Plastic pollution seems to be a pretty new issue, right? In the past few years, the topic has been all over the media. But if you explore the history of science, it turns out that the problem really isn’t all that new. Some scientists have been aware of plastic in the ocean for over half a century. So, how was plastic pollution first discovered? And why didn’t we hear about it earlier? In this episode, Anja speaks to scientists who called attention to the problem long before it was widely discussed. What happened back then, and how did we get to where we are now? Ed Carpenter, Steve Rothstein, Elizabeth Venrick, Arne Holmström, Hans van Weenen and Peter Ryan share their stories.

The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger.

Transcript: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2020/07/17/ep-9-transcript/

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Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/

Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen

With: Adam Huggins and Mendel Skulski of https://www.futureecologies.net/ podcast and http://www.terencemickey.com/ of Memory Motel

Sound credits: Ingrid Pollet, Yle Arkisto and Klankbeeld on Freesound.org (CC-BY-Attribution 3.0):

https://freesound.org/people/YleArkisto/sounds/271524/

https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/192297/

Thanks to:

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science: Hansjakob Ziemer, Stephanie Hood, Jürgen Renn, Christoph Rosol, Matthias Schwerdt, Ruth Kessentini, Ellen Garske, the library team and Anthropocene group; Ingrid Pollet, Jeffrey Meikle, Cindy Gierhart, Tim Howard, Deborah Blum, Christian Schwägerl, Luisa Beck, Brooke Watkins, Keridwen Cornelius, Eva Vander Gießen, Ines Blaesius, Rebecca Altman, Peter Spork, the people at Netzwerk Recherche and the Schöpflin Foundation, Erica Cirino, Chris Rose, Linda Godfrey, John Farrington, Kara Lavender Law, Gilbert Rowe, Bruce Burns, W.R.P. Bourne