Harriet Tubman
Credit: Library of Congress

United States President Joe Biden has promised to accelerate a planned redesign of the $20 bill, to feature the abolitionist (anti-slavery activist) Harriet Tubman (1820?-1913). As it is now, the bill features a portrait of former president Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) on the front and a picture of the White House on the back. Jackson’s portrait will be replaced by a portrait of Tubman, a Black woman who helped hundreds of enslaved people in the United States escape to freedom.

In 2016, Secretary of the Treasury Jacob J. Lew proposed that Tubman be featured on the bill. But, the administration of President Donald J. Trump, who became president in 2017, postponed the change indefinitely. President Biden’s Treasury Department is determining how to speed up the process of adding Tubman to the $20 bill. Putting Tubman on the bill is intended to both celebrate and reflect the diversity of the United States.

Harriet Tubman was a famous leader of the underground railroad. The underground railroad was a secret system of guides, safehouses, and pathways that helped people who were enslaved escape to the northern United States or to Canada. Admirers called Tubman “Moses,” in reference to the Biblical prophet who led the Jews out of slavery in Egypt.

Tubman was born into slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore some time around 1820. Her name was Araminta Ross. She came to be known by her mother’s name, Harriet. Her father taught her a knowledge of the outdoors that later helped her in her rescue missions. When Harriet was a child, she tried to stop a supervisor from punishing another enslaved person. The supervisor fractured Harriet’s skull with a metal weight. Because of the injury, Harriet suffered blackouts. She interpreted them as messages from God. She married John Tubman, a free Black man, in 1844.

Harriet Tubman, acting alone, escaped from slavery in 1849. After arriving in Philadelphia, she vowed to return to Maryland and help liberate other people. Tubman made her first of 19 return trips shortly after Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This law made it a crime to help enslaved runaways.

Tubman became a conductor (guide) on the underground railroad. She carried a gun and promised to use it against anyone who threatened the success of her operation. She was assisted by white and free Black abolitionists. She also got help from members of a religious sect known as the Quakers. On one rescue mission, she and a group of fugitives boarded a southbound train to avoid suspicion. On another mission, Tubman noticed her former master walking toward her. She quickly released the chickens she had been carrying and chased after them to avoid being recognized. In 1857, Tubman led her parents to freedom in Auburn, New York. Slaveowners offered thousands of dollars for Tubman’s arrest. But they never captured her or any of the 300 enslaved runaways she helped liberate before the American Civil War (1861-1865).

Tubman continued her courageous actions during the Civil War. She served as a nurse, scout, and spy for the Union Army. During one military campaign along the Combahee River in South Carolina, she helped free more than 750 enslaved people. After the war, Tubman became the subject of numerous biographies. Upon returning to Auburn, she spoke in support of women’s rights. She established the Harriet Tubman Home for elderly and needy Black Americans. She died on March 10, 1913.

The people of Auburn erected a plaque in Tubman’s honor. The United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp bearing her portrait in 1978. The Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, in Auburn, includes Tubman’s home, the residence she created for elderly Black Americans, and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church she raised funds to build. The historical park, which is operated by the National Park Service, opened in 2017. Also in 2017, a museum at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park opened to the public. The national historical park, created by Congress in 2014, includes sites in Dorchester, Caroline, and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Credit: © rblfmr, Shutterstock

Amateur stock investors raised an uproar on Thursday, January 28, when several investment services temporarily restricted stock transactions related to the video game retailer GameStop. What was going on with GameStop, and why was everyone so upset?

It helps to know about an investment strategy called “shorting.” The stock market is very complicated, so let’s try to keep things as simple as possible. “Shorting” is something investors can do when they expect a stock to go down in price. Basically, the investors borrow shares of the stock and sell them at the current price. Once the price goes down, the investors buy the stock back and return it. By selling a stock at a relatively high price and buying it back at a cheaper price, the investors make a profit.

