[Caitlin]

It will impact pearls. And a whole lot more. Why, I see the day when we can just walk from Hawaii to Japan- if you like the smell of garbage!!!!!!
http://www.oskarlewis.com/weblog/archives/5473
I got it from the unio list-serve called CONCH-L, from the U of GA

This article is one of the hardest to read of any I have see. When dead seabirds and other creatures are autopsied, there is a lot of plastic just in their stomachs.

Remember the little penguin in Happy Feet with the 6-pack plastic rings around his neck. Scroll down to see a turtle with a plastic ring around its middle. I guarantee it will break your heart........

[Slraep]

Incredible!!!! Heart wrenching pics!!!

We can no longer deny pollution and dilly-dally with its remedy. Anyone with a bank account can use their money to change the world. Your dollar is MIGHTY! What you decide to spend it on can change our planet!

What a sad sight. I feel sick. That turtle looks so...(can't find the words). What are we doing to the sea and its sea life? Heck, what are we doing to OURSELVES?

Yah, try and culture some pearls in THAT!!


Slraep

[Caitlin]

I am haunted by the turtle........

[Ashley]

Did you two read further into the article? There was a second article attached that had much more scientific information concerning the breakdown (dare I say liquifaction?) of the plastic elements- particularly to do with nurdles. The growth rate of the vortex- or as the article put it: A True Leviathan with no head, no tail, just endless mass... is the truly scary part!

This is just disgusting- I volunteer monthly with Heal The Bay for beach cleanups (I have a pet project that is getting some attention this May with another group that I am quite excited about), and most often I find myself picking up hair-like threads of plastic from bottles and little "pebbles" of styrofoam by the thousands- and that is just in one small square of beach!!!

[Caitlin]

I clicked at the bottom where it said MORE and there was a list of articles that were so depressing, I clicked out. I already have heart problems and this was just too much heartache to face.

I used to hate plastic back in the sixties when my kids were little. I made my own bread and drove 50 miles to Sonoma to get raw milk (in glass bottles) and used a treadle sewing machine to make a lot of clothes (out of natural fibers). For several years my autobiography was a campaign against plastic. I eliminated most of my kids toys.........and on and on.

I tried to eliminate plastic. I found out I could not live without it. Our car had many plastic parts. Our phone was plastic. Our TV and even our records were plastic.

Now I try to eliminate disposable plastic items. I think plastic needs to be treated as a very valuable item and used when nothing else will do. Those cloth grocery bags get rid of masses of once-used disposable grocery bags.

I too, swim in a sea of plastic in spite of my efforts. My computer, the printer, We have to haul our trash to the dump as we live in the country. I separate it, plastic, metal, glass, compost. I compost all food waste. WE have no place to take the plastic, but to the dump. The glass has to go there too, because no one will collect it and recycle it.

Maybe, when we run out of oil, people will mine the giant plastic dumps in the ocean..... It is free for the taking. What can be done with it to recyle it? With oil at $100 a barrel, that day may be sooner than later.

[Ashley]

As the previous article mentioned, the problem with recycling plastic, is that it needs to be coated with more plastic in order to make it safe for use There is no escape... Leviathon is coming and we created it in the name of convenience.

[Caitlin]

Here is a picture of a cow eating plastic in India. There is nothing but plastic in any of the garbage lying in the streets. I saw so many cows eating it, I finally took a picture.....

[Ashley]

India is probably one of the most toxic places in the world; I have heard absolute horror stories about the Gange... The River that is considered to be the embodiment of the Life of India is so polluted that dead bodies routinely float down current along with sewage and industrial waste... it is utter madness.

[Caitlin]

I also found a source (Frontline) that exposes the cruel, disfiguring Indian child labor practices for unraveling silk from the cocoons. The link is in the first post in the Thread Thread. At least it is from 2002 or so. Maybe things have changed a biit since then.

[boo]

I am not nearly as proactive as I ought to be in reducing the amount of plastic I place into the environment, but I have always - since the time I was a young girl - cut up the plastic rings that come with sodas and milk. I saw a similar picture to that of the turtle when I was a child that had a tremendous impact on me.

