Tag(s): ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Add to My Group
May 29, 2007 at 17:08:44

PACIFIC OCEAN PLASTIC STEW ENTERING OUR FOOD SYSTEM

by Allen L Roland     Page 1 of 3 page(s)

http://www.robkall.com


Tell A Friend

See Photo: http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2007/05/29.html

A dead Ocean bird from a dying Pacific Ocean garbage patch that is growing and is now twice the size of Texas ~ and could well be contaminating our food chain : Allen L Roland

This is a must read story for it has dire implications for all human beings and especially mothers and newborn enfants.

This story is a wake up call to the world that we must help and cooperate with one another, especially pursuant to polluting our oceans, if we are to survive as a human species.

Next time you look out at this beautiful Pacific ocean, as I often do, realize that there is a garbage patch of discarded plastic twice the size of Texas a few hundred miles away and its growing ! 

Then we add this stunning announcement last week from The Center for American Progress ~ which should not be a surprise.

ENVIRONMENT / POLLUTERS FLOURISH UNDER THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION: "Environmental enforcement efforts by the U.S. EPA and the Justice Department have plummeted over the last five years, resulting in a 38 percent decline in criminal fines and a 25 percent drop in civil penalties, according to a new report from the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project (EIP)."  

Susan Casey and photographer Gregg Segal will lead you on this journey through a man made hell.

Allen L Roland      http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2007/05/29.html

Our oceans are turning into plastic...are we?

By Susan Casey, Photographs by Gregg Segal May 11, 2007 - 11:45:03 PM

http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/health-fitness/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we_2_printer.shtml

A vast swath of the Pacific, twice the size of Texas, is full of a plastic stew that is entering the food chain. Scientists say these toxins are causing obesity, infertility...and worse.

To Captain Charles Moore Fate can take strange forms, and so perhaps it does not seem unusual that Captain Charles Moore found his life’s purpose in a nightmare.

Unfortunately, he was awake at the time, and 800 miles north of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.

It happened on August 3, 1997, a lovely day, at least in the beginning: Sunny. Little wind. Water the color of sapphires. Moore and the crew of Alguita, his 50-foot aluminum-hulled catamaran, sliced through the sea.

Returning to Southern California from Hawaii after a sailing race, Moore had altered Alguita’s course, veering slightly north. He had the time and the curiosity to try a new route, one that would lead the vessel through the eastern corner of a 10-million-square-mile oval known as the North Pacific subtropical gyre. This was an odd stretch of ocean, a place most boats purposely avoided. For one thing, it was becalmed. "The doldrums," sailors called it, and they steered clear. So did the ocean’s top predators: the tuna, sharks, and other large fish that required livelier waters, flush with prey. The gyre was more like a desert—a slow, deep, clockwise-swirling vortex of air and water caused by a mountain of high-pressure air that lingered above it.

 1  |  2  |  3

 

Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
SAVE THE OCEANS

Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers

www.allenroland.com

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on Conscious talk radio www.conscioustalk.net

Contact Author

Contact Editor

View Other Articles by Author

 

Bookmark this page: (what's this?)

NETSCAPE      DIGG THIS      NEWSVINE      DEl.ICIO.US      Looksmart Furl      My Web      Spurl      Tag!RawSugar      Shadows Tag!      Blink List     (More...)
Comments: Expand   Shrink   Hide  
2 comments

Dave Kisor

Cleaning up our act

Having read this rather disturbing article, it's time to start researching what would be necessary to begin a garbage collection service for our oceans.  The primary concern at the moment is mostly the particles small enough to be ingested by marine life, not only for the marine life itself, but for those who consider them part of their food chain.  I would imagine a larger vessel with a screen mounted on the bow which would pass objects a certain size to be determined by oceanographers and marine biologists, with a conveyor belt leading to a hydraulic press that would generate several hundred tons of pressure to compact the plastic into a large "raft" to either enable it to be towed behind or have it craned off the ship at a continental port and transported to a plastics manufacturing plant.  This is just one potential solution and we need others to get into the mix to provide ideas before the problem worsens (it can only get worse, but you should know what I mean).  Since many good printed articles are missed because people don't want to read them, I would recommend a 3 to 4 minute video on this subject on one of the more popular video sharing sites where friends send links, and from that it could spread like wildfire.  These are only suggestions.  If someone points out a problem of this magnitude, someone else is generally tasked with solving the problem, or at least leading the team.  Today's fresh catch of the day is tuna ala PVC au nurdles.  Bon apatite!

by panthercat (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 10 comments) on Sunday, June 3, 2007 at 11:50:02 PM
 



Teilhard

REPLY

Since many good printed articles are missed because people don't want to read them, I would recommend a 3 to 4 minute video on this subject on one of the more popular video sharing sites where friends send links, and from that it could spread like wildfire. 

I agree ~ This is a story that won't go away and keeps growing~ like that garbage patch in the Pacific.

Allen L Roland

by teilhard (459 articles, 0 quicklinks, 84 comments) on Sunday, June 3, 2007 at 11:56:47 PM
 

 

2 comments

 

Tell A Friend

 


Copyright © OpEdNews, 2002-2007

 

Tags for This Article:

World Issues (173)  Environment-Ecology (137)  Action Alerts (94)  Health (77)  Activism (39)  Activism Environmental (31)  Extinction (16)  Addictions (11)  Endangered Species (9)  Trends- Tipping Points (9)  Images -Photos (8)  Oceans- Rivers- Water Ways (3) 

Populum Tag Cloud
Control Panel
Fine tune your search to access content
All Articles
Diaries
All time
Last 6 mos
Last month
Last week
Last 24 hrs
From:
Month  Day   Year

To:
Month  Day   Year
Alphabet
Popularity
Count ON
Count OFF
This Level
Also Sub-levels