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An ocean awash in lethal bags, bottles, pellets, line, tarps and diapers.
Worse than oil spills?
On the beach on San Juan Island, Washington, Allison Lance walks her dogs every morning. She carries a plastic bag in her hand to carry the bits and pieces of plastic debris she picks up. Each morning she fills the bag, but by the next morning there is always another bag to be filled. Joey Racano does the same in Huntington Beach further south in California. The harvest of plastic waste is never-ending. Allison's and Joey's beaches, and practically every beach around the world, is similarly cursed.
Recently in the Galapagos I retrieved plastic motor oil bottles and garbage bags from a remote beach on Santa Cruz Island. Every year during crossings of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, spotting plastic is a daily and regular occurrence.
A June 2006 United Nations environmental program report estimated that there are an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic debris floating on or near the surface of every square mile of ocean.
We live in a plastic convenience culture; virtually every human being on this planet uses plastic materials directly and indirectly every single day. Our babies begin life on Earth by using some 210 million pounds of plastic diaper liners each year; we give them plastic milk bottles and plastic toys, and buy their food in plastic jars, paying with a plastic credit card. Even avoiding those babies by using contraceptives results in mass disposal of billions of latex condoms, diaphragms, and hard plastic birth control pill containers each year.
Every year we eat and drink from some 34 billion newly manufactured bottles and containers. We patronize fast food restaurants and buy products that consume another 14 billion pounds of plastic. In total, our societies produce an estimated 60 billion tons of plastic material every year.
Each of us on average uses 190 pounds of plastic annually: bottled water, fast food packaging, furniture, syringes, computers and computer diskettes, packing materials, garbage bags and so much more. When you consider that this plastic does not biodegrade and remains in our ecosystems permanently, we are looking at an incredibly high volume of accumulated plastic trash that has been built up since the mid-20th century. Where does it go? There are only three places it can go: our earth, our air and our oceans.
Styrofoam foam
All the plastic that has ever been produced has been buried in landfills, incinerated and dumped into lakes, rivers and oceans. When incinerated, the plastics disperse non-biodegradable pollutants, much of which inevitably finds its way into marine ecosystems as microscopic particles.
Back in 1991, my ship, the Sea Shepherd, was anchored in the harbour of Port of Spain, Trinidad. It began to rain a hard, steady downpour. A few hours later, the entire surface area of the harbour was dirty white, as if an ice floe had entered this tropical port. The "floe" consisted of Styrofoam, plastic bottles and assorted plastic materials, as far as the eye could see, and it had come down from the streets, gutters and streams into the harbour. And, of course, it was all washing out to sea, dispersed by wind and tide.
What happened to it after that? The sun and the brine broke it down into little pellets of Styrofoam and little pieces of plastic -- each an insidious, floating, deadly mine set adrift in an ocean of life.
And over the years these little nodules have drifted. Many have been ingested by birds and fish. Weeks or months later, the victims decompose on the surface of the water or on a beach, re-exposing the nodules to the light of the sun, to be blown by the winds back into the sea. These vicious little inorganic parasites continue to maim and kill in an endless assault upon life in our oceans.
The simple fact is that when you drop a Styrofoam cup onto the street, you're causing more damage than you would by dropping a stick of dynamite into the ocean. You set in motion an invasion of thousands of killer plastibots that will cause death and destruction for centuries to come.
Eighteen billion of those disposable diapers end up in the oceans each year; Americans alone toss 2.5 million plastic bottles into the sea every hour. Our oceans are full of floating plastic debris. There is no place in the oceans where a fine trawl will not reveal plastic nodules. Studies by Captain Charles Moore and the Algalita Foundation found that even in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, plastic nodules have been found to outweigh plankton by a ratio of six to one. Similar studies in the Atlantic have revealed the same ratio.
Floating out of mind
In the movie Castaway, Tom Hanks, marooned on a desert island in the South Pacific, finds a plastic siding of a portable outhouse washed up on the beach. The stuff is everywhere. I have found plastic bottles with Japanese, Chinese, Russian and English writing littering the beaches of even the most remote Aleutian Islands.
And yet we give this global threat very little thought at all. It is out of the sight of land-dwelling humanity, and thus out of mind. The only industry that seems concerned about plastic pollution is the marine insurance business. The intake of plastics into the cooling systems of engines is one of the leading causes of maritime engine failures. Last year, Japanese insurance companies paid $50 million in claims involving plastic-related engine and prop damage.
Drifting in our seas are tens of thousands of miles of monofilament ghost drift nets and lines. This same netting ensnares ship props and the necks of sea lions and turtles. Over the years, my crew has retrieved hundreds of floating monofilament nets from the sea. All of them contained the rotting corpses of fish and birds.
In a well-documented beach clean-up in Orange County, California, volunteers collected 106 million items, weighing 13 tons. The debris included preproduction plastic pellets, foamed plastics and hard plastics; plastic constituted 99 per cent of the total material collected. The most abundant item found on the beaches of Orange County was preproduction plastic pellets, most of which originated from transport losses. Approximately one quadrillion of these pellets, or 60 billion pounds, are manufactured annually in the United States alone. You never hear about these spillages in the newspaper, and there is not a single plastic pellet spillage response crew anywhere in the world.
The plastic products that end up in the sea because of consumers constitute less than 30 per cent of the total plastics dumped into the oceans each year. The greater amount comes from accidental spillage of plastic resin pellets produced by the petrochemical industry for the purpose of manufacturing consumer plastic products, or the breakdown of finished products into Styrofoam nodules or hard plastic particles. Plastic nodules are lost routinely in both the shipping and manufacturing stages, spilling from shipboard containers or from trucks onto streets and into storm drains.