But, you might ask, what happens if the stock price goes up? You guessed it, investors who shorted the stock have to buy it back at a higher price, taking a loss. This possibility makes shorting a stock a risky investment strategy, and investors can get stuck with disastrous losses. This is pretty much what happened with GameStop.

GameStop’s business was not looking good, so adventurous investment partnerships called hedge funds began shorting the company’s stock. At the same time, many amateur investors started investing in GameStop, driving up the stock price.

Some amateur investors probably bought Gamestop stock in the hopes that it was a good investment. Others may have hopped on the bandwagon, hoping to make some money as the stock price rose. At least some investors worked together in an effort to intentionally drive up GameStop prices, making cash and inflicting huge losses on the hedge funds. The technique of intentionally driving up prices to inflict losses on investors who have shorted a stock is called a “squeeze.”

The squeeze in this case was put on by legions of amateur investors coordinating through online social media platforms, including the forum Wall Street Bets on the service Reddit. The investors made their trades using such online services as E-Trade and the app Robinhood. At least one hedge fund suffered devastating losses.

Many small investors cheered the GameStop squeeze as a victory for amateurs over traditional Wall Street powerhouses. The urge to inflict losses on the hedge funds may have been fueled in part by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many small investors seemed angry that large companies and investors had made huge profits during the pandemic, even as millions of individuals lost their jobs.

GameStop is not the only stock that has been used in this way. More traditional investors worry that such trading strategies artificially inflate the value of stocks such as GameStop, creating “bubbles” that can lead prices to tumble when they pop. They also worry that large investors could sell off other stocks to cover their losses, driving down the market as a whole.

January 31, 2020

Tonight, January 31, at midnight Central European Time (6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in the United States), the United Kingdom will officially withdraw from the European Union (EU). The withdrawal has been termed Brexit, a combination of the words British and exit. British voters approved Brexit in a controversial referendum (public vote) in June 2016. Brexit was originally scheduled for 2019, but difficult negotiations delayed the withdrawal. The United Kingdom was a founding member of the EU in 1993.

A taxi driver waves a Union Jack flag in London after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union on June 23, 2016. Credit: © Stefan Rousseau, PA Wire/AP Photo

Negotiations on the United Kingdom’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU will begin in March 2020, and during this transition period—set to expire at the end of the year—the United Kingdom will remain in the EU single market and customs union. Thus, many of the changes implemented by Brexit will not be immediately felt by British and European citizens.

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is seen here campaigning for Brexit as a member of Parliament in 2016. Credit: © Christopher Furlong, Getty Images

The EU is an economic and political partnership among European countries. It grew out of economic cooperation that began among Western European countries in the early 1950′s. These countries eventually cooperated in economic affairs as members of the European Community (EC). The United Kingdom joined the EC in 1973, becoming part of the EU with its creation in 1993. The EU member countries formed a single economic market without internal barriers to trade, labor, and investment.

The United Kingdom has benefited in many ways from EU membership, including in its economy and employment, access to food and medical supplies, global influence, and international security and transportation. Membership also enabled British citizens to live and work freely in other EU member countries, without the need for foreign work visas or other restrictions.

Some U.K. citizens, however, resisted the country’s membership in the European Union from the beginning. Some of them felt that membership weakened British sovereignty (self-rule) and the so-called “nation-state”—the country’s common descent, language, history, and culture. Other people rejected the United Kingdom’s economic responsibilities within the union, which were greater than those of many other member nations. Still others objected to the increased numbers of people from other EU countries coming to live and work in the United Kingdom.

January 10, 2020

Today, January 10, is the third and final day of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the largest digital technology exhibition in the world. CES takes place every year in Las Vegas, Nevada, drawing thousands of tech companies large and small from all corners of the world. Such tech giants as Amazon, Google, and Samsung exhibit their latest products alongside those of small tech manufacturers, developers, and suppliers hoping to grow or get noticed. More than 4,400 companies are represented at this year’s CES, including 21 different companies whose names begin with smart, from Smart Adserver USA to SmartyPans, Inc.

