It’s a workable economy.”
Barbara Kingsolver (Small Wonder)
If you’re looking for ways to help beat plastic pollution, check out the Beat Plastic Pollution Practical Guide. I also recommend these nonfiction middle grade titles for educators and young people:
- Too Much Trash: How Litter Is Hurting Animals (Orca Footprints, 2023) by Joan Marie Galat
- Design Like Nature: Biomimicry for a Healthy Planet (Orca Footprints, 2021) by Megan Clendenean & Kim Ryall Woolcock
- Trash Revolution (Kids Can Press, 2018) by Erica Fyvie & Bill Slavin
- Plastic Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Millbrook, 2014) by Patricia Newman & Annie Crawley