Blue (Azzurro) is the color of the oceans, vast expanses of water that cover most of our planet. A blue that hasn’t been clear for a long time, as it’s here that most of the waste produced by man ends up. It is estimated that every year 4.8 to 12.7 million tons of plastic waste are dumped into the sea. Being not biodegradable, this waste can be ingested by sea creatures. Pieces of plastic can obstruct the airways or the digestive tract of animals, preventing food intake. Many animals are found dead with a stomach full of plastic, as it makes them feel full even if they have not eaten real food: this is especially the case for whales and birds. Young specimens that get entangled in plastic nets can experience skin damage or undergo malformations during growth. Also fishermen happen to pollute the oceans, by losing their nets in the open sea or throwing the broken ones off their boats – nets that turn into traps that can imprison or suffocate whales, dolphins and other marine mammals.
With no need for words, Alessandra Manfredi portrays the creatures of the blue in all their beauty through unsettling images in which waste becomes part of the natural scenery, modifying it. A plastic fork gets stuck in the nostril of a majestic tortoise, two seals sinuously swim in the depths of the sea with their bodies wrapped in a net that looks like a dress, while another seal with a rope around its neck sadly observes the fish which it will never be able to eat. From the sea the waste reaches the shore, a poison unconsciously passed from the beak of an albatross mother to the beak of her chick. Page after page, the animals turn their big eloquent eyes towards us, full of anger, supplication, sadness. They seem to ask us to stop this mess, to take care of them and of the environment that surrounds us. They invite us to rethink our daily lives, to make small choices in order to drastically reduce the use of plastic, for the good of our planet and of all the creatures that inhabit it. Including us.
Age: 8+
Languages: English and Italian
Edition: 2020
Azzurro is the second book published by #logosedizioni in collaboration with Sea Shepherd and is part of the OPERAZIONE SISO 2019.
