This Post May Have Some Controversial Elements, None of Which Do I Apologise For

I have found ‘Authors4Oceans’. It is another ‘activist’ initiative, like ‘Surfers against Sewage’.

While I wholeheartedly support the basic notion on which such ‘awareness’ programmes are based, I cannot think of anything but the ulterior motives which lay behind them.

Allow me to elucidate.

Surfers do not wish to surf, swim or sit on beaches full of garbage. By encouraging a mass army of volunteers to clean their beaches they are making their own environment better, at least on the surface. (Pun)

While the fundraisers & volunteers feel good about themselves for making a (perceived) contribution to the world’s environment, the surfers continue to use their boards, masks, goggles and wetsuits which are made from environmentally damaging materials, generally plastics and petrochemical-based materials.

They use petrol or diesel vehicles to get their equipment to the beach and quads to patrol the area. So how deep (pun) do their environmental credentials go on a personal level?

Which brings me to the authors4Oceans initiative I mentioned..

Fifty authors call on book industry to ditch plastic

Fifty UK authors and illustrators, including Sir Michael Morpurgo, Chris Riddell and Jacqueline Wilson, have pledged support for a campaign encouraging the book industry to ditch plastic.

Authors4Oceans is the brainchild of children’s author Lauren St John, who wants publishers, bookshops and readers to reduce the amount of plastic they use by finding eco alternatives to the bags, straws, bottles and single-use cutlery that ends up at the bottom of the sea.

St John came up with the idea when she ordered a drink in a bookshop and it came with a plastic straw, she told The Bookseller. “It made me think of all the bookshops across the UK – there are 300 branches of Waterstones alone – and about how many of them dish out plastic straws and bags every day. If I had written on behalf of myself I probably wouldn’t have achieved anything, but I thought if I teamed up with other writers and illustrators we might have a voice.”

“At first, I approached my friends, people like Abi Elphinstone and Katherine Rundell and soon found I had twenty people so thought why not aim for fifty.”

Other artists have signed up to the campaign including Rob Macfarlane, Jackie Morris, Marcus Sedgwick, Quentin Blake and Patrice Lawrence. Publishers Head of Zeus and Knights Of, as well as indie Octavia’s Bookshop.

As part of the campaign, St John created an Authors4Oceans website, which has teacher resources, blogs and tips on how to reduce plastic waste. She is planning beach cleans and an author event at Hay, where some writers will discuss books which feature oceans and animals, as well as the research behind them. St John is running a competition, working in partnership with the Marine Conservation Society, Action for Conservation, the Born Free Foundation and The Week Junior,  asking pupils to create models of endangered sea creatures out of plastic rubbish.

One school will win a visit from a bestselling children’s author and 50 books – one from every author and illustrator who signed up to support Authors4Oceans. Two runners-up will win author visits and 30 books, and a third prize winner will receive 20 signed books.

The campaign has no financial backing, but the costs so far have only reached £10, which was spent on setting up the website, said St John.

“An alliance of children’s authors, particularly those who write about nature and are passionate about the environment, might have a voice together,” she said. “And if publishers, literary festivals and some of our young readers join us we could make a real difference.”

The attention of the public is currently firmly on plastic waste since last year’s “BBC programme, presented by David Attenborough, which revealed that pieces of plastic will outnumber fish in the oceans by 2050.

Several publishers are releasing books about plastic waste problems, including Ebury, which will publish No. More. Plastic., an “eco-friendly” guide by Martin Dorey, founder of international anti-plastic movement the #2minutebeachclean, in May. In July Orion imprint Trapeze will publish Turning the Tide on Plastic, a “call to arms” against single-use plastic by journalist Lucy Siegle.

Last month book reviewers expressed concern for the issue by signing an open letter against single-use book packaging. The letter called on publishers to switch to using recyclable materials.

Reading this one could say “How wonderful” and start waving their knickers in the air, but I am more of a realist.

All I see is an author, along with a few friends and fellows, some from the same stable, banding together to raise a tidal wave (pun again) of publicity to promote their names and gender sympathy to what is a tiny, weeny, bit-of-a-cause in the great scheme of things.

Cleverly, these authors target schools & children in their campaign, (via teachers) which, as children’s authors, should not be a surprise. The children will want to read these authors books once they ‘get to know them’, & when teachers and parents encourage the initiative.

The tactic of mentioning David Attenborough & the BBC’s Blue Planet is a masterstroke, at least on the surface (yes, another pun), hint at credibility.

Oh, all this as the publishers launch several books about the environmental impact of plastics. What a coincidence.

OH, AND TO CLARIFY THINGS… I TOO AM AN AUTHOR, ONE WITH A MARKETING BACKGROUND.

My prime concern is micro-plastics. These are the ones which are turning our oceans into the plastic equivalent of Slush-Puppy.

Micro-plastics, including the micro-beads used in toiletries, are the ones entering the food chain. The ones many people are unaware of like the almost invisible fibres lost from your clothing every day, or in the case of these authors, the plastic coating book covers, (it’s what makes them shiny), or those used in the printing inks themselves.

Looking and starting closer to home, at the printing, packaging, distribution, display and retail use of plastics in the publishing industry may have made me think this was more than was anything but a disguised marketing ploy.

Take a closer look at yourself before you comment on this post.

The phone and computer you have are plastic objects, so is the wood patterned veneer covering your Fibreboard furniture, the fibres in your floor covering. The toys your baby and children have are made from petrochemical plasticised, non-degradable, environmentally harmful substance.

Stay with metals, woods, glass, natural fibres and such like. Until you do that as an individual, you are simply adding far more plastic waste to the environment than you will ever remove.

As controversial as this post may seem, I am just pointing out some basic facts. But they are facts YOU can start acting on immediately… if you really care that much.