PACIFIC TV

Earth Day Preview

2014-04-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

Activist and Documentary Filmmaker Veronica Grey, AKA, the Surf Lady, joined us live with details about how 25 percent of the world’s land and ocean area are dedicated to landfills and ocean trash dumps. This segment aired on the KTLA 5 Morning News on April 21, 2014.

Her film Aqua Seafoam Shame is a critically acclaimed documentary with multiple wins which explores the horrific diagnosis that 25% of our planet’s surface is now diagnosed as garbage landfill, due to the pacific garbage patch and plastics. In 20 years our world could end up with no coral reefs – which means our oceans will revert back to the primordial sludge it was before creatures walked on land. What, if anything, can be done to backpedal the Earth from this cataclysmic trajectory? Film is viewable for FREE in its entirety at our website below.

How to salvage the Earth:

1. Get a reverse osmosis water filtration system for your home. Did you know the fluoride in all public tap water systems in America is actually a poison? No over-the-counter water filter filters out fluoride. In fact if you read the box labels it will literally say “does not filter out fluoride.” Fluoride is slowly killing Americans in so many ways because to avoid it, we buy bottled drinks: about 4,000,000 plastic bottles every 5 minutes. The truth is only less than 30% of these bottles ever make it to recycling centers so stop buying drinks in plastic bottles. Drink from your tap through a reverse osmosis water filter system that you can buy online. The one time fee you pay to get it installed will save you money over the long run as well.

2. Carry your own Canvas bag. Thank heavens LA recently instated a plastic bag ban because as a society, we use 10 BILLION plastic bags EVERY week. Again the majority of it is never recycled and when it winds up in the ocean, lots of marine life, specifically over 189 different species, mistake it for food because plastic bags floating look like jellyfish. When they eat the plastic it kills them and often if you eat seafood, you just may be eating plastic yourself nowadays.

3. Don’t flush ANYTHING in the toilet: if it doesn’t come from your body it doesn’t belong in the potty. Keep a trash bin right next to the toilet just for toilet paper and EVERYTHING else.
People don’t realize what you flush, even simple toilet paper, winds up in the ocean which makes our rain which grows our food. Remember that each time you flush!!!!!!!!

4. Support artists who “Strip” down their work. Plastic cd cases and all the styrofoam popcorn in merchandise shipping is atrocious. Research your favorite artists and put your money where your mouth is – support artists with sustainable marketing models like Daniel Ash. He founded the iconic supergroups Bauhaus and Love & Rockets and his current work in progress “Stripped” is community based where fans can go online and actually help him consciously create his new album.

5. Stop using straws!!! These seemingly innocuous “tools” significantly contribute to the 5 giant trash vortexes in the oceans around the world (google “5 gyres”) which are now bigger than the continental United States. People don’t notice straws ’cause they are so small and everywhere – which is exactly the problem. Americans use 50,000,000 straws each and every day JUST ONCE and toss them out. Drink directly from the glass. It’s simply THAT easy. Or buy paper straws.
Veronica Grey
Steward of the Environment
Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker

SOURCE: http://ktla.com/2014/04/21/earth-day-preview/#ixzz2zmGYqC2S

Veronica Grey talks to Duke Fightmaster about Plastic Pollution

2014-02-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

Easy ways to go Green in 2014

2014-01-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

Veronica Gray, the Co-Director of Aqua Seafoam Shame, shares easy ways to go green in 2014.

Hey Jakarta Indonesia !

2013-12-03T12:24:00.000-08:00

Come see our environmental documentary NOW!
"Aqua Seafoam Shame" ~ Thursday December 5th at 10am.

More details here: http://worldfilmawards.org/2013/screenings_schedule_2013.htm

Winner! World Film Awards

2013-11-24T12:47:00.002-08:00

We are pleased to announce that 'Aqua Seafoam Shame' has won the Award of Merit 2013 for best international documentary!

Winner! ~ Aqua Seafoam Shame

2013-08-06T21:34:00.002-07:00

International Film Festival for Peace, Inspiration, and Equality Awards

We are pleased to announce that Aqua Seafoam Shame has won:

Honorable Mention: "Best Director"

Aqua Seafoam Shame Screening in Santa Monica on July 27th

2013-07-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

Awareness Film, Art, & Music Festival

Aqua Seafoam Shame is a critically acclaimed documentary with multiple nominations which explores the horrific diagnosis that 25% of our planet's surface is now garbage landfill, due to the pacific garbage patch and plastics. In 20 years our world could end up with no coral reefs - which means our oceans will revert back to the primordial sludge it was before creatures walked on land. What, if anything, can be done to backpedal the Earth from this cataclysmic trajectory?

SCREENING - 11:30 AM Sat, Jul 27 at Promenade Playhouse, 1404 3rd St Promenade

MORE INFO VISIT : Awareness Festival Website

The Surf Lady debuts "Aqua Seafoam Shame" at Surfer [The Bar]

2013-06-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

WORLD PREMIER of 'Aqua Seafoam Shame' (Directors Cut) in Hawaii

2013-05-30T13:38:00.001-07:00

Surfer [the bar] at Turtle Bay Resort in Hawaii will be screening the official 'Aqua Seafoam Shame - Directors Cut' this Friday May 31, 2013 at 7:30 PM. More information at Surfer [the bar].

