Erica Cirino is a science writer and artist who explores the intersection of the human and nonhuman worlds. Her photographic and written works have appeared in Scientific American, The Guardian, VICE, Hakai Magazine, The Atlantic, and other esteemed publications. She is a recipient of fellowships from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, and Safina Center, as well as several awards for visual art.
Erica Cirino traveled 10,000 nautical miles to bring readers an up-close look at plastics' full scope, from the open sea to communities protesting more plants and more pollution. Cirino compellingly narrates the complexities of plastics' unfolding history, as communities, states, and nations figure out how society might change its relationship to this enduring material. --Rebecca Altman, PhD, writer and environmental sociologist By moving the plastic crisis documentation from theory to activism and community impact, [Cirino's] book documents environmental injustices, national choice and their impacts, and the connections between racial prejudice and contamination, offering new insights into all these topics. -- Donovan's Literary Services Thicker Than Water takes you on an engaging journey through the many challenges of plastic pollution and diverse emerging solutions. Told through Erica's own personal experiences of epic sailing adventures at sea and connections made on land, it's a comprehensive guide to the plastic problem and what can be done to tackle it. --Emily Penn, director of eXXpedition As I travel around the world aboard SeaLegacy 1, I can see with my own eyes the crisis Cirino so eloquently describes in the pages of Thicker Than Water. The ocean plastic pollution problem is solvable and it will require us to understand how it came about and who the culprits are. Thicker Than Water is an engaging narrative exploration of an issue that affects us all. --Cristina Mittermeier, cofounder of SeaLegacy In this time of multiple environmental catastrophes, you can superficially Google and despair or you can dive deep, inform yourself, and find your point of entry into meaningful action. Erica Cirino's Thicker Than Water very much belongs in the latter camp. It really is the book you need to read if you want to understand ocean plastic pollution but also be part of the solution. --Paul Greenberg, bestselling author of 'Four Fish and The Climate Diet'