Monday, March 11, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Plastic: A Toxic Love Story
The next Director’s Lecture Series event at the Arnold Arboretum will take place Monday, March 11, from 7 – 8:30 in the Hunnewell Building. As coal fueled the industrial revolution, one could say that plastic built the modern world. But a century into our love affair with plastic, we’re starting to realize it’s not such a healthy one. Plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life. And yet each year we use and consume more; we’ve produced as much plastic in the past decade as we did in the entire twentieth century. Journalist Susan Freinkel will speak about our dependence on this material, guiding us through history, science and the global economy to assess the real impact of plastic in our lives. She’ll present a new way of thinking about a substance that has become the defining medium—and metaphor—of our age. Her book, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, will be available for purchase and signing. Free, but registration requested at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.