Robots stroll the floor of the Haier booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 6, 2018. Haier is an electronics company based in Qingdao, China. Credit: © Kobby Dagan, Shutterstock

CES is owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association, the standards and trade organization that represents the massive U.S. consumer technology industry. This year, CES sprawls over 11 official venues covering nearly 3 million square feet (280,000 square meters). About 170,000 tech professionals attend CES each year (including more than 60,000 people from outside the United States) to display and market, but also to attend conferences and see and play with the latest tech gadgets. Attendees need maps to navigate the venue groups—Tech East, Tech West, and Tech South—and patience to wade through the throngs of people distracted by massive video boards, robots, and a host of other electronic bells and whistles.

A woman plays an Xbox One video game console in 2013. Microsoft unveiled the first Xbox console at the January 2001 CES. Credit: © Xbox

The first CES took place in New York City in June 1967. It proved popular and grew quickly along with the consumer technology industry. From 1978 to 1994, CES had two shows per year—a winter exhibition in Las Vegas and a summer show in Chicago. CES has concentrated on just one major Las Vegas event per year since 1998. Numerous consumer electronics have made their debuts at CES, including videocassette recorders (VCR’s) and laser discs in the 1970′s; camcorders and compact discs (CD’s) in the 1980′s; and interactive and satellite technologies, digital versatile discs (DVD’s), high definition television (HDTV), and satellite radio in the 1990′s. Since the early 2000′s, Microsoft Xbox, plasma televisions, blu-ray DVD’s, HD radio, tablets, notebooks, Android devices, smart appliances, driverless cars, 3D printers, wearable technologies, and varying levels of virtual reality have all been seen for the first time at CES. This year’s CES features more than 200 new products as well as innovations in artificial intelligence, cloud services, cyber security, digital health services, drones, mobile payments, and 5G wireless technology.

October 16, 2019

Last week, World Book looked at the Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine, physics, and chemistry. Today, we present the Nobel Prize winners in literature, peace, and economics. Every year in the first week of October, the Nobel Foundation in Sweden awards Nobel Prizes to artists, economists, scientists, and peace workers who—in keeping with the vision of the Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel—have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.

Nobel Prize medal (Credit: Nobel Foundation)

On October 10, the 2019 Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to the Austrian writer Peter Handke. Handke, an accomplished playwright, novelist, and screenwriter, was rewarded for his “influential work” and “linguistic ingenuity” in exploring human experience. On the same day, the 2018 literature prize (which was delayed over a scandal involving a foundation member) was given to the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk for her “narrative imagination” and “encyclopedic passion” representing all walks of life.

On Oct. 11, 2019, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for his successful efforts to create peace between his nation and neighboring Eritrea. In July 2018, Ahmed negotiated “a joint declaration of peace and friendship” with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, resolving a dispute that had festered since Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia and became an independent nation in 1993. Since coming to office in April 2018, Ahmed has also restored democratic freedoms within Ethiopia.

On Oct. 14, 2019, the Nobel Prize for economics was given to the United States-based economists Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer for creating an “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.” Banerjee and Duflo (who are married and serve as professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) worked with the Harvard University academic Kremer to find scientific solutions to improve education and children’s health around the world. They broke large issues into simple questions and then searched for practical answers to those questions that could be instituted on a grand scale.

August 16, 2019

Throughout 2019, a controversial movement known as the Extinction Rebellion has been making headlines around the world. The Extinction Rebellion is an international movement that advocates nonviolent civil disobedience (see the detailed explanation below) to pressure governments into taking action on climate change and the mass extinction of animal species. The movement, spurred by the negative effects of global warming and habitat loss, began in the United Kingdom in 2018, and it has since spread to Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, the United States, and other countries. The stated goal of the group is to preserve Earth for all living things.

