Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Day114 - April 21, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
trash collected for 20 minutes
4.4 pounds
453.9 pounds total
I arrived to a 57 degree, windy beach thinking that there wouldn't be that much trash to collect tonight. Hey, there wasn't much out there anyway, just me, a runner or two, and a couple of gulls. I was wrong, there was plenty of trash....Most of it plastic, actually can't think of anything that I picked up today that wasn't made of plastic.
Which leads me to this picture. This picture is only funny - in a horrible kind of way - if you are an environmentalist. This picture was shot in a Sacramento Staples store when I traveled with Team Marine to our capital for Ocean's Day where they were honored with an Ocean Hero award. Check out their blog for more details. I have a post to come about it too!

Also - Lisa Boyle of the Plastic Pollution Coalition has written an interesting post on their blog about a panel that was held in Santa Monica a few weeks back called, The Politics of Plastic.
The only thing tough enough to withstand the windy weather on the beach? Plastic bits and pieces...

Sarah Newman wrote a piece for the Huffington Post called Ten Anti-Plastic Heroes.

I was so excited to see myself listed with Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish, The Green Bag Lady and Jordan Howard of Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale, among others. Thanks Sarah!

Read more from Sarah on the Huffington Post, or on Take Part and follow her on twitter.

Team Marine has an incredible 13 min. short documentary called, "10 R's"
watch it here - or - here

Press Release by Team Marine member Valerie Wacker and Teacher Mentor Benjamin Kay


After over 500 hours of filming, editing, and reviewing four years of student photos and videos, Santa Monica High School’s Team Marine completed their biggest project of the year, a 14-minute, science-based documentary - “The 10 R’s” - highlighting the global plastic
marine debris crisis and ten sustainable solutions (the 10 R’s) to our single-use plastic addiction, and in general, to our negative human foot-print. Current issues covered in the film include plastic ingestion by organisms, entanglement, benthic smothering, the adsorption and release of toxic chemicals, biological magnification, loss of tourism, and corporate irresponsibility.