This is so awful!

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!!
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Slraep, Caitlin and All,

I totally agree and feel sick and also guilty. We sometimes like to think we are green but we rarely go far enough, especially after seeing and reading this post and the links.

Slraep, you said we can do something with money. Not saying I have much of a bank account, but what and how? I have no children and spoke to my husband recently about who to leave whatever we have too. I told him I did not want to leave anything to relatives as I felt they didn't deserve anything. That I either wanted to leave our house, land and belongings to a family I know of but have never met with 4 kids, 2 of which need a little extra help or to something like the Gorilla Funds or split between the two. He agreed to my request and this is also another worthy cause - Our seas, sealife and birdlife and all the life it effects. But is there a way and how much is ripped off by the fund supervisors. There are just so many scams with donation funds, so many rip offs.

Is there anything "we" as a collective group do now? apart from cleaning up our own back yards by not using plastics we don't really have to - such as our computers, CDs list goes on. We can try not to buy anything in plastic but that is not always possible.

Still feel like throwing up after seeing those poor animals and the horror of those seas.

Slraep can you put that Reef link up again. It is not working for me. Is it working for others????

Bodecia
 
> Is there anything "we" as a collective group do now? apart from cleaning up our own back yards by not using plastics we don't really have to - such as our computers, CDs list goes on. We can try not to buy anything in plastic but that is not always possible. <

Write! Write! Write!

Organizing letter campaigns and boycotting stores within your community gets attention.

Target the stores that use plastic and styrofoam (Have you seen Jamba Juice's cups??! This is supposed to be 'health-motivated' specialty store- why don't they care about the environment?).

Walmart is especially interested in keeping a good public profile, so calling attention to their practice of only offering plastic bags will eventually hurt them. We do have the power to change entire cities: San Fransisco and Santa Monica are just a few examples of recent change.

There are some plastic products that are just unavoidable, and yes, plastic has fostered some amazing developments in technology, but we should make a hard and committed push to force many companies to package their products in an environmentally responsible manner.
 
Bodecia said:
Slraep, you said we can do something with money.
........

Slraep can you put that Reef link up again. It is not working for me. Is it working for others????

Bodecia
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Hi Bodecia,

By doing something with our dollar, I don't mean to tell people where they should donate money to, or to whom their finances should go after they pass away. These two things are highly personal choices and I commend you on your research into non-profit organizations. Lots of them mismanage funds, that is true. I just mean that every time we go into a commerce in order to buy something, we have the power to CHOOSE. To choose wisely! To ask questions about the product! To fork over our dollar for what we think is ecologically sound(or to a good degree)! They are making plastic mock-ups of Inuit inukshuks and plastic resin exotic corals and shells that are being sold in a mega-mall close to my home(not too close, thank God). Gross. I'd rather decorate with a piece of driftwood! That non-essential plastic crap is the kind of stuff to shun. Also asking questions like---do I really need this? And---is this real food?---are good starters. There have been many books published lately about all kind of subjects that deal with the quality of goods(or lack of) and big business. Also the quality of our food and big business. It is up to each individual, what they will tolerate in terms of acceptability. A criteria should be in place. But I cannot ask anyone to follow my own criteria because I am very, very critical. I've had a lot of practice! A lot of stuff I couldn't live without 25 years ago or so, I find to be garbage and unacceptable now. So just let your conscience guide you.

Here is the link again. I think it is the same. It just takes a while to load if you don't have a superfast internet connection.

http://news.theage.com.au/reef-coral-expert-fears-ocean-acidifying/20080305-1x30.html



Hi Ashley,

Lordy, those styrofoam cups! I want to snatch those out of people's hands so bad. But I can't. I can only tell people that when you pour a hot liquid into styrofoam, it melts a little and you get some nice "styrene" added to your beverage. Styrene is a suspected(if not known)human carcinogen. Yummy. Just what you want to start your day! That should get people shunning styrofoam, even if you don't care that styrofoam is mostly un-recyclable.

Jamba Juice is weird. In places like Santa Cruz where there is a ban on polystyrene, they comply. But in places where there is no ban, they still use styrofoam cups. This is good example of how, if we use our dollar(non-buying power) and our voice(in the manager's ear) and our writing power, we can force them to eventually change things around!

Slraep
 
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Thanks Slraep for clarifying exactly what you meant. Yes we can all do that, all of us. Luckily we don't have WalMart here, ugg yet. Have heard rumours of them trying to take-over one of our supermarket giants but if they do I will never buy from them. They are a really bad lot.

I think it may be the little everyday things we do and buy that will help if help we can. What we all need to do is to stop and think before making any purchases as we rush around doing our shopping.

Bodecia
 
Bodecia said:
I think it may be the little everyday things we do and buy that will help if help we can. What we all need to do is to stop and think before making any purchases as we rush around doing our shopping.

Bodecia
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You got it Bodecia! Feel the power now?
 
the thing is this garbage is not really from North America, we are pretty good about recycling and at least throw our plastic in the dump.

Its the developing nations(C. America, S. America, Africa, India, China etc.) that treat the ocean as their dumpster.

Also freighters and cruise ships are to blame as they dump tons and tons of garbage and waste in our oceans.

I have spent a lot of time fishing the waters of Belize and when I fish the south of belize near Honduras it is amazing how much more garbage you see in the water. The belizeans are good about dumping, Honduras still has a way to go.