Extinction Rebellion activists gather before the prime minister’s office in London, England, on March 9, 2019. Credit: © Sandor Szmutko, Shutterstock

In its own words, the Extinction Rebellion (sometimes referred to as XR) is attempting “to halt mass extinction and minimize the risk of social collapse.” The group wants governments to work to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The WWF (formerly the World Wildlife Fund) reports that animal populations have decreased by 58 percent in the last 50 years, mainly due to habitat loss. The widespread loss of animals has a corresponding detrimental effect on human populations. And carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels are the leading causes of global warming. The XR also asks individual citizens to lead healthier and environmentally responsible lives.

The Extinction Rebellion began in October 2018, when climate activists gathered for a “Declaration of Rebellion” in London’s Parliament Square. The movement quickly grew and spread to other parts of the world where existing climate action groups gathered under the circled hourglass extinction symbol banner. Major Extinction Rebellion protests have blocked bridges, roads, and public transportation, and they have disrupted government, media, and petroleum company offices. Because their actions are often unlawful, the group is somewhat controversial, and many XR activists have been arrested.

Credit: © Extinction Rebellion

Civil disobedience is the deliberate and public refusal to obey a law. Some people use civil disobedience as a form of protest to attract attention to what they consider unjust or unconstitutional laws or policies. They hope their actions will move other people to correct the injustices. Other people regard civil disobedience as a matter of individual religious or moral conviction. They refuse to obey laws that they believe violate their personal principles.

Throughout history, there has been widespread disagreement concerning the use of civil disobedience in a society based on law and order. Some people claim that citizens are obligated to disobey laws they consider unjust, for example laws segregating the races. They say that such lawbreaking may be the best way to test the constitutionality of a law. Some defend the use of civil disobedience by pointing to laws widely considered unjust or immoral, such as Nazi Germany’s laws calling for extermination of Jews and other groups. Other people claim that it is never right to break a law deliberately. They argue that defiance of any law leads to contempt for other laws. Any act of civil disobedience, they believe, weakens society and may lead to violence and anarchy (the absence of government or law).

Famous practitioners of civil disobedience include the writer Henry David Thoreau, the suffragist Susan B. Anthony, and Mohandas K. Gandhi of India. In the United States, during the 1950′s and 1960′s, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights workers deliberately violated Southern segregation laws as a means of fighting racial injustice. Many opponents of the Vietnam War (1957-1975) committed various illegal acts in attempts to change U.S. policy. Some refused to pay their taxes. Others refused to register for the draft. During the 1980′s, nonviolent protests were directed at the repressive racial policy of apartheid (segregation) of the minority white government in South Africa.

July 15, 2019

Food fads come and go every year, but for most Americans, meat always has a starring role on the dinner plate. Our meat habit has a cost, however: it can harm both our health and the environment. Cutting back on meat consumption, or cutting meat out completely, goes a long way toward helping the environment and our bodies—as well as the animals butchered for meat. Searching for meat alternatives, several food industry startups are offering new forms of meat and meat substitutes that are redefining meat as we know it—and they may change forever the way we produce and consume food. Lab-grown meat or plant-based substitutes are now often indistinguishable from the flesh of animals, and the future of meat may be one that does not involve animals at all.

New lab-grown and plant-based meats offer alternatives to traditional meats such as the beef used to make this hamburger. Credit: © Brent Hofacker, Shutterstock

Most nutritionists consider meat to be an important component of a well-balanced diet. Meat supplies vitamins, minerals, and fats necessary for good health and growth. Meat also provides an especially good source of protein. However, meat is not universal in the American diet. Many vegetarians avoid eating meat because they believe it is wrong to kill animals for food or they consider meat to be unhealthy. Many vegetarians, however, will consume such animal products as cheese and eggs. Vegans, on the other hand, eat an entirely plant-based diet and avoid all foods derived from animals, including honey and milk.

