Oh my God.

[bunny]

Not long ago I used to dismiss stuff like this as sensationalist environmental hippie douchery. But, seriously? This is scary.

http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/health-fitness/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we_2_print er.shtml

It began with a line of plastic bags ghosting the surface, followed by an ugly tangle of junk: nets and ropes and bottles, motor-oil jugs and cracked bath toys, a mangled tarp. Tires. A traffic cone. Moore could not believe his eyes. Out here in this desolate place, the water was a stew of plastic crap. It was as though someone had taken the pristine seascape of his youth and swapped it for a landfill.

How did all the plastic end up here? How did this trash tsunami begin? What did it mean? If the questions seemed overwhelming, Moore would soon learn that the answers were even more so, and that his discovery had dire implications for human—and planetary—health. As Alguita glided through the area that scientists now refer to as the “Eastern Garbage Patch,” Moore realized that the trail of plastic went on for hundreds of miles. Depressed and stunned, he sailed for a week through bobbing, toxic debris trapped in a purgatory of circling currents. To his horror, he had stumbled across the 21st-century Leviathan. It had no head, no tail. Just an endless body.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y285/va5majora/sea-turtle-deformed_1.jpg

[fionkell]

Jesus H Christ, that poor turtle. The bird pic struck me the most though.
http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/uploads/1/dead_bird_1.jpg

The ocean is a big place and our greatest mistake is thinking that its size is greater than its capacity with all this rubbish that ends up in it.
Generally nothing is manufactured to last, and we end up throwing it out even before it has outlived its use, and uncaring we assume that once it's out of sight it's not going to pose a hazard. Driving along the freeway recently I noticed the enless lineup of plastic bags, bottles, and cans standing to attention at the side of the road. If it's always been ingrained into us at school and through advertisments that littering is bad and recycling is good, what is going on here?


Thanks for sharing that article.

[Sonaj]

Thanks for the interesting read.
Those are things that need to be known and talked about much more.

[Zaknafain]

:nohope:

[Jens]

wow that is bad..

[Mungus]

"...and God wept"

I was watching David Attenboroughs recent episodes on human impact, and the more I think about it, we really deserve to be extinct, - we are the most toxic, greedy, shameless parasites to ever exist

if anyone's feeling super-pro-active to change some of their habits there's always good tips to be had from these guys....
http://www.greenguide.co.uk/?q=taxonomy_menu/8/233/130

I'm heading over to the cheer me up thread, I'll see u there :)

[Jens]

funny thing is, nature doesn't care about extinction.. there is life were life is possible.. animals don't start media campaigns when their habitat is ruined, they either die or adjust.. A garbage belt has a natural fauna and flora just as well, there is enough food there, bacteria, insects, rats, mice, birds, foxes. Pigeons thrive in cities like they have never done before in forests. It's just survival of the fittest

we are not fucking nature, we are fucking ourselves.

[Shadowwing]

It is really sad. Our world is dying, and we are dying along with it. The change began with the first humans, and many animals had gone extinct because of us. Mammoths and many animals were hunted to extinction by men, and the destruction has accelerated in the last few centuries because of our technology and numbers. So what can we do about it? Not much. We have almost 7 billion souls living on this world, and growing exponentially by the second. All of us are vying for survival, for the "prize", which is, the one who dies with the most toys wins. The only way for us to survive and coexist with life on the world is if we all work together, as a unity. Which will never happen. Can you tell a poor farmer in South America or Africa that he is endangering us all by clearing the rainforests to make room for his scrawny cattle to eat? He gotta make a living somehow. And can you tell a greedy corporate fisherman to stop using trawling nets that damage coral reefs? He'll say that he doesn't care, and he needs the money.
I find it impossible to be a good environmentalist, with the way the world is. Everything I buy comes packaged in plastic and foam, and my mailbox is induated with tons of junk mail. My workplace and stores are so far away that it is necessary to drive. The city doesn't have good bus or monorail system. It is not because that I am not a good environmentalist, it is because the whole world works against me. I could recycle, but millions do not. I could plant trees, but millions of corporate are clearing forests for subdivisons. I could save a little birdie by providing it a nest and feeder, but millions of birds are being exterminated. It is a losing battle. If we all suddenly stopped and worked together, it would still be impossible to repair the damage and go back to where we are. We are doomed.