There is a book called "Archipelago" which is one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. It is full of exquisite photographs of creatures from the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. Sadly, some of those exquisite photos include the corpses of dead albatross chicks that have slowly starved to death because of the mass of plastic in their stomachs (collected and fed to them by their devoted parents, who are unable to distinguish between plastic trash and the life-giving food they have gathered for millennia from the surface of the sea.) I weep every time I read that section of the book. I *highly* recommend the book for anyone who cares about the oceans.

Here is a link to a review that discusses the section I mentioned:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/ar...510260302.html

[Slraep]

Originally Posted by Ashley

There is no escape... Leviathon is coming and we created it in the name of convenience.

Yes, we must love our children and ourselves a whole lot to continuously do the kinds of things that will end up killing us. Actually, that is called "insanity" isn't it?

Slraep

[lisamla]

Those pictures are terrible. I knew garbage dumping in the ocean existed, but I never thought about it just sitting there forming is own island. I read something recently that China has eliminated the distribution of plastic bags less than a certain thickness. I guess thats a step in the right direction, but as some have pointed out, plastic is everywhere.

In Bangkok, it seems most restaurants use glass bottles for soda and water and then, these bottles are reused. I guess that is a good thing. I can't remember ever getting a glass bottle in the US. Except maybe Orangina, some teas or high end water. Unfortunately, I think these products are in the minority of consumed goods.

[Slraep]

In India, there are some volunteer veterinarians that operate on ailing cows. It is almost always because they have pounds of plastic blocking their intestines. In many places in India, flimsy plastic bags are now illegal to use or have in one's possession.

"Plastics are used because they are easy and cheap to make and they can last a long time. Unfortunately these same useful qualities can make plastic a huge pollution problem. Because the plastic is cheap it gets discarded easily and its persistence in the environment can do great harm. Urbanisation has added to the plastic pollution in concentrated form in cities. Plastic thrown on land can enter into drainage lines and chokes them resulting into floods in local areas in cities as experienced in Mumbai, India in 1998. It was claimed in one of the programmes on TV Channel that eating plastic bags results in death of 100 cattles per day in U.P. in India. In stomach of one dead cow, as much as 35 kg of plastic was found. Because plastic does not decompose, and requires high energy ultra-violet light to break down, the amount of plastic waste in our oceans is steadily increasing. More than 90% of the articles found on the sea beaches contained plastic. The plastic rubbish found on beaches near urban areas tends to originate from use on land, such as packaging material used to wrap around other goods. On remote rural beaches the rubbish tends to have come from ships, such as fishing equipment used in the fishing industry. This plastic can affect marine wildlife in two important ways: by entangling creatures, and by being eaten. Turtles are particularly badly affected by plastic pollution, and all seven of the world's turtle species are already either endangered or threatened for a number of reasons. Turtles get entangled in fishing nets, and many sea turtles have been found dead with plastic bags in their stomachs.Turtles mistake floating transperent plastic bags for jellyfish and eat them. In one dead turtle found off Hawaii in the Pacific more than 1000 pieces of plastic were found in the stomach. A recent US report concluded that more than 100000 marine mammals die each year in the world's oceans by eating or becoming entangled in plastic rubbish, and the position is worsening World-wide, 75 marine bird species are known to eat plastic articles. This includes 36 species found off South Africa. A recent study of blue petrel chicks at South Africa's remote Marion Island showed that 90% of chicks examined had plastic in their stomachs apparently fed to them accidentally by their parents. South African seabirds are among the worst affected in the world. Plastics may remain in the stomachs, blocking digestion and possibly causing starvation."

[Casey.R]

Geez, Thats really disturbing. Poor sea animals. Humans have really screwed things up in a big way. Sad sad sad.

[Casey.R]

The big super markets here in San Francisco aren't allowed to use plastic either bags for packaging groceries ( they get a fine if they do). I wish more cities would follow. It's a little tiny positive step in the right direction