90% of the big fish in the sea and 20% of our coral reefs have gone extinct
12% of our land is protected but less than 1% of our oceans are
20 Billion pounds of plastic end up in the seas each year
46,000 pieces of plastic are in every square mile of ocean

One critic hails it as possibly the most important documentary ever made.

Veronica Grey talks about "Ocean Plastics' in Green Living Magazine

2013-05-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

Plastics Invading Our Oceans

BY CHERYL HURD
Surfing conjures up images of free spirits, at one with the ocean, without a care in the world. But for Surf Lady Veronica Grey, it is the world she so desperately cares about.

About a year ago, the waves called to Grey. Although the California actress and filmmaker did not know at the time, the message they carried for her, that day would change her life. She lay belly down on her surfboard and paddled her way to depths beyond the breaking waves, where she would wait for the perfect ride. On this day, the rhythm of stroke meeting ocean was interrupted. She plunged her hand into the water, and then recoiled. Between her fingers dripped a slimy substance.

“I remember the first time I felt it. I was paddling out on my board and noticed a mushy, plastic-like substance sliding through my fingers. It was gross,” she recalled, “and that’s what started my obsession with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

The patch is located between Hawaii and California in the northern Pacific Ocean, where millions of small bits of plastic have gathered in a vortex of ocean currents known as a gyre. There are five of these gyres in our oceans around the world. Grey said that 15 years ago the one in the Pacific was about the size of Texas, and now is estimated to be closer to the size of the United States.

“It’s sort of depressing facing what is really happening to our planet,” she said, explaining that an estimated 25 percent of our planet is now covered with trash.

Since the areas in the oceans where the trash collects are so remote, people tend to not think about it. “It’s a silent, deadly killer and the problem is very scary,” she continued.

Grey, who surfs about twice a week, said while currents and winds may collect the plastics in these gyres, the plastic has infiltrated every part of the ocean. She said scientists estimate there are 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of ocean. She finds plastic around her each time she enters the water.

READ FULL ARTICLE

'Aqua Seafoam Shame' to be Screened at New England Film and Music Festival - April 13th 2013

2013-04-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

The Surf Lady will be appearing at the New England Film and Music Festival for a public screening of her new Environmental Documentary about the Pacific Garbage Patch. Check it out Saturday April 13th 2013 at 1pm in Fairfield Connecticut. Click here for more information.

Aqua Seafoam Shame to be screened at Burning Man 2013

2013-04-03T09:58:00.002-07:00

FREE FILM SCREENING

From the critically acclaimed director of the Burning Man mini-doc "15 Minutes of Flame." This project speaks to the Leave No Trace ethos.

This multi-nominated environmental documentary by 8 year Burner Veteran is available to view for FREE online as well as at a prestigious film festival near you.

Scary stats:

90% of the big fish in the sea and 20% of our coral reefs have gone extinct
12% of our land is protected but less than 1% of our oceans are
20 Billion pounds of plastic end up in the seas each year
46,000 pieces of plastic are in every square mile of ocean

One critic hails it as possibly the most important documentary ever made.

SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/groups/161888443971259/

Aqua Seafoam Shame - Feature Film

2013-01-11T13:49:00.000-08:00

Aqua Seafoam Shame is a documentary which explores the horrific diagnosis that 25% of our planet's surface is now garbage landfill, due to the pacific garbage patch and plastics. According to a 2012 New York Times article, in 20 years our world may no longer have any coral reefs - which means our oceans will revert back to the primordial sludge it was before creatures walked on land. What, if anything, can be done to backpedal the Earth from this cataclysmic trajectory?

AQUA SEAFOAM SHAME ~ Director's Cut

Directed by: iPhone Filmmaker Veronica Grey

The filmmakers could have gone the route of releasing the documentary only through "prestigious film festivals" but this elitist route would have been exactly that. Instead it is decided the message is too important to cater only to red carpet champagne premiers, that as a gift to our Mother Earth, it is hereby released ONLINE in its entirety for FREE to the masses.

Co-directors Kim Chiasson and Veronica Grey have never met in person or even felt the need to speak on the phone - collaborating their labor of love exclusively via email. Kim wears two hats as the editor as well. Along with executive producer Joshua JD Lemmens of Hope Studios.

We humbly present "Aqua Seafoam Shame"

YES that is a Nirvana lyric.

Tsunami Debris Highlights Ocean Garbage Problems

2012-09-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

James Keller, The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012 6:43PM PDT
Last Updated Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012 6:48PM PDT

A paying passenger (bottom) on an ocean garbage patch research cruise.

Photograph courtesy Stiv Wilson, 5gyres.org

RICHMOND, B.C. -- A U.S.-based environmental group is using the ongoing focus about what to do with the floating wreckage from last year's Japanese tsunami to highlight the much larger issue of debris in the world's oceans.

