Say 169 - Nov. 5, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

1.5 pounds

673.6 pounds total

I am very excited to share the inauguration of CRAPOLA ISLANDS - a place so remote - growing so steadily - "A PLACE SO QUIET AND SERENE YOU CAN LITERALLY HEAR A WHALE CHOKING." - become a citizen today!
Tonight was about extricating tiny-f-ing-pieces of plastic wrappers like the one above from the high tide line. Excuse the slightly out of focus photo complete with partial finger blur in the bottom, but I just HAD to show you what I was up against....

This was a very interesting post on GRIST that was forwarded to me today:

"Another problem may be how we as a nation address fossil-fuel-fired climate impacts on our public seas -- such as acidification, loss of Arctic sea ice, and sea-level rise -- when climate-change denial has become an ideological rather than science-based issue for many Republican office holders. More than half of Tea Party supporters believe global warming poses no problem, while 85 percent of the general public thinks it does, according to a recent New York Times/CBS poll. Not coincidentally, many of the key groups backing Tea Party candidates, such as Americans for Prosperity, are also funded by the oil industry."

Part One of a story from Stuart Moody of Green Sangha in the SF Bay Area about asking someone to dispose of a cigarette butt: (it's a good mood-elevating-kind of story)

One afternoon, I was standing at the bus pad on Highway 101 at Rowland Blvd. in Novato. A man at the stop was smoking a cigarette, speaking on a mobile phone. He finished the cigarette, dropped it to the ground, and put it out under his shoe. He was not speaking English on the phone, so I didn't know whether he would understand me. But I approached him and said, "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I recently learned that cigarette filters are not biodegradable. They wash down the gutter into the bay and ocean, and sometimes birds or fish will eat them and it hurts them. If we could throw the filters in the trash can after putting them out, then we could save those animals." He looked at me for a moment. Then he said, "Thank you for your information." I thanked him, and walked away. A moment later, he picked up the cigarette butt and carried it to the trash can.