Day 153 - Sept. 13, 2010

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.2 pounds

623.8 total

The world's heaviest Sumo wrestler, Yokozuna, was 620 pounds. He passed away in 2000.
Who's read, or seen, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? This is NOT the golden ticket. It is a Werther's Original candy wrapper. For the last two days I have seen these strewn across the beach, and even in my local park where I walk my dogs. This park is only 25 blocks from the beach. I find this curious, and well -- frustrating.

Right after I spotted the golden candy wrapper, I saw a sea gull pecking at the empty cigarette pack above. I chased him away, which is the only time I chase sea gulls, and grabbed the pack.
I have taken this shot about half a dozen times this summer. But I thought I would take it again to drive home the point that an empty single use plastic water bottle is such a common occurrence that someone who only spends twenty minutes on the beach will find one nearly every time.
This sign seems to really absolve the city of their responsibility to keep our water clean and free from polluted run-off. Which reminds me, a host of organizations like Surfrider and Heal the Bay will be holding a press conference at Surfrider beach on Thurs. to show support to finally ban septic tanks in the area that have been draining POO into the BU for decades. If you can't make it out in person on Thurs., you can sign Surfrider's petition online here. Heal the Bay also has a petition to ban septics. Sign both!
I may have only collected 1.2 pounds of trash. But this weight included two plastic bags poised to enter the ocean. Each bag weighs approximately 1 ounce. However it does a world of damage once in the water.
Above is bag number 2, which I found right after bag number 1. Within 100 feet of each other.
I love sea gulls. In my opinion, they are an under appreciated bird. I've taken lots of photographs of them during my collections for The Daily Ocean.

I will be showing many of those images at the 3rd annual fundraiser for our local green organization, Sustainable Works which is being held at the Writer's Boot Camp in Bergamont Station here in Santa Monica.

Lots of yummy food from Urth Cafe, a comedian host for the evening, and a slew of silent auction items you won't want to miss. Oh, and did I mention a bar? Here's the scoop on tickets.

Day 144 - August 29, 2010

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

4.9 pounds

593.6 pounds total
Sustainable Works is an incredible organization with their offices at Santa Monica College: in their own words...

"Sustainable Works is a non-profit environmental education organization and a project of Community Partners. Our mission is to foster a culture of sustainability in cities, colleges, and businesses."

They have a fundraiser in a couple of weeks and I have been asked to put up photographs from this blog for it. I am very excited to be a part of this. Here's more information on this "eco-fabulous" event

This is a used diaper nicely wrapped into a tight little bundle, and then left on the beach.

If you are expecting, or have a baby you may have already thought this through: disposable or washable? This is an interesting, and somewhat obvious fact I took from a website debating the pros and cons of both.

"The untreated waste placed in landfills by dirty disposable diapers is also a possible danger to contaminating ground water."

Well what happens when that diaper goes into the ocean instead? Same thing that happens when dog poop gets in there. We have a bacteria laden marine environment that causes humans to get sick with all kinds of wonderful things: skin rashes, flu-like symptoms, ear eye nose and throat infections, gastro-intestinal issues...yummy.

It wasn't even 8:00 yet when I took this photograph. Summer is coming to a close...

Blogger Beach Cleanup - Oct 24

The Blogger Beach Cleanup: An event that we hosted (Siel of greenLAgirl, and myself) as part of 350.org Bill McKibben's project to inspire events on Oct. 24th, International Day of Climate Action to raise awareness about Global Warming and the climate crisis.

120 people signed in, Garen counted 140.

trash collected for 20 min.

estimated pounds of trash collected: 39

green LA girl has extensive coverage of prizes awarded and sponsors that provided us with give aways here.

I have tons of pictures to share below, thanks to my friends Emma and Sophie, that I have posted below along with links to some of the environmental organizations that came out as part of our event.

A special thank you from us to the Green Bag Lady who gave us bags to give to people who showed up for the beach cleanup. Please check out her blog and project. She has given out over 6,500 fabric bags to people who pledge to switch from paper, or plastic, and use fabric!

Fabric that she gets donated to her to create her sustainable bags.
Here is part of the Sustainable Works crew picking out cigarette butts from the sand. Check out their site and see if want to attend one of their workshops that help you get further along the green spectrum from where ever you are right now. Start where you are, smart. Thank you for coming!
My neighbors Fred and Mary. Thank you for coming out and being part of our larger community. They have already contacted me about coming out next week to collect. You can too! Follow me on twitter or look at the upper right hand side of my blog where my twitter feed is posted and you can check when I will be out there next.

I usually tweet what time I will be collecting at the beginning of the day. Join me and I'll add the tally of pounds you collect to the Community Count Challenge. See that tally at the top of my blog.
Jessica Ridenour, editor of lime.com, a big green community with feature articles, blogs, and tons of wonderful, informative, environmental information. Thank you for bringing the family out and collecting trash with us on Sat.
Evan Kopelson from Green Media News is a really well informed website with news articles and videos covering a range of topics from CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), climate change, sustainable business and personal responsibility.

He is also in a video that Eco Vegan Gal put together. View it below.

Thank you Evan for coming and shooting video yourself. And thank you Whitney for taking the time to post this video to youtube and being so cool and supportive. I hope we can all collaborate in the future.

Thank you too to the guys from Green Guys Media. Three friends who:

"The Green Guys will be the catalyst that fuels the public’s knowledge and acceptance of green technologies through outlets ranging from syndicated television programming to non-profit environmental organizations."

So many more people turned out than expected. They brought their families, friends and I think we even pulled a few people in off the bike path and beach. A sincere thank you from us to all of you who participated.
We weighed everyone's collection and then with the help of my friend's son Daniel, we made a huge 350. Daniel's father, Dan, has a really cool blog called the Climate Community. Check it out. He finds people from all over the world doing amazing things to help our environment in many creative and powerful ways.

Thanks to my husband Garen and Siobhan from Heal the Bay for weighing the trash. Siobhan went to three or four events that day, I lost count, talking to people and hauling beach cleanup supplies as she went. I really like what Heal the Bay does. If you don't know about them, check them out here. Thanks for helping us with the cleanup Siobhan!
That's Bryan Koch of Net2LA, a social media expert who started his company to help nonprofits get organized utilizing social media to help them expand their support base.

"Net2LA helps Los Angeles–based nonprofits—and those working toward nonprofit status—actively engage their base and find new supporters through community-empowering technology. We meet every month alternating between educational Support Sessions and partnership-building Happy Hours.

Follow us on Twitter @Net2LA"
Thank you Garen. That's my husband Garen, the man with the clip board. He is a Marine Biology professor at Santa Monica Community College.
As Evan help us his video camera and counted to three, we all screamed 350.org

Siel and I have already made loose plans to do another one as I get closer to completing my 365 days of cleaning my local beach.

Hope you had fun, or if you missed the chance to come, you'll join us for another one.

And lastly, Siel of greenLAgirl really pulled together a community of people that supported the Blogger Beach Cleanup and made it all possible. Thanks Siel!