In the United States, per capita (per person) meat consumption has grown steadily to about 95 pounds (43 kilograms) per year—more than double the amount consumed in 1960. Each year, the United States raises more than 30 million beef cattle, 73 million hogs, and a staggering 9 billion chickens. The feeding, housing, transportation, and processing of these animals into food is a global industry consuming enormous amounts of energy resources and creating vast amounts of pollution. The meat industry is also one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Lab-grown or cell-cultured meats may soon rival traditional meats in U.S. supermarkets. Credit: © Tony Hertz, Alamy Images

Food companies have created a variety of meat substitutes over the years, from veggie hot dogs and bacon to tofurkey (tofu turkey). MorningStar Farms, owned by food industry giant Kellogg, has been producing meat substitutes since 1975. Many people consider such plant-based products to be a healthier alternative to meat, especially such red meats as beef, pork, and lamb. In general, red meats have more saturated fat, which can raise blood cholesterol and contribute to heart disease. Medical research has shown that higher meat consumption is linked to a greater incidence of certain cancers. Until now, most meat substitutes have had limited appeal. Made with products like TVP (textured vegetable protein), a by-product of soybean oil production, these products are often found to be dry and lack the look, juicy texture, and taste of meat.

Meat substitutes have long included such products as tofu, a food made of soybean curds pressed into cakes or blocks. Credit: © Shutterstock

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, however, are food industry startups with new vegan-friendly products that are virtually indistinguishable from traditional meat. Beyond Meat makes its substitute beef using pea protein isolate, coconut oil, and canola oil in a ratio that mimics the fat and protein content of ground beef. Impossible Foods uses soy and potato protein, sunflower seed oil, and coconut oil. Other ingredients include water, salt, and methylcellulose, a substance derived from plant fiber that is widely used in the food industry as a thickener and emulsifier. (An emulsifier bind liquids in an emulsion, a mixture of liquids that do not dissolve in each other.) Beyond Meat uses natural coloring agents derived from beets to provide the juicy appearance of a rare-cooked burger. Impossible Foods uses genetically modified yeast to make soy leghemoglobin (also called a heme), a molecule identical to the blood-red pigment in meat, to provide an appetizing color, meaty flavor, and a juicy sizzle.

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods hamburger substitutes have modestly better nutritional profiles compared to beef burgers. Both meatless products have fewer calories, slightly less fat, and similar amounts of high-quality protein. The meatless burgers also provide a modest amount of dietary fiber. Beyond and Impossible emphasize the benefits of their products for health, animal welfare, and combatting climate change. However, should we assume that such ultra-processed foods are always better?

In 2019, government health agencies in Europe and the United States released reports that linked higher consumption of ultra-processed foods to an increase in rates of obesity and cardiovascular disease. Such processed foods, including canned foods and most snacks, are made with highly refined ingredients and many additives to improve flavor, texture, and shelf life. Impossible and Beyond burgers are made from an extruded paste of mechanically extracted proteins mixed with vegetable and seed oils, spices, and other ingredients to add flavor and provide meat-like texture. Each lists at least 20 ingredients. Some health experts also worry that they may include several potential allergens that could cause problems for sensitive individuals, although there have not yet been any reported issues.

There is also a certain suspicion that tends to surround mass-produced food substitutes meant to replaced cherished favorites. While meat has a complex composition and structure—made up of amino acids (the building blocks of protein), fats, minerals, vitamins, and water all woven together—it is usually considered a single ingredient—a whole food that is proven safe to eat. Companies producing plant-based meat substitutes are not immune from being labeled “Frankenfoods” by advocacy groups if their production processes are too complex or secretive.

In 2018, the American hamburger chain Burger King began selling an Impossible version of their trademark “Whopper” hamburger in several Midwest cities on a trial basis. The chain has plans to make the sandwich available nationally by the end of 2019. Burger King will do a plant-based burger for European locations, too–but it cannot use Impossible burgers there because of the use of genetically modified yeast. In 2018, the European Court ruled that gene-edited crops are subject to the same strict regulations Europe has for genetically modified organisms (GMOs). European real food advocacy groups worry that products like the Impossible burger will increase public acceptance of genetically engineered food and highly-processed food over whole foods grown by farmers.