Lethal threat
Oil spills occur every day in our oceans, and major spills occur on average every two weeks somewhere in the world's marine ecosystem. Although these oil spills are notorious killers of marine wildlife, their deadly impact is confined to relatively small areas geographically, and the impact is reduced with time. The Exxon Valdez spill, for example, was confined to Alaska's Prince William Sound, and although the impact on wildlife was felt for many years, the ecosystem is slowly recovering. Yet this other kind of petrochemical spill is more invasive and permanent. This type of spill is cumulative. The spillage is never cleaned up and removed, but accumulates perpetually.
I don't think that I am exaggerating when I say that the spillage of plastic resin pellets poses a significant and unappreciated threat to the survival of sea life. The oceans are becoming plasticized. This threat becomes more lethal each year as the cumulative amount increases. The impact of this spillage contributes to more casualties than all of the world's annual oil spills, yet we know very little about the problem. In fact, the public does not even recognize plastic resin pellet spillage as a problem at all.
Plastic pellets also pose an additional threat. They act as a transport medium for toxic chemicals. Many of these pellets contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The chemicals were either absorbed from ambient seawater or used in the manufacture of plasticizers prior to the 1970s. This transfer of PCBs from ingested pellets into birds was conclusively proven and documented in the fatty tissues of great shearwaters (Puffinus gravis). Studies have shown that 75 per cent of all shearwaters examined contained ingested plastic.
Of 312 species of seabirds, some 111 species, or 36 per cent, are known to mistakenly ingest plastic. In Hawaii, 16 of the 18 resident seabird species are plastic ingestors, and 70 per cent of this ingestion is of floating plastic resin pellets. Seabirds in Alaska have been found to have stomachs entirely filled with indigestible plastic. Penguins on South African beaches have suffered high chick mortality from eating plastic regurgitated by the parents, and 90 per cent of blue petrel chicks examined on South Africa's remote Marion Island had plastic particles in their stomachs. It is a global problem, and for seabirds there are no safe places. For most people, the ocean is a big toilet. The belief is that garbage, sewage and plastics are dispersed and taken away.
Garbage 'gyres'
Unfortunately, nothing is really ever "taken away"; it is simply perpetually circulated. The oceans are pulsating with powerful currents, and these currents keep plastic debris in constant circulation. As a result, debris travels in what are called "gyres." The gyre concentrates the garbage in areas where currents meet. For example, one of the largest of these movements in the Atlantic is called the central gyre, and it moves in a clockwise circular pattern driven by the Gulf Stream. The central gyre concentrates heavily in the northern Sargasso Sea, a place that is also host to numerous spawning fish species.
The number of floating plastic pellets found in the Sargasso Sea has been measured in excess of 3,500 parts per square kilometer. The same ratio of 3,500 parts per square kilometer was found in the waters of the southern coasts of Africa. This study found that plastic pollution had increased in South African waters from 1989 to the present by 190 per cent.
Birds, turtles and fish mistake the tiny nodules for fish eggs. Garbage bags, plastic soda rings and Styrofoam particles are regularly eaten by sea turtles. A floating garbage bag looks like a jellyfish to a turtle. The plastic clogs the turtle's intestines, robbing the animals of vital nutrients, and has been the cause of untold turtle losses to starvation. All seven of the world's sea turtle species suffer mortality from both plastic ingestion and plastic entanglement. One turtle found dead off Hawaii carried over 1,000 pieces of plastic in its stomach and intestines. And recently, a land-based turtle rescued in a Florida waterway by Stephen Nordlinger was unable to submerge due to the amount of Styrofoam trapped in its body, making it permanently buoyant.
Plastic floor
The amount of plastic pellets present on beaches is astonishingly high. In New Zealand, one beach was found to contain over 100,000 pellets per square meter. Thus, it is not so far-fetched to suggest that people are in fact sunbathing on plastic beaches -- literally. I have stopped my ship mid-ocean and found flip-flops, suntan oil bottles, plastic Coke bottles, garbage bags and even large floating industrial plastic sheets. In each place sampled, we have also found plastic pellets.
Once, on the bottom of the Mediterranean off France, I witnessed a scene that appalled me. The entire bottom was made of plastic. Bottles and plastic bags swaying with the tide, replacing the sea grasses and algae. It was especially sad to see one little fish scurry from behind a white plastic bag to take cover from me in a sunken automobile tire. Brushing aside another drifting white bag, I spied a flicker of red on the bottom. What I found was a plastic face staring up at me with a great big smile and two enormous plastic ears. It was the decapitated head of a Mickey Mouse doll.
It's a plastic sea out there.
Paul Watson is founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a co-founder of Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace Foundation, was National Director of the Sierra Club USA and is Director of the Farley Mowat Institute. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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bc4me
6 years ago
Comments on "The Plastic Sea"
Groan. Indeed, the accumulation of plastic debris on land and sea is insidious. I remember how distrubed I was, too, at a marine biology course where, in a presentation on a deep sea dive to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariannas Trench, we saw the ocean floor covered in ... yup, sneakers, signs, plastic and metal crap of all kinds. And today the news is that a giant cargo container of 5,000 japanese cars is foundering off the coast of Alaska and likely headed for the bottom.
