Emily Kwong

Yeah, you talk about a little plastic tray used to catch the drips from your ice cream cone.

You also talk in the book about fracking.

And fracking is when companies drill deep below the surface of the earth.

They blast fluid to unlock gas and oil reserves.

And marketing-wise, you know, sold to the public as a way to solve our energy crisis.

Instead, it's proven very bad for the environment.

And I didn't realize this at all until reading your book.

It has created more plastic products.

through the production of ethane.

And you go to Washington County, Pennsylvania, to visit a family that shares the land with hundreds of fracking wells.

What are their lives like?

Yeah.

For a lot of people, the plastics problem can seem distinct from the climate change problem, but you argue that they are inextricably linked.

Can you explain why?

Yeah, you mentioned the International Energy Agency is predicting...

that petrochemicals will be the largest single driver of oil demand growth.

Towards the end of the book, you provide a plastics success story where a local kid takes action in his city of Honolulu, his name is Dyson Chee, to restrict single-use plastics in Honolulu County.

And this inspired a similar law in Maui County.

And this, you write, is a really encouraging sign for local efforts to make change.

Why do you think passing a local law and the copycat effect, how that can inspire other local laws, is more effective than trying to pass a state law?