Laura Parker

In the past decade, as the world has awakened to the growing accumulation of plastic debris in our oceans, the efforts to solve the mounting crisis have been numerous, imaginative—and insufficient. By 2040, the amount of plastic flowing annually into the sea is forecast nearly to triple, to 32 million tons a year. That means by the time a baby born this year graduates from high school, there will be, on average, a hundred pounds of plastic trash for every yard of coastline around the globe.

When U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland recommended last month that full protections be restored to three national monuments in the wilderness of Utah’s red rock country and off the New England coast, conservationists expected quick action. No drawn-out negotiations with Congress were needed; President Joe Biden could undo former President Donald Trump’s actions reducing the size of the protected lands and opening them up to development with the stroke of a pen.