Day 333 - Sept. 20, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

1.5 pounds 

1,261.3 pounds total 

6 cigarettes

There's a cool new site that shares old and new remedies for preventing chronic illness called - 

THE HEALIST - WELLNESS REMIXED

There's a direct connection between a healthy body and a healthy ocean.

Check out their site for interesting video and inspiring content to take better care of your body. 

Health starts with us and spreads to the whole planet. 

I'm almost in countdown mode with 32 beach cleanups to go, but this is not an end to The Daily Ocean. I'm looking at a computer monitor for many more minutes a day than normal in preparation for the next phase. It's bitter-sweet getting closer to my 365th beach cleanup goal. But once I'm done, I'm eager to get off the sand and come meet you during my -

OFF THE SAND AND ON THE ROAD 

speaking tour for schools and businesses. 

Let me know if you'd like me to come to your school, town or business. 

This plastic wrapper held some kind of fast food. 

If we all packed a quick snack from home in a reusable container or grabbed a piece of fruit, we'd buy less products that leave a plastic trace for years and years to come. 

Even if we did this once a week, there'd still be a positive impact for you and the environment. 

Once a week? Really? Come on...

Yes, really!

You may find my point idealistic or even a little silly, but for example - in Santa Monica there are about  90,000 people living here next to the ocean. 

If we all bought one less plastic wrapped snack product a week -

THAT'S OVER 90,000 PIECES OF PLASTIC WRAPPERS THAT COULD POTENTIALLY ENTER THE OCEAN.

Like my friend Danielle often reminds us with her blog IT STARTS WITH ME. 

"Everything we do or don't do has an impact on the world, it starts with me and ripples to you."

Day 332 - Sept. 19, 2012

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min. 

5 pounds

1,259.8 pounds total 

21 cigarette butts

This week I upgraded my operating system on my Mac Desktop. It can't even open Safari on a predictable basis now. I'm so very close to finishing my beach cleanup goal and my trusty computer where I store all my images is acting very strange. I'm backing it all up, but can't sit down to post without major glitches. Why oh why did I want to get iCloud? Everything was running so smoothly just a few days ago. Being the reluctant techie that I am, I didn't read reviews of OS X before downloading that baby onto all my machines are really messing it all up. Sigh. 

An inside look at the trails of maintaining an almost daily blog.

I'm reading NO IMPACT MAN as research for turning The Daily Ocean into a book as well. During his early weeks of his make-no-environmental-impact experiment while living in the middle of NYC with a wife and toddler, he approached a press office at a big environmental organization.

"I told her I was trying to figure out how to live a no-impact life in New York City and that all the information seemed confusing. "Yeah," she said, "we're good at scaring people, but we haven't gotten good yet at telling them what to do." She promised to email me some guidance but never did."

I hope that when you visit The Daily Ocean you get the solutions I offer as well.
Here's one off the top of my head.

1. See too many pictures of the same item on different cleanups again and again? Try using less of this item in your own life. For example - too many water bottles lying in the sand? Go ahead and switch to a reusable one. You'll save money, and drink healthier water. What's good for your wallet is good for the ocean.

Before you get all yeah-yeah-yeah what's that going to do to stop the giant trash vortex in the ocean from growing? 

Change happens through different kinds of applied effort. We need non-profits, legislative lobbying for stronger environmental protection, but we also need you. We need you and me to encourage each other to create healthier lifestyles so that our oceans can get healthier with us. It's a win-win all the way around. We can do it together. Person to person with kindness and inspiration I know we can create a healthier environment for our families, pets, and in turn for our big blue planet.