The Ocean Voyages Institute recently completed a trip off the North American coast as it sailed from San Francisco to British Columbia, where it is scheduled to attend a maritime festival in Richmond, south of Vancouver, this weekend.

The group's ship, a 46-metre, twin-masted sailing vessel named the Kaisei, encountered debris from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami roughly 500 kilometres off the coast of Oregon and Washington state, said Mary Crowley, who founded the Ocean Voyages Institute.

Crowley, who wasn't on the ship for the most recent voyage, said the Kaisei found part of a dock and other smaller debris that experts on board believed were swept into the ocean by the tsunami.

She said the tsunami debris poses a significant risk to the Pacific Ocean and the animals that inhabit it, but she noted it pales in comparison to the vast amount of debris -- much of it floating plastic garbage -- already in the world's oceans.

"The tsunami debris adds this whole other element of knowing where it all went into the ocean and where it's going and how it's spreading, but in fact every day, all over the Pacific basin, debris is going into the ocean," Crowley told reporters Wednesday.

"So the tsunami debris shows us graphically what's happening."

Specifically, she pointed to a massive field of floating plastic often referred to as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," which is believed to make up an area roughly the size of Texas.
[ Pacific-TV note: It was the size of Texas, but after the tsunami it's estimated to be the size of the continental U.S. ]

The "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is located between Hawaii and California in the northern Pacific Ocean, where millions of small bits of plastic have gathered in a vortex of ocean currents known as a gyre. Some of the debris from the tsunami is expected to join the garbage patch.

READ MORE : http://bc.ctvnews.ca/tsunami-debris-highlights-ocean-garbage-problem-group-1.908246#ixzz25T4Cul9O

Pacific Garbage Patch a bigger worry than tsunami debris

2012-06-14T21:43:00.000-07:00

Credit: Mario Aguilera / Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Debris from the Japanese tsunami is starting to wash ashore on the U.S. West Coast in a big way.

Beachcombers from Northern California to Alaska are finding fishing floats, soccer balls and ships that have drifted thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean after being dragged to sea by the March 2011 tsunami -- even a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was traced back to a tsunami survivor.

Authorities this week confirmed the largest arrival yet: A 66-foot dock that floated onto a beach near Newport, Ore.

Still, marine scientists say a far bigger problem is the untold amount of everyday garbage swirling in a vast, slow-moving vortex known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. That's the popular name for the vast concentration of debris -- most of it confetti-sized flecks of discarded plastic -- circling endlessly about 1,000 miles off the California coast.

A study released last month found a 100-fold increase in plastic debris in the garbage patch over the past 40 years.

"I'm more concerned about our constant input of trash than I am about these one-time disasters," lead author Miriam Goldstein, a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, told the Los Angeles Times.

"We can’t prevent terrible events like the tsunami, but dumping plastic into the ocean is something we can control and don’t do very well," Goldstein said.

She and other researchers found the upsurge in plastic debris in the middle of the ocean is so dramatic that seafaring insects known as "sea skaters" or "water striders" now use it as a surface to lay eggs, where before they might have used natural pieces of flotsam like feathers, shells and pumice.

That is not to say debris from the tsunami is considered harmless.

A top National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official was grilled by Washington lawmakers last month about how hazardous the debris will be and how it will be cleaned up. Though none of the debris is believed to be radioactive since it was dragged to sea before the nuclear disaster, authorities are concerned about invasive organisms hitching rides on the larger objects.

Oregon State University researchers studying the floating dock that washed ashore this week discovered it was carrying a huge amount of barnacles, starfish, urchins, anemones, mussels, snails and algae from Japan.
All that biological material must be scraped off to prevent the spread of non-native and potentially harmful organisms to the United States.

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/06/great-pacific-garbage-patch-tsunami-debris.html
Author: Tony Barboza
Photo: Tangled net and plastics such as these make up much of the enourmous Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

BREAKING NEWS ~ LA just voted to ban the plastic bag!!

2012-05-23T13:44:00.003-07:00

Ban on plastic bags at L.A. markets is approved

Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation Wednesday to approve a ban on plastic bags at supermarket checkout lines, handing a major victory to clean-water advocates who sought to reduce the amount of trash clogging landfills, the region’s waterways and the ocean.

Egged on by actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus and an array of environmental groups, the City Council voted 13 to 1 to phase out plastic bags over the next 12 months at an estimated 7,500 stores. Councilman Bernard Parks cast the lone no vote.

"Let’s get the message to Sacramento that it’s time to go statewide," said Councilman Ed Reyes, who has focused on efforts to revitalize the Los Angeles River.

READ FULL STORY

Plastic Planet: New Report Focuses on Solutions

2012-04-24T11:41:00.003-07:00

Finally, a report that offers real solutions, as well as documented scientific proof of the threats caused by Plastic Pollution to the environment, humans, wildlife and our economies.


Marine Debris As A Global Environmental Problem.

The report starts off with some humbling and devastating words:

In the remote places on earth with few or no humans present such as here on St. Brandon's islands in the Indian Ocean, one can find substantial