A food researcher tastes a hamburger patty made from meat grown in a laboratory. The patty was formed from protein strands grown by cattle cells cultured in a laboratory, rather than by slaughtering and butchering a cow. Credit: © Toby Melville, Reuters/Landov

As plant-based meat substitutes gain in popularity, some food industry experts believe that the future of meat is in cell cultures. In 2013, scientists in the Netherlands took cells from a cow and produced muscle fibers in a laboratory—the first lab-grown meat. That summer, they revealed their work to the world in a news conference. As the press looked on, a chef prepared the laboratory product into a hamburger. Today, proponents of lab-grown meat say the technology has the potential to produce real beef, pork, chicken, and fish grown from a small cell sample, eliminating the need for farms, feedlots, slaughterhouses, or even animals. Some animal-welfare groups favor this “cellular agriculture” because it diminishes the need to kill animals to provide food for human beings. They see cellular agriculture as a way to establish a more humane world without livestock farms and slaughterhouses.

New Harvest, a company headquartered in New York City, holds an annual conference on advancements in cellular agriculture. Connecting scientists and businesses, New Harvest helps to establish companies that produce cell-cultured food. The laboratory process reduces land and water costs and produces a fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions compared with factory farms. Companies in the United States and Europe are already producing cell-cultured foods. One of them is Muufri, which produces animal-free milk. Another is Memphis Meats, which introduced cellular-grown meatballs in 2016.

But will people eat a hamburger that was grown in a lab? Public perception is just one challenge facing lab-grown meat. To overcome the many challenges, cultured meat proponents are upfront and transparent about the technology and the manufacturing processes involved, emphasizing the many positive environmental and ethical benefits.

Another challenge involves how these products are overseen within the heavily regulated food industry. In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finalized an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish regulatory jurisdiction over the production of meat that does not involve animals. Under the plan, the FDA will oversee the collection and growth of cultured cells. The USDA will regulate the processing of those cells into meat and determine how the products will be labeled.

Before cell-cultured meats hit supermarkets, a range of other questions still remain to be answered. What sort of products will be available, exactly how healthy will they be, and what will they cost? Perhaps the most important question is: How will they taste?

October 10, 2018

On Friday, October 5, gynecologist Denis Mukwege and human rights activist Nadia Murad were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts “to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.” On Monday, October 8, the Nobel Prize for economic sciences went to United States economists William Nordhaus and Paul Romer for integrating technological innovation and climate change with economic growth.

Nobel Prize medal (Credit: Nobel Foundation)

Denis Mukwege has spent much of his life helping the victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Working from the Panzi Hospital in the far-eastern city of Bukavu, Mukwege and his staff have treated thousands of sexual assault victims. Most of the abuses were committed during a civil war that killed millions of people in the late 1990′s and 2000′s. Nadia Murad is a member of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq. In 2014, Islamic State terrorists attacked Murad’s village, killed hundreds of people, and abducted Murad and other young Yazidi women and held them as sex slaves. Murad was repeatedly raped and abused before she managed to escape. Murad then began raising awareness of the horrors and traumas that she had experienced. Sexual violence in war and armed conflict is a grave violation of international law.

William Nordhaus is an economics professor at Yale University. He created an “integrated assessment model” that shows how economy and climate change together over time. Paul Romer teaches at the New York University Stern School of Business. He has demonstrated how economic forces govern the willingness of firms to produce new ideas and innovations.

September 21, 2018

In the Pacific Ocean, floating plastic pollution has collected into a giant area of marine debris known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Marine debris consists of garbage dumped directly into the ocean or carried there by waterways. Such debris can injure animals or make them ill. It can also poison and bury marine habitat. The GPGP, also called the Pacific trash vortex, spans an astounding 600,000 square miles (1.6 million square kilometers) of ocean surface—an area more than twice the size of Texas and nearly three times the size of France.

