As editor of The Los Angeles Times won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting for "Altered Oceans," its series that "revealed how man has choked the oceans with trash and basic nutrients -- killing advanced sea life, making people sick and effectively reversing the course of evolution back toward "the primeval seas of hundreds of millions of years ago."
The fourth part of the five-part series focuses on the "plastic plague" of marine debris.
If you wonder why cities in California are banning polystyrene food service products and polyethylene grocery bags, reading this story will help explain why these issues are getting so much legislative attention this year.