Captain Charles Moore on David Letterman 3/15/10

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I was not able to watch this last night (fell asleep) but woke up this morning and found it on You Tube.

I wanted to share it with you all.

Captain, Charles Moore, was the first to navigate through the plastic mess in the Pacific Gyre (Plastic Garbage Patch).

Listen in as he talks about how plastic is affecting our oceans, soil,  and sea life.

Sorry it ended where it did… “plastic is a lubricant of globalization….”

anyway…

I enjoyed watching most of the interview. Hope you did too!

If you watched last night and know how Captian, Charles Moore summed up his interview…

do tell! 

Update!

Catch the full version here!!!! ( thanks, Beth!)

Remember…

refuse plastic!

Coastal Cleanup Day

A friendly reminder that you have one more day to register and be part of the action!

September 19th, 2009 is the

24th annual International Coastal Cleanup Day…

“Last year’s Cleanup, nearly 400,000 volunteers collected more than 6.8 million pounds of trash in 100 countries and 42 US states — the largest volunteer effort of its kind.

The Cleanup is crucial in determining  the impact ocean trash has on wildlife and how it correlates with global warming. Each year the report is compelling:

Of the 43 items tracked during the Cleanup, the top three items of trash found in 2008 were cigarette butts, plastic bags, and food wrappers/containers.

Get out there if you can this year and help. Be part of the largest volunteer effort…

There is a possibility that we may be attending the event in Ventura…but it’s not set in stone. If you can’t get involved this year, remember that it falls on the 3rd Saturday of each September!!

Will definitely keep you posted.  Have a great weekend! 

Will YOU be volunteering to cleanup?

Dump the Boxes, Wrappers, Cans and Containers but Not on the Path

Post written by by Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, The Veggie Queen™ The Veggie Queen is a monthly RYD contributor.

Today while I was walking my dog on a path next to a creek, I came across a wrapper for a Snickers bar. Ugh, I thought, more processed food. Did you know that processed food accounts for 77% of the sodium you eat, according to my friend and fellow Registered Dietitian, Jeffrey Novick, MS, RD?

Therefore, getting rid of the boxes, wrappers, cans and containers is a good idea for both the environment and your health. I suggest buying as many whole foods in bulk as you can for the environment and for your health.

I know two young women, Liat and Jenna, who have made a conscious effort to reduce their use of packaged items. They discovered that at the end of the week they greatly reduced the amount of trash they generated. Additionally, they cooked most days and ate much more healthfully.

It amazes me that one can buy brown rice fully cooked in a shelf-stable package or in 2-pound containers in the freezer. Did you know that you could make extra rice when you cook and freeze it? The same is true for beans and even fresh vegetables when you have abundance. (You do have to blanch most vegetables by giving them a quick dunk in boiling water.) This makes purchasing frozen foods unnecessary.

And, all this leads me back to my morning walk. As the walk was almost over I found a plastic wrapper from a pastry, and once again, it made me think about the necessity of dumping the packaged goods if we want to have many more good days here on Earth. Just don’t leave them on my path. Happy Earth Day.

Wouldn’t it be cool if: Cigarette Edition

Editor’s note: This guest post is from the EcoInsomniac who’s goal is to spread knowledge, entertain, educate and inspire you to green your life.

The USDA estimates that 360,000,000,000 cigarettes were consumed in the United States alone in 2007.  That is an absolutely staggering number to even think about. It actually comes out to just under 100 cigarettes per person per year.  Now there is absolutely no way to know how many of these cigarettes being consumed are ending up as litter, but estimates have been around 30%.  I hope that percentage is on the high end, but I’ve seen a whole lot of smokers flinging their butts to the floor.

Did you know?
Many people believe that the filter in the butt of a cigarette is made from cotton and are biodegradable.  Those people are wrong the filter material is actually made using a form of plastic called cellulose acetate and takes up to 10 years to degrade.

Cool Solution:
The coolest and only real solution would be to get everyone who smokes to quit, but that’s not likely to happen anytime soon. Anyway, since that isn’t happening we need ways to dispose of cigarettes and maybe even clean up those that do become litter faster.