A member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) helps disentangle an albatross chick from plastic debris in the northwestern Hawaiian islands. Credit: Ryan Tabata, NOAA

The GPGP is actually two large fields of marine debris, a western patch near Japan and an eastern patch near Hawaii. The fields are linked by a convergence zone where warm South Pacific waters meet cooler Arctic waters. There, currents and winds carry garbage from one patch to the other. Circular currents move clockwise around the patches, creating a massive vortex that keeps the debris from scattering to other parts of the planet. Unfortunately, all ocean waters have similar pollution problems, and the ocean plastic plague is not limited to the vast Pacific.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch includes two general areas of massed marine debris collected and held in place by ocean currents. Credit: NOAA Marine Debris Program

The GPGP contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of fishing nets, glass, light metals, ropes, and other discarded rubbish. Most GPGP debris is washed out to sea from Asia and North America. Other debris is left behind by boaters, oil rigs, and cargo ships. The majority of this debris is made of plastic, and it gathers in large patches because it floats and much of it is not biodegradable. Most plastics do not wear down or decompose; they simply break into tinier and tinier pieces. 

The GPGP is visible in large swaths on the ocean surface, but much of it exists as microplastics in what appears to be cloudy or milky-colored water. Oceanographers and ecologists recently learned that only a fraction of marine debris floats near the surface, meaning that the deeper waters and sea floors beneath the GPGP are also heavily polluted.

Plastics in particular are a problem because of their omnipresence: they are simply everywhere. Most plastic objects are easy to spot, but plastics exist where you might not expect them: the synthetic chewy polymer in gum, the microbeads in soaps and gels, and even the microfibers of fleece or nylon clothing. Plastics are cheap to manufacture, so cheap, in fact, that many plastics are only used once. Such single-use plastics are the greatest threats to the world’s oceans. People typically use plastic bags, coffee stirrers, forks and spoons, straws, soda and water bottles, and food packaging only once and then throw them away. These items end up in landfills, in lakes and rivers, and in the oceans, and they do harm everywhere. Most of these items can be recycled, but only about 10 percent of plastic is ever reused. Scientists estimate that humans discard about 300 million tons (275 million metric tons) of plastic every year. Of that amount, some 9 million tons (8.1 million metric tons) finds its way into the world’s oceans.

Plastic pollution has a dire effect on marine wildlife, killing hundreds of thousands of fish, sea birds, sea turtles, seals, whales, and other smaller animals each year. Larger animals become entangled in plastic, trapping them or hindering their movement, and they drown or die of starvation. Sea turtles eat plastic bags, mistaking them for their favorite food, jellyfish. The bags suffocate the turtles or kill them by blocking their digestive systems. Sea birds such as albatrosses often mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which then starve or die of ruptured organs. Clouds of microplastics can kill by blocking sunlight: phytoplankton and other types of algae (a large base of the ocean food chain) depend on photosynthesis to survive. Microplastics also effect small fish and carnivorous plankton that mistakenly eat the synthetic particles: the animals either die or pass the plastic up the food chain. Researchers have found high numbers of plastic fibers inside food fish sold at markets—so yes, people too end up eating indigestible and often toxic plastic.

So there is an ocean plastic plague out there, and it is spreading every day: what is being done about it? At sea, unfortunately, little is happening. The GPGP and many other ocean garbage patches around the world lie in international waters. A nation’s territorial waters extend only 12 nautical miles (14 miles or 22 kilometers) from the coast. Most nations observe this limit to regulate commercial fishing, navigation, shipping, and use of the ocean’s natural resources. While some nations claim territorial waters much farther out than 12 nautical miles, none wants the responsibility or expense of cleaning the pollution that collects out there. International waters are exploited and heavily trafficked, but garbage patches are largely ignored beneath the prows of money-making ships.