And we wonder why our oceans are dying :mad:
 
>Also freighters and cruise ships are to blame as they dump tons and tons of garbage and waste in our oceans.<

You have no idea! As much fun as I had working the cruise ship trade in Alaska, you could literally see the effects of those boats making the water cumulatively worse- murkier and murkier... it's because those great, big, beautiful boats void their raw and treated sewage directly into the pristine northern ocean waters!!! :eek::eek::eek: One of the most beautiful places on earth, and what does Princess do? They $%^*&( all over it. :mad:
 
Connecticut lawmakers are proposing a deposit on water bottles so that they'll be recycled like soda bottles and cans are now.
 
They've raised the prices in California up to 5cents per plastic bottle and 10cents for glass (I believe), recently read a story in the Times noting that recycling is WAY up to do that itty bitty increase :D
 
I agree ...but there is a solution to the mess. Just as an example: Mexico has great laws regarding environmental protection...but these are just a joke because what we really need is LAW ENFORCEMENT. If you don't have the Police to go after the Eco-Terrorists then it is a joke. Recycling? Only the 3 largest cities in Mexico have adequate recycling facilities (Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey) and it is good...they have some 40 million inhabitants in those 3 cities alone, but: what about the other 60 million people??? Most companies think it is not economically interesting.

If only we had people with enough money and concerned about our future, then they could open up more recycling facilities and we could help keep this planet clean. You can barely see Aluminum cans in Mexico...because recyclers pay for them!!! If we had someone paying for PET bottles (and other plastics), batteries, electronics (yes, many computers, printers, monitors and other peripherals are full of pollutants) then we could make an impact.

If people invested in the correct companies, these would be able to have the funds needed to grow and expand. Why invest your money only in a "safe solution" (the one that will give you a higher $$$ return) when you could invest in a "Green Solution" (yes, less money...but a cleaner future). After all, money can't give you clean air to breathe, nor clean water to bathe and drink.

Just my 2 cents...
 
It scares me what will happen to the rat and mouse population with all those cats gone.

I live out in country and had a real mouse and pack rat problem. I used to hear them running around in the attic. It was like thay were mocking me(HaHa, you can't catch me. I know all about those traps!)

That is, until I started feeding the feral cats outside (we have 2 indoor cats, too) The feral cats come and go- (a few times we caught one and had it spayed) but they have created a mouse free zone around our house.

when you could invest in a "Green Solution" (yes, less money...but a cleaner future). After all, money can't give you clean air to breathe, nor clean water to bathe and drink.
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I think there are megafortunes to be made in recycling-given the correct impetus.
 
I can only think that 'safe' investing will only be safe for a limited timespan- the world is going green; investing in alternative technologies can only be seen as the smart thing to do really...
 
Caitlin said:
It scares me what will happen to the rat and mouse population with all those cats gone.
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Yes-- they are in for a rough ride. Did no one there think of the rodent infestation that will result?? And possibly plague, carried by the fleas on the rats.
 
It's amazing, though, often "green" solutions can make good business sense! If I remember correctly (I read about this a while ago), a furniture company hired an environmental consultant to try to come up with something few in the industry thought possible: upholstery fabric dyed without harmful chemicals. Apparently, the dyes they used were very toxic - the company was in Switzerland, and the chemicals were so bad the Swiss authorities would not allow the scraps of leftover fabric to be burned or buried on Swiss soil (why the furniture itself was okay, I have no idea), so the waste was exported to countries with more lax environmental laws.

The environmental consultant went to many, many chemical companies and only one was willing to give it a try. They looked at thousands of chemicals used in the dyeing process, and came up with only a few that satisfied their criteria - but these few were considered "safe enough to eat." They were able to come up with all colors except black. Get this, when the Swiss authorities came to test the water coming out of the plant, they thought their testers were broken - the water coming out was just water, cleaner than the water going in! They were able to make the scraps into felt that the farmers could use to protect their crops. Overall, I think they lowered their costs by 20% (safer factory, cleaner process, reusable scraps - no need to export, etc.).

I wonder what other "impossible" things are . . . possible!

Caitlin, thanks for starting this thread - an important topic!

Perle
 
Slraep said:
Hi Perle,

All of them.

Slraep
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Think of the CO2 Bonds issued by the European Community...if there where "Plastic Bonds", some people could start their own Recycling Entreprises.
 
Caitlin said:
I live out in country and had a real mouse and pack rat problem. I used to hear them running around in the attic. It was like thay were mocking me(HaHa, you can't catch me. I know all about those traps!)

That is, until I started feeding the feral cats outside (we have 2 indoor cats, too) The feral cats come and go- (a few times we caught one and had it spayed) but they have created a mouse free zone around our house.
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I had a deer mouse as a pet for a while last year. Found him stealing cat food and packing it in between the wires on the exterior back of the new "high tech" refrigerator we bought not long before that. I have three cats roaming around the house. You'd think a little mouse wouldn't stand a chance, eh? Anyway, it was the dead of winter and I couldn't just toss poor squeaky outside. The dude(oh, you can tell all right) was quite tame. I caught him only because he stood there staring at me and wouldn't back down. Man, those were SOME tension filled moments, I tell you. I just put a vase I had in my hand(how handy) right over him. Deer mice have the biggest, cutest ears!

We have wild rabbits, ground hogs and little field mice running around everywhere here in the summer. In winter the mice like to make noises in the walls at night and drive the cats crazy. Yah, traps, forget about those. My husband almost lost it one day after the mice outsmarted his super-dooper fool-proof humane mouse trap. He used a fancy raw cow's milk blue cheese from Tasmania; and Serra de Estrela, a sheep's milk cheese from Portugal, as the bait too. Of course, the cheese disappeared ...but...

Slraep
 
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