Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Day 267 - March 13, 2012


lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
trash collected for 20 min. 
2 pounds 
979.2 pounds total 


For my last 100 20 min. cleanups, I'm counting the number of cigarette butts I find to help my friend Danielle who writes, It Starts With Me collect comparative data from a beach that bans smoking, Santa Monica, and the local beaches that allow smoking in her Wrightsville Beach, N.C. community. 

cleanup #3 - 17 cigarette butts
total number - 40

Danielle collected over 400 in one 20 min. cleanup the other day. The numbers speak for themselves. 

Los Angeles Bag Ban update - 

From Environement CA - "Next week, a committee is convening to decide whether to move forward on the proposed bag ban that would cover all of L.A. This would be huge. If they make the right decision next week, we could see a bag ban pass through the City Council before the end of the month.

As you can imagine, with the stakes this high, the American Chemistry Council and out-of-state oil and chemical 
companies like Exxon and Dupont are spending big bucks to try to block what could be a historic win for our ocean.
The opposition is ruthless, and well-funded. But we’re right — and thanks to you, we’re hundreds of thousands of people strong.
 

With your help, we can win the biggest victory yet for our ocean." 



It's been a year since the devastating tsunami in Japan. 
This short, thoughtful post from BEACHEDART  in Germany made me take another moment to think of all the people and animals that have been affected by the tragedy. 




There's a new documentry coming out called, "PLASTIC OCEANS." Here's the trailer on Vimeo. I don't agree with a few of their points of view. Let me know what you think. 




2 comments:

  1. Covers some key points. Est. 80% from plastic in ocean came from land. Dangerous chemicals in the plastic-now in food supply. Enhanced recyling could help. However seems to leave one with a feeling that we can go on using single use and lg amts of plastic and solve problem with technology-"vaccuming the ocean" and through recycling. Would like to see more emphasis on "using less".

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  2. Bernia - I couldn't have said it any better. Thank you. Those were my impressions and I'll add the "plastic-2-petrol" argument is disturbing. We need to ween off of petrol by developing markets for cleaner energy. The assumption that we could simply turn plastic milk bottles to gas is oversimplified and dangerous to spread. With carbon emissions changing the ph of the ocean, I personally would like this section cut from the film. Also - I've seen a gyre - you can't clean it up. And yes, reduce and what about refuse before recycle? thanks for sharing your insites.
    Sara

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