A tugboat deploys The Ocean Cleanup’s first ocean-sweeping floater to collect plastic marine debris on Sept. 15, 2018. Credit: The Ocean Cleanup

Individual efforts are helping, however. Dutch inventor Boyan Slat recently founded The Ocean Cleanup, an organization that has developed an ocean-sweeping floater to collect plastic garbage. The floater—made from a durable, recyclable plastic called high density polyethylene (HDPE)—is a 1,000-foot- (600-meter- ) long horseshoe that collects plastics in its mouth and in screens that drape beneath the surface. The screens are made from a tightly woven textile impenetrable to marine life, preventing animals from becoming ensnared. The plastics are collected, extracted, and either recycled, resold, or disposed of properly. The floaters will be placed in low-trafficked sea zones, illuminated and equipped with radar and Global Positioning System (GPS) beacons to avoid collisions with ships. The first of these ocean-sweeping floaters began Pacific sea trials in September 2018, and The Ocean Cleanup hopes to have a fleet of 60 such cleaning systems by 2020. The lofty goal is to reduce the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by 50 percent by 2025.

Other organizations doing what they can to help include the Plastic Pollution Coalition and the Plastic Oceans Foundation. Other inventive forms of cleanup include introducing plastic-eating bacteria (a slow cure that could create other problems) and small scale “SeaBins” that float in harbors and filter out floating garbage. 

As Benjamin Franklin famously said, however, an ounce of prevention is worth of a pound of cure. Stopping the ocean plastic plague—and all other forms of pollution—depends on our habits and behaviors at home. Governments must encourage recycling and develop better waste management systems. Industry must switch to more environmentally friendly plastics capable of natural decomposition. Fishing crews can help by collecting plastic caught in their nets and returning it to shore for processing. Individuals can help by reducing the use of disposable plastics and products with plastic microbeads or microfibers. If plastics must be used, recycle or reuse whenever possible. And, as always and with everything, never litter.

July 13, 2018

Two weeks ago, on June 29, 2018, the last Toys “R” Us stores (often written as Toys Я Us) closed in the United States. The once giant toy retailer met its end after seven decades of providing parents with seemingly limitless options and making millions of children “Toys Я Us kids.” Online and mass market competition eventually squeezed out the familiar store franchise, which filed for bankruptcy protection in late 2017. Early in 2018, Toys Я Us announced the planned liquidation of its stores in the United Kingdom and the United States. Some 1,000 international locations remain open, however, as the company struggles to divide and sell off its once great empire.

The last Toys Я Us stores closed in the United States on June 29, 2018. Credit: © Jax10289/Shutterstock

The origins of Toys Я Us go back to 1948, when 25-year-old U.S. Army veteran Charles Lazarus opened a store called Children’s Bargain Town in Washington, D.C. Lazarus ran the store himself, selling cribs, strollers, and other baby furniture and necessities. Fueled by the post World War II baby boom, Lazarus soon expanded his business to include games and toys for slightly older kids. The business grew, and Lazarus expanded further to create a supermarket-type atmosphere with aisles, shopping carts, and customer self-service. In 1957, he opened his first store dedicated only to toys and games: Toys Я Us—with a backwards R to appear as if a child had incorrectly written it. Parents—and kids, of course—loved the giant toy store, and Toys Я Us locations soon opened all over the United States.

In 1965, the store’s giraffe mascot, Geoffrey, began appearing at new store openings and other promotional events. Geoffrey starred in his first television commercial in 1973, and a popular advertising jingle soon expressed children’s wishes to never grow up and remain “Toys Я Us kids.” By the 1980′s, Toys Я Us fully dominated the U.S. toy market and had stores around the world. Specialty branches of Toys Я Us opened as Kids Я Us (selling children’s clothing) and Babies Я Us.

Charles Lazarus stepped down as chief executive officer of the company in 1994, but remained as chairman emeritus (retired) until 1998—an inauspicious year for Toys Я Us as Wal-Mart surpassed the company in toy sales for the first time. Despite efforts to counter the loss in market share to Wal-Mart and such retail titans as Target and Amazon, Toys Я Us steadily declined and last posted a profit in 2013. Lazarus died at age 94 on March 22, 2018.

Toys Я Us was the biggest toy store in the United States, but it was not the oldest. That honor belongs to the still-running FAO Schwarz, which dates back to 1862. Toys Я Us bought FAO Schwarz in 2009, but sold the high-end toy company in 2016.