Cool Ideas:
Cigarette manufacturers could embed small rings or strips of metal in the butt of each cigarette This would greatly increase the productivity of those who care enough to keep the ground clean by allowing magnetic pick up sticks or plates to be used instead of tongs or hands. This would also decrease how unsanitary it is to be picking up other peoples cigarette butts.

Cigarette manufacturers could find a way to use recycled and biodegradable filter materials in their cigarettes. This may not help those cigarettes that end up landing on pavement, but could have a better outcome for those that land in the grass or dirt. Would also be a good bonus to the recycling business which isn’t doing so well in the US at the moment.

I think permanent filters or mouth pieces could be an option. Smokers could buy the mouth piece and the “refill” smoke packs separately. This would mean after they’re done smoking there would be essentially no waste to throw on the ground or into the landfill.

Crazy Factoid:
In 2007, The Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup picked up 1,971,551 cigarette/cigarette butts along coastal beaches world wide. Cigarettes, cigar tips and tobacco packaging accounted for 38% of all litter the volunteers picked up.

Those are just a few ideas that I think are worth looking at. I know they’re not the end all to the problem, but they could lessen the impact that the litter has on our planet. Do you have any ideas? We’d love to hear them.

Garage Sale, Yard Smchell-Take Down Your Signs Pls.!

Lately, I’ve been noticing every post in my town with at least one, two or even several garage sale signs. I know it’s the season for spring cleaning so naturally there’s going to be yard sales. I understand that. Clearing out the clutter is no fun task and having a garage sale is as time consuming. It’s a great bargain time for us frugal shoppers, too…BUT a general rule of thumb is AFTER your sale- the signs are taken down and collected. Well, it seems as though that rule of thumb as gone out the window. The new signs are overcrowded by the outdated signs. It’s so overwhelming, that trying to even figure out where the actual yard sale is can be a rather challenging. A car wreck is bound to happen with the rubbernecking you have to do to catch a date, let alone an address!

Advertising your garage sale by making colorful signs other than paying for an add in the paper is fine! As long as you plan on taking down the signs afterwards. It’s outright littering and rude to leave the signs up after the sale. C,mon folks, take down your signs, pls.! There’s no excuse for it. Last week, we happened to notice a sign going up in front of our home. The same sign had been up for a week, until this morning when the neighbor decided that she was tired at looking at it too and tore it down. I walked outside to thank her…because the eye sore was starting to get to me too! It the RESPONSIBILITY of the homeowner having the sale to take down their signs! NOT THE NEIGHBORS! It not the winds responsibility to rip it off and carry it out to the desert either!! I’m not sure what it is…but just because living in the desert means lots of wide open empty land doesn’t mean we need to fill it up with trash.

Native plants and animals are affected by our littering. Keeping your community or in my case, the desert clean and free of trash allows for furture generations (plants, animals and humans) to enjoy the area! We seem to have a lot of dumping out here too. In my opinion, that’s just as bad! In broad day light, we’ve seen people dumping their trash in the desert- piles of electrical wire, sofas, tires, green scraps that couldn’t be taken to the local dump, and the list goes on! The community I live in host’s an annual clean up and yesterday, the boyscouts rounded up 3 large bins of trash including 84 bags of litter! So, needless to say, there is progress being made! Go Boyscout Troop 599!! If more people were conscience of what they throw out and had more respect for our planet; less trash would end up in our precious deserts, lakes, forests, beaches, and communities!

And- dumping in the desert or anywhere else for that matter besides your local Waste Management facility is illegal! Pay attention for community clean up days that allow patrons to bring trash/waste to a selected site at no cost! Or, get some friends, neighbors and loved ones to pitch in on a trash load and keep the cost low! You never know who else might be delaying a trip to the local dump. It’s worth asking. Bottomline, if you’re planning to have a garage sale- remember to keep your eco-thinking cap on and take down your signs, pls.! Remember, Give a hoot! Don’t pollute!!!!! You don’t want to be called a litterbug, do you?