(sorry for being so...pessimistic)

[Mungus]

I can understand your despair, but this is where you can test your mettle. Try not to think of solving a global situation, just work at your day-to-day situation for yourself. Make sensible choices, what do you really need to sustain yourself.
I know it's hard, and the last thing I want is people to feel like they're guilt tripping (I mean we didn't proliferate the excesses of the baby boomer generation, we were born into it) but now that we've enjoyed the luxury of being raised in an affluent society, maybe we've got some spare energy to evaluate our real needs, and make some adjustments.
You'd be surprised at how easy you'd adapt to a bit of thrift.

I hate the packaging that you get with everything (and yeah, it's mostly for store shelf impact than protection), the government could easily put a heavy tariff on unnecessary use of materials, I would imagine marketing departments just dismiss it as a another case of someone elses problem, out of sight out of mind.

I'm guilty of not making as many ethical choices as I should've done over the years, - "If I'm not a part of the solution I'm a part of the problem."

[HunterKiller_]

funny thing is, nature doesn't care about extinction.. there is life were life is possible.. animals don't start media campaigns when their habitat is ruined, they either die or adjust.. A garbage belt has a natural fauna and flora just as well, there is enough food there, bacteria, insects, rats, mice, birds, foxes. Pigeons thrive in cities like they have never done before in forests. It's just survival of the fittest

we are not fucking nature, we are fucking ourselves.

Good point. I guess we could say 'Nature can bend to man's will, but man cannot.'

[bunny]

I can understand your despair, but this is where you can test your mettle. Try not to think of solving a global situation, just work at your day-to-day situation for yourself. Make sensible choices, what do you really need to sustain yourself.
I know it's hard, and the last thing I want is people to feel like they're guilt tripping (I mean we didn't proliferate the excesses of the baby boomer generation, we were born into it) but now that we've enjoyed the luxury of being raised in an affluent society, maybe we've got some spare energy to evaluate our real needs, and make some adjustments.
You'd be surprised at how easy you'd adapt to a bit of thrift.

Oh I hear you. I'm not trying to convince people to join greenpeace or anything, I just found the article a bit disturbing.

I grew up with hand-me-downs and organic food, because my parents are hippies.

[Ilaekae]

"Not long ago I used to dismiss stuff like this as sensationalist environmental hippie douchery."

To be perfectly honest ...(coming from someone who was called a sensationalist commie hippy environmentalist douchebag forty years ago for bringing up this same problem...), don't you think your very first sentence points out the greatest problem we have as a species?

Just how hard and often do we have to be hit in the fuckin' face before we get it?

[CGMonkey]

HAHA I LAUGH AT YOU PUNY HUMANS.. saying stuff that "our world is dying" is tantalizing to mockery! We are such a pathetic egoistic race. We as humans are a dying species, the world, is not. Even though half-life might be great, we do not possess anything that can kill mother earth.

I am of pure heart. I recycle, I do not use excessive energy (although it is hard in our fucked up society) and I do try to minimize the environment damage by buying glas over plastic etc. I love the nature and as such I will be very happy once we are consumed and decayed into the womb we once came.

[Zord]

HAHA I LAUGH AT YOU PUNY HUMANS.. saying stuff that "our world is dying" is tantalizing to mockery! We are such a pathetic egoistic race. We as humans are a dying species, the world, is not. Even though half-life might be great, we do not possess anything that can kill mother earth.

I am of pure heart. I recycle, I do not use excessive energy (although it is hard in our fucked up society) and I do try to minimize the environment damage by buying glas over plastic etc. I love the nature and as such I will be very happy once we are consumed and decayed into the womb we once came.

Um... wow.


Onto the matter at hand: facing the truth that situations like this exist is the first step. Of course, a single person cannot venture out and alleviate these problems by themselves. But all of us can be more aware of what you use/buy, waste less energy, re-use whenever possible, and recycle. For example, turning off light switches when you're not using them and utilizing public transportation or riding in a carpool. I'm not advocating turning your room or house into a giant recycling bin or going full blown organic-everything, rather take small steps to helping the situation, even if it's just a little bit. This can steer the problem towards positive change. :wink:

[Blue]

Wow that turtle is just... wow.

[paradoxba]

Thats sick,in a sad way.

[rblitz7]

holy shit! so I guess it got caught when it was a baby and just grew like that with it on. I kind of doubt that happens a lot, probably an extreme case.

[Seedling]

Thank you for sharing this article, bunny. I shared it with the whole company here today, and I'm going to switch to using cloth grocery bags.