It's going to take awhile to reverse this. As socieities go, we still look to the marine and aquatic environments as dumping grounds for "someone else" to deal with. On land, we just look beyond our nest, our municipal boundaries, or our fence, and jettison our garbge with impugnity. Again, let someone else clean it up, or not. On the Sunshine Coast where I live, at least someone in the regional government had the foresight to budget a "free" landfill pickup, once a year, for all residents, something that works very well at preventing wanton dumping down the backroads, etc., and serves to contain the debris in the landfill.
Of course it doesn't prevent the excessive accumulation of noxious trash in the first place, which will require politicians with backbone to stand up to the manufacturers' lobby groups who have successfully repealed attempts to hold them more responsible for their waste products. But, for an excellent overview of "Zero Waste" solutions I recommend the latest issue of "Alternatives" magazine, published by the University of Waterloo. (see alternativesjournal.ca/)
On the manufacturing side, I think nanotechnology has lots of promise to improve product durability, but so does William McDonoughs' concept of "cradle to cradle", that is, designing biologically-appropriate materials in the first place. You can learn more at: mcdonough.com/
- cheers, Michael Maser
Fiat lux
6 years ago
The plastic sea and surface pollution are the Newtonian, equal reactions caused by energy inputs.
There's no free lunch and every so called benefit brings equal demands for payments.
Pollution is the payment for wealth creation.
Now I'm waiting for the faithful to come back with "do you lefties want to go back to the Stone Ages?" "......horse and buggies" etc. snippets of ideological wisdoms.
Ed Deak.
ModernSerf
6 years ago
I have read 'Cradle to Cradle' and could not agree more.
Stories like this make me embarassed to be human.
Thanks for the link to Alternatives Michael, might I recommend 'Natural Capitalism' as an excellent read on related topics.
BZA
6 years ago
I remeber swimming past a blue plastic glove at 3rd Beach in Stanley Park. What a disgusting species we are sometimes, this definitely needs more attention. Great article.
anarcho
6 years ago
Frank Zappa sang about the dangers of Platic People back in '66. Well, now we have a Plastic World as well. Everywhere I have travelled in the world over the past 20 years, I have seen a shocking accumulation of plastic trash. Not just the beaches, lakes and rivers but also fields and forests, blown in from the roadways or from illicit trash dumpings. And to top it all off, biodegradable plastic could have been used all along , were in not for the GD petro-chemical industry. Remember folks, the first plastics were made from cellulose (wood) and casein, a milk product. They broke down in time. Thank you Great Corporate God for smothering the world in your plastic rubbish!
Truman Green
6 years ago
Good warning about waste plastics, but plastics might actually be even more dangerous while they are in conventional use. Many contain substances such as bisphenol A which has recently been found to be an aneugen, a substance that causes aneuploidy (irregularity in chromosome number) and therefore birth defects and cancers.
Very strange how regular science hasn't officially identified aneuploidy as a major factor in cancer yet, but it's all over the web.
Plastics also contain estrogen-mimickers which are believed to cause cancer, especially in women--if they cause an imbalance in estrogen levels--not to mention, male frogs and fish being born without the regular complement of male sexual characteristics, and are thought to be responsibile for wiping out male fish completely in some habitats.
So while we're worrying about the trash, it might be advisable to use as little of the stuff as possible and especially as packages and wraps for food.
Because chromosome alterations are the hallmarks of speciation, plastics might actually be found to be the engine of evolution, instead of natural selection, so look forward to seeing a new line of humanoids coming on line in a few thousand years.
Logjam 603
6 years ago
and so we waste billions of dollaras pursuing the eco-religion of Kyoto, so that a naturally occuring planetary activity called climate change can be "stopped" - yes Humans have some impact but it is trivial v compared to MN.
Meanwhile real pollution problems increase becasue all the funds for the environment are sacrificed as waste at Kyoto's alter - the proxy icon for lowering consumption.
The left is now complaining about what it has cause . . . .
Jack's
6 years ago
Very sobering to read Paul Watson's article.
Jacques Cousteau observed and reported many ocean atrocities before he died. A statement he made which always stuck in my mind was.... "The ocean has lost the ability to cleanse itself".
We are not only poisoning with plastic products. I imagine there are approximately 200 cruise ships in service world-wide. Each one flushes its "gray water" directly into the ocean. Gray water is the soapy water from showers, dishwashers, laundry and other types of washing. When one considers the population of a cruise ship averages over 3000 people (passengers and crew), one can estimate the amount of polution. Probably some also occasionally dump raw sewage at night.
The Georgia Strait shoreline, especially from Vancouver Island side, shows a soapy residue.
When we poision our oceans we poison ourselves.
Bobb999
6 years ago
Right Truman. Plastics pose health risks as
sources of toxins humans typically consume.
Apparently heat in particular, acts to release carcinogenic toxins from plastics. Therefore, I urge everyone to consider doing what I recently began doing: avoiding putting hot food or drinks into plastic containers. Use ceramic or wait for stuff to cool! Also, non-stick cookware apparently releases toxins when heated.
Toss that Teflon!
jwstewart
6 years ago
Plastics ? Hell, untold numbers of 20-foot and 53-foot shipping containers simply fall off of container ships each year in bad weather, or due to careless loading. I recall reading the annual number was into the thousands.
These things contain tonnes of fun stuff. Worse yet, they are sealed well enough to float for a long time and endanger everything smaller than a cruise ship.
Semi-trailer sized floating debris. Only on this planet.
Logjam 603
6 years ago
US Beats Canada in Cutting Pollution
Despite stupidly signing Canada onto the useless Kyoto Treaty, the Liberals failed to do anything meaningful to reduce pollution and harmful emissions. The United States, under the Presidency of Haliburton-loving-oil-sheik-warmonger-George W. Bush, cut emissions substantially more than Canada under the Clean Air Act which mandates lower levels of emissions.
"U.S. manufacturing facilities cut their releases of toxics by 21 per cent between 1998 and 2003, while Canadian manufacturers cut releases by 10 per cent."(CTV News)
"Average air pollution releases per facility were about 20 per cent higher in Canada than the United States, possibly reflecting the fact that the U.S. has legally binding air quality regulations under its Clean Air Act, while Canada has no equivalent legislation." (CTV News)
So could it be that market solutions do work better than government mandated ones? Can it be that market forces can encourage better action on pollution than socialist policies?
freebear
6 years ago
Logjam 603posted: "and so we waste billions of dollaras pursuing the eco-religion of Kyoto, so that a naturally occuring planetary activity called climate change can be "stopped" - yes Humans have some impact but it is trivial v compared to MN.
Meanwhile real pollution problems increase becasue all the funds for the environment are sacrificed as waste at Kyoto's alter - the proxy icon for lowering consumption.
The left is now complaining about what it has cause . . ."
It is all about consumption! We are consuming ourselves, and the planet, to death!
Free market! Right! Free to dump your refuse!
Frankly, I seldom read these types of stories/articles because its just more of the same, and 'we' continue to do nothing, and recycling means dick if the company making the product wants to sell XX% next year.
Maybe if a Prime Minister or Premier or Corporate CEO was swimming and some plastic waste lodged in his or her windpipe, or something to that affect, will we have political incentive to do what is right - now -as opposed to later after we confirm that indeed there is a problem!
freebear
6 years ago
So said by the Captain of a ship that requires oil. If he was sailing around saving the planet on a wind powered boat with a solar power electric motor I may have more faith in his work and the future of this planet.
I am one who would surely like to be a globe travelling educator, doing the right thing but I can't afford it!
No one is willing to pay me to do the right thing and my head aches from many years rying to do and teach the right thing.
Why does David Suzuki never speak of the global population increase and the threat, among others like over consumption at the expense of the Planet?
How many kids did Suzuki father? Five I am told.
Me, none at 45 yrs old! I suppose I have done my part in not creating more consumers!
Right to Bear
6 years ago
Hey Freebear, I almost always agree with you and I do consider you a brother, but when you said, "So said by the Captain of a ship that requires oil. If he was sailing around saving the planet on a wind powered boat with a solar power electric motor I may have more faith in his work and the future of this planet".
I would like to suggest that the people who care about the health of the Earth, and all her creatures may never have a physically "clean house" so to speak. We all have enviromental "blood" on our hands, but it cannot, and should not keep us from attempting to improve on the condition of the Earth.
I guess what I am suggesting my friend, is we do not "earn" the right to speak by providing a "clean house" for all to see...No, we would neve be able to speak... We simply love and care enough to help and be reponsible to our sphere of influence. Good people with good intentions will eventually address issues of the obvious because of their ethical will to do so... Don't worry about it, but do appreciate the efforts of people like PW to improve on a sad and heinious situation that so few seem to be willing or able to touch in this way.
Today, in our world, we need everyone to come to the table who care, and I mean really care about the treatment of the Earth. EVERYONE has gifts, talents and skills. In the spirit of gratitude and love we meet, and journey on the same path. We are all of one heart...
Peace man,
RTB
IAMC
6 years ago
We , in Canada, shouldn't even be a part of a global war on global warming.
We are a HUUUUUUGE mass of land, with very few people living in it.
I know that's hard to accept for some, but it's true. The largest amount of pollution can be named on nature itself, if you believe the whole carbon thing. We have a surplus in nature.
I will say, though, that regardless of where we live, we have a responsibility to Mother Nature to be as prudent as we can be to limit our needs to a reasonable level.
Avicenna
6 years ago
Funny how the harper's harpoons are big on every war except the only one that will actually save lives instead of take them. This matter of plastic proliferation has been a sore point I've tried to tackle - at least at the local level. I sat as one of the members of the public monitering committee of solid waste management for the GVRD - and plastic and politics go hand in hand (no surprise I'm sure). I wanted to figure out why we don't have a local polystyrene recycling depot (there is actually only one in Canda - in Ontario - see http://www.cpra-canada.com/resources.htm for more info) - polystyrene is the flimsy, light plastic which is massive in volume but light in weight. The bottom line came down to a lack of gov't policies for product stewardship for such plastics, and a lack of a "post-recycle" market of the end product of recycled polystyrene. Obviously, there can't be a market for this product if there it has a severely limited production. In reality, there really is no need to bring NEW plastic into the way-stream - if all that is out there right now is recycled - it can be reused for the same purpose continually. Of course, this doesn't sit well with the oil industry which supply the raw materials for the Plastics Industry. If people were educated (instead of mute herds with blinders on and ears plugged) and they demanded that the local waste managers (who use tax payers money to manage waste in the best interest of the people they work for) ensure that we have a polystyrene recycling depot as part of our recycling program and we move towards zero waste and a reduction on our need and reliance of crude oil - it would solve a lot of our problems. Get educated and get involved - and you're guaranteed to see things move in a better direction. (Next up to bat - a local biodiesel refinery...)
Colin
6 years ago
These things contain tonnes of fun stuff. Worse yet, they are sealed well enough to float for a long time and endanger everything smaller than a cruise ship.
Semi-trailer sized floating debris. Only on this planet.
Actually it does get tracked as much as possible and if found the insurance companies are ordered to clean them up and remove them. The people in Friendly Cove did benefit from a container of high grade lumber that washed up near their community, some were hired to help remove the container and the wood was salvaged.
the last I heard on the ship was that a salvage crew was looking at rescuing the ship.
freebear
6 years ago
Right To Bear stated:
"I would like to suggest that the people who care about the health of the Earth, and all her creatures may never have a physically "clean house" so to speak. We all have enviromental "blood" on our hands, but it cannot, and should not keep us from attempting to improve on the condition of the Earth."
I know, but (yes but) I am not in a mood to continualy bang my head against a wall of 'free market', 'captialism', 'limitless growth', 'consumption advocacy' and so on.
I am tired of being 'Debbie Downer' (Sta. Nite Live character).
Right to Bear
6 years ago
Freebear said: "I know, but (yes but) I am not in a mood to continualy bang my head against a wall of 'free market', 'captialism', 'limitless growth', 'consumption advocacy' and so on".
Hey Freebear... I understand your frustration, but expand on this a wee bit, would you.
Thanks. Oh and Hey, did you know if we combined our names we would have Right to have a Free Bear... Sound good for the bears to me eh...ha.
Peace.
RTB
freebear
6 years ago
Hey Right To Bear:
Expanding..... Regardless of which government is in place, the plan appears to be more of the same. No extraordinary vision; just more of the same. We still plan and design on the assumption that we will still drive from A to B.
Many people tell me they do not watch the news because it is too depressing. Many do not want to speak about climate change, peak oil, declining fish stocks, affordable housing, the homeless, and so on. Look how many citizens turn out to a public meeting on planning in any city/town. Many seem to assume that oil will be cheap and last forever, especially when we 'discover' new technology. Why do 'we' still pursue space travel when the spacehip we are currently travelling on is being abused!
Even when I worked for environmnetal organizations, a lot of the effort was to raise money to ensure the Director(s), Office Manager(s) and so on maintain their salary and careers. I think there should be 'turnover' to bring new energy and ideas/solutions. I would love to see an ENGO e.g. Suzuki Foundation or WCWC, Sirra Club, etc. buy a building to be the office and also be a home for staff; who would be there for a period of time doing work in their community Guerrilla Gardening, traffic calming, cycling, energy retrofitting, planning and designing better neighborhoods, city and so on. After five years a new group of persons reppaces the previous, and so on. An 'organic' ENGO that lives, dies and is reborn again.
Check and see how long some have worked at one organization. Many think it is a career, sure activism and getting involved is a life long calling (we need more people doing it everyday!)
Of course it doesn't help that I do not have a partner to help weather the 'growth at all costs' 'discount the environment' crowd!
Ultimately, it seems that only crisis brings action and change. So for now I want a break and I will await the crisis(es)
Right to Bear
6 years ago
Hey freebear,
First I want to say, thank you for your frankness, and honesty my friend. I too, often feel the same frustrations as you with life, and on earth issues.
You said, "Regardless of which government is in place, the plan appears to be more of the same".
I agree, there is no political party to address all my concerns...ie. I want forests logged sustainably only. This means, no old growth logging and no clearcuts, but then, I see I trade off grizzly bears or rights of FN people. Not a good trade to be sure. Solution... no, but for now I stay "left".
I think though freebear, education of the public has helped to put the obvious urgency of earth issues, in their faces more than ever before. No,not even close to enough yet, but those who care, cannot ever give up. Yeah...rest, but never give up dude.
I love the idea of ENGO's and other groups being examples to their community of how to live sustainably and with the health of the Earth in mind. We all get caught up in "saving the forests, that we forget about the trees". We need to to respond globally, but maintain as "clean-a-house" as possible locally at the same time. Most of my enviro friends live this way, but all the same freebear, good point.
"Ultimately, it seems that only crisis brings action and change. So for now I want a break and I will await the crisis(es)".
Maybe it will be a crisis freebear, I know many who feel the same. I do not know. Sometimes though, being 'still' and letting the issue(s) that stirs you, find you. Do not even try...
Just a follow up freebear. Paul Watson, I believe, is attempting to make something(s) very wrong, right. Ask him one day what the "price" is he is willing to pay to do this. I do not know him, and I am not him, but, he might just reply, if need be, his life.
What price are we willing to pay to help heal the earth freebear...? Just a thought...
Peace brother
RTB
IAMC
6 years ago
The best way to live sustainably is to commit suicide, go ahead.
That is really what these kooks want, everyone dead.
Right to Bear
6 years ago
IAMC:- "The best way to live sustainably is to commit suicide, go ahead. That is really what these kooks want, everyone dead".
IAMC, are you commenting in relation to my previous post??
Who are the "kooks" you are referring to dude??
RTB
anarcho
6 years ago
"The best way to live sustainably is to commit suicide, go ahead."
Ah, the old false dichotomy fallacy. Could there not be a middle path between death by environmental destruction and "sustainablre suicde"?
Right to Bear
6 years ago
anarcho said: "Could there not be a middle path between death by environmental destruction and "sustainablre suicde"?
Yeah, no sheet anarcho, I agree.
I am still trying to figure out though if IAMC was saying something thoughtful and intelligent (of which case, he will need to explain his comments), or if he was really commenting as though he was a fully-fledged idiot... I will wait to hear from him...(fingers nails tapping...).
RTB
RickW
6 years ago
IAMC likely thinks a coral reef is some sort of tropical drink:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_reef
or maybe something to smoke......
G West
6 years ago
IAMC posted: 1 Day Ago
I've been away for a couple of weeks.
Nice to find some things never change.
I've been waiting for you to sum up your 'philosophy' of life in one short succinct aphorism for some time - thanks for finally spelling out what you really believe. For certain people, given their attitudes toward their fellow human beings and the world around us all - you do have a point. A point dripping with the kind of irony you are clearly incapable of appreciating.
Right to Bear
6 years ago
G West said: "I've been waiting for you to sum up your 'philosophy' of life in one short succinct aphorism for some time - thanks for finally spelling out what you really believe".
Yeah, I guess G West. Well said. IAMC so far did not come back and defend his post. He is looking like a "full fledged idiot" with a nasty, chilly, philosopy of life. Ironic from our perspective, but quite a cold intention from his.
Nice you are back G West...
Peace
RTB
G West
6 years ago
Cheers, RTB. Cold indeed.
IAMC
6 years ago
I have no doubt, that if some pandemic came around, and wiped out the entire human population, that whatever the Global Warming thing, or Climate Change, would not change one bit.
The warming of the sun, volcanoes, Boreal forest and all the other factors that we have no control over, would continue to affect changes to our climate, whatever they are.
G West
6 years ago
Like I said IAMC, your post reveals an irony you are incapable of understanding, let alone appreciating.
You may well be living testimony to the old adage that ignorance is bliss.
IAMC
6 years ago
You can't pretend to understand the climate. I can't pretend to understand the irony G West purports.
I just claim that human beings activities are a negligible influence on ' Global Warming and ' Climate Change "
But go ahead and try to hang your burka on that if you want to.
G West
6 years ago
IAMC
That's not surprising; considering the fact that your posts are celebrated for their ignorance and inconsistency. You really should stop it; you're giving neo-conservatism an even worse reputation than it has earned on its own.
This is what you said and what I was referring to:
I'm not surprised you'd want to disavow such a statement. It’s tough when you’re always out of your depth isn’t it?
You can't 'claim' anything unless you actually know something.
IAMC
6 years ago
I kmow lots. More than Bill Wilson. There is no human threat to the enviroment. That is why I decry the Burka crowd, and their ideas of making us all more poor.
Am I likely to support your effort to further advance dark values, that attempt to destroy our way of life, at anyone but your expense.
G West
6 years ago
You know nothing. The 'burka' crowd, as you so crudely call them, has no designs on your financial well-being and this is a thread about the environment and how badly we humans have degraded it.
TO pretend that there is no human threat to the environment is to prove the point even more definitively than the other nonsense you posted and which I quoted just above.
The sad thing about you is that you don't even know what is in your own self interest.
You are merely a hoplite whose crucial duties require little or no tactical skill; you just continue pushing forward trying to keep the line together in the legion of an Empire which has no knowledge you even exist.
IAMC
6 years ago
Human beings influence on the destiny of the planet, earth, is in my mind insignifigent. You are way out of line suggesting otherwise.
Wipe us all out ( like you would really like to do ) and nothing would change, as far as the earth is concerned.
Now where is that irony thing G West was talking about?
G West
6 years ago
IAMC
You are hopeless. That you might actually have something in your 'mind' is just another irony. It is not my job to explain such things to you. Someone who would suggest I want to wipe anyone out is so far beyond the pale that it beggars the imagination. That’s exactly the kind of thing that makes you look so utterly foolish.
Where do you come up with these ideas? In addition, with whom do you think you've been trading comments? The man in the moon?
I posted your own words, my guess is that you don't even remember having written them. If you think the actions of human beings upon this planet is insignificant you are not even worthy of service as a hoplite in Harper's army.
Evidently, those schools in Alberta never quite finished the job. At least your ignorance can't be blamed on the BC school system!
You poor klutz, you don't even know what the word 'irony' means, do you?
Right to Bear
6 years ago
G West Said: "Someone who would suggest I want to wipe anyone out is so far beyond the pale that it beggars the imagination".
You held the fort as I thought you would have G West...honorably, truthfully, thoughtfully, and kindly. Peace G. Hope you get some rest soon...
IAMC, read this comment of G West, and then search your heart. Your comments are cold, and unloving. Is this how you conduct your life everyday, all day?? Sad if it is.
Yes, so far, in some ways we are less important than algae, but I believe that puts the enphasis on us to not abuse the earth, but work towards a harmony with her, and discovering our purpose. Polluting the oceans and heating the earth is not it. What is it...? We are here...why??
James Lovelock said : "We might then have looked upon the Earth as if it were alive, and known that we cannot pollute the air or use the Earth's skin - its forest and ocean ecosystems - as a mere source of products to feed ourselves and furnish our homes. We would have felt instinctively that those ecosystems must be left untouched because they were part of the living Earth".
We are impacting the earth destructively IAMC... This is a fact. Believe now or believe it later, but eventually you will believe it...
Maybe one day your title will mean IAMCONCERNED, instead of IAMCORRUPTED
Peace
RTB
freebear
6 years ago
Hey RTB:
Just a response to your post a while back:
"What price are we willing to pay to help heal the earth freebear...? Just a thought..."
I would be willing to do so much with less; work together; share; learn; grow food; sustainably harvest plants, protein and materials; and so on.
Unfortunately for me the price I am paying is my sanity as it seems so few people want to "to do so much with less; work together; share; learn; grow food; sustainably harvest plants, protein and materials; and so on."
Peace (of mind) to you to. My other sacrifice is not procreating (admittedly the lack of an interested partner had something to do with this!).
Cheers,
Right to Bear
6 years ago
Hey freebear...!!
Nice to hear from you my friend...
You said:"I would be willing to do so much with less; work together; share; learn; grow food; sustainably harvest plants, protein and materials; and so on".
So cool freebear, and very well put. Yeah, we sure do live in an attachment focused, materially inclined society, laced in artifical thrills, and shallow desires. I feel exactly as you do on what I could and would like to bring my existence up to in spirit, and down to in extravagence. Thank you for speaking "my" mind, and sharing your thoughts of "sacrifice".
I think in the future there will be more people searching to do much the same. This may or may not be by choice...
Peace my friend :-D
RTB
Clear Cut
6 years ago
Because these issues have such far-reaching consequences, I think it's important to use the precautionary principle.
We simply can't take the risk of being environmentally-responsible because it might mean modifying our current way of life. And I don't think any sane person is willing to do this.
Can you even imagine a world without the conveniences of single occupant vehicle commuting or two-stroke engine leaf blowers?
Who would bother to eat if our Papa Burgers, Egg McMuffins or jars of Cheez Whiz were taken away from us?
How about the pride of ownership that only comes from purchasing plastic Chinese-made consumer goods?
Let's think this through before some eco zealots have us driving around in hybrid cars, eating asymetrical fruits and vegetables devoid of the aesthetic nourishment of cosmetic pesticides, or depriving responsible oil companies of their deserved profits.
Right to Bear
6 years ago
Hey Clear Cut,
How are things...?? Are you serious, or is your tongue firmly planted in your cheek??
Clear this up for me, will you...Thanks.
RTB
Fish-counter
6 years ago
Right. Lots of talk about everything but the subject in hand. Typical Tyee Tirade.
Plastics are absolutely essential to our way of life. There used to be "no substitute" for whale oil. Well, now there is no substitute for plastics.
Many of the items we use daily could not be made by any other means, for example bottles made from PETE (polyethylene terephthalate). Do you remember the exploding glass bottle problem years ago? Maybe you are not old enough to remember, but people were seriously injured because the 2-litre glass pop bottles exploded. Whether anyone needs pop, or a 2-litre bottle - those are questions for another day, but the fact is that the plastic pop bottle is as indispensible as it is disposable.
Styrofoam cups are just terrible for the environment, so why do we continue to use them? Ban them outright. No argument.
Plastics have been misused, without doubt. Urea-formaldehyde foam insulation was a terrible idea that should never have been adopted. (As a bureaucratic bungle, it compares with the use of aluminum wiring). The resin breaks down releasing carcinogenic formaldehyde vapour. This is known to any half-decent polymer chemist, but the bureaucrats in Ottawa do not take advice from professionals in the field beause they are ignorant.
The use of plastic piping for domestic water is an equally bad idea. PVC contains dioctyl phthalate, a plasticiser which is also a pseudoestrogen and probably a carcinogen.
Hikers who buy those soft, polyethylene backpacks for carrying water are buying trouble. You can taste the leachate in water that has been stored in them for more than a few minutes. Throw them away, now.
Consider the market for "bottled water". The PETE bottles used for packaging are invaluable as refillable water bottles. They are much better than the heavy coloured plastic Nalgene bottles in every way, yet the PETE bottles are tossed by the million, every day, after a single use. I reuse them for months.
The bottled water market is itself a good example of an artificially created market for dumb people. Some of the water is worse than tap. It is a big con game of course and the end product is the waste plastic.
I don't have the solution to the plastics problem. It won't go away because there is a market for plastics, and they do the job extremely well in most ways.
As a fisheries technician, I pick up my own share of waste plastic from the streams and river, but I pick up more aliuminum beer car cans and glass bottles. Both are equally indestructible, and there is a century's worth at the bottom of the oceans. As a chemist, with a Master's in polymer science, I understand the problem of plastics better than most. The problem isn't just with the plastic, it is with the people who use it, then toss it.
By the way, all plastics are degradable with sufficient time and exposure to sunlight. They depolymerise or break down into crumbs. The plastics on the ocean surface will eventually degrade, once we plug the source. This is a serious problem but not a doomsday scenario.
Bob Rogers
6 years ago
I thought we were talking about Plastic Pollutin.
IAMC
6 years ago
Fish-counter
Good points, I am glad to see thoughtful, logical arguments.
The extreme, and unthoughtful are more than willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
G West
6 years ago
IAMC
What are you talking about?
Fish-counter isn't making an argument at all - he's pointing out the source of the problem - stupid, thoughtless and careless people. Since many of our citizens, you among them, seem to qualify as part of that group we still, obviously, have a real problem with plactics and their improper disposal and proliferation.
Thus, where's the hope? YOU are the extremist because you haven't enough sense to recognize the complexity and intractability of the problem. You'd rather strap on those Panglossian glasses of yours and stumble on into a rosy-hued future while the world degrades around you. How pitiful!
Right to Bear
6 years ago
Fish-counter said: "The problem isn't just with the plastic, it is with the people who use it, then toss it".
Thanks for you post Fish-counter. Very interesting, and amen to the quote above.
Peace
RTB
Right to Bear
6 years ago
G West said: "You'd rather strap on those Panglossian glasses of yours and stumble on into a rosy-hued future while the world degrades around you. How pitiful!
"Pitiful" indeed G.
Peace man
RTB
Phude
6 years ago
Hey RTB, I am sure that what Clear Cut had to say was with his tongue FIRMLY planted in cheek. He was simply being ironic. His irony was with purpose as opposed to that of IAMC.
How can the deaths of millions of fish, birds, whales, dolfins and turtles to name a few NOT be a human caused threat to the environment.
IAMC, you are a simplistic fool.
Right to Bear
6 years ago
Hey Phude,
Thanks my friend.
After I wrote for 15 minutes a rebut to CC, I realized this has to be meant in irony... I mean, only IAMC would ever say such a thing as his truth and perspective, then attempt to defend it in his blurry confusion... I think I need to stand back a little when I read some posts. Anyways, thanks.
As to you Clear Cut... Right on, and thanks for posting the ridiculous in a excellent attempt to communicate the REAL truth relative to the pathetic state of the human heart...
For the sake of the Earth, I hope things improve soon...
Peace to you Clear Cut, and Phude,
RTB
dave49
6 years ago
Grim stuff! We saw such huge accumulations of plastic waste on the Olympic Peninsula's ShiShi beach about ten years ago. We are spoiling our home and basis for survival in so many ways.
About twenty years ago I attended a lecture where the speaker noted that a number of economic theories competed before Keynesian theory won out, essentially reducing management of the economy to dealing with aggregate demand. Apparently one of the competing theories was a biological one, that included inputs of materials, energy and water and outputs of waste and pollutants. Where would we be now if we had adopted such a model?
Yes, you can read about the theory of resource economics and scarcity, but 'free' markets are reactive and short-sighted, excluding any true notion of limits on resources.
I heard this parable in an ecology class:
A pond contains water lillies which double the area they cover each day. The pond will be covered in 30 days. When is it half full? The 29th day!!. So, if the problem only get on your radar when the pond is half-full, you only have one day to respond.
What kind of a world will we leave for our childen?
Right to Bear
6 years ago
dave49 said:"What kind of a world will we leave for our childen"?
Good question dave49. How to bridge the gap between what we want to leave our kids, and our actions??
Certainly a good start is the admittal of failure (as we are doing right now) when it comes to our generations contribution towards the health of our Earth. We need to PERSONALLY feel Her pain and then teach our children to PERSONALLY feel Her pain as well. This, I believe will lead us all towards helping to heal our Earth...
This is a quote from freebear in an earlier post. It speaks for itself...Awesome.
freebear said: "Hey RTB:
Just a response to your post a while back:
"What price are we willing to pay to help heal the earth freebear...? Just a thought..."
I would be willing to do so much with less; work together; share; learn; grow food; sustainably harvest plants, protein and materials; and so on".
Thanks for your awareness and caring heart dave49.
Peace
RTB
G West
6 years ago
dave49
Watch for Ed Deak's posts - he always titles them Fiat Lux - for more on real economic models than this sociopathology we call an economic system today.
freebear
6 years ago
Thanks Dave 49 for:
"I heard this parable in an ecology class:
A pond contains water lillies which double the area they cover each day. The pond will be covered in 30 days. When is it half full? The 29th day!!. So, if the problem only get on your radar when the pond is half-full, you only have one day to respond."
It is an good way to describe how everything is going. I was watching a newsworld story on Canada;s arctic and the information they are gathering regarding sea ice, monitoring decreases and duration, so that they can tell when global warming is happening. To me when 'they' finally agree/admit it is happening, it will be too late (the last day of the 30).
Unfortunately, though I am thankful that I have not produced any children. Of course that does not make me a wonderful Uncle (2 nephews and 1 niece) as I cannot pretend to be deluded in my thinking that TECHNOLOGY and the FREE Market will come to the planet's rescue.
Some technology may help adapt to an ever changing collection of ecosystems, and some may escape to Mars (if you have the $), though I doubt it. Besides even if Mars was colonized I am sure (in general) humans would be idiots there too!
freebear
6 years ago
Also thanks for 'speaking up' on the side of the planet! So few seem to; its has encouraged me to keep speaking.
Except of course to IAMC!
I love a debate, and can respect those with other views, except when the other views choose to ignore physcial and biological systems and that there are indeed limits inherent with being just one of millions of organisms on this planet.
I know I will keep trying to look after spaceship Earth!
Right to Bear
6 years ago
freebear said: "I know I will keep trying to look after spaceship Earth"!
So will I brother bear...peace.
I recieved so much from all the posters, including IAMC because IAMC showed me another example of what "it" looks like to be uncaring and lack love for the Earth. Thanks freebear, G West, dave49, Phude, Clear Cut, and all the other caring posters on this thread...Peace.
RTB
yourleader
6 years ago
Can we not just find a way to collect all this shit floating around, compact it into a dense cube, put that large cube in a large metal storage container and put that storage container into outer space via a space shuttle???
Right to Bear
6 years ago
Sure, why not...It is the best solution so far. We clearly NEED to stop contributing to it in the first place too "yourleader"...
Peace
RTB
Alcibiades
6 years ago
A little late for Tyee readers, but promising none the less, Niall Ferguson has a piece in today's Los Angeles Times called The Coming Tsunami of Trash. You can find it here, although you may have to register (free) to see it:
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-oe-ferguson07aug07,1,1293855,print.column?coll=la-news-columns
Right to Bear
6 years ago
Thanks for the site Alcibiades...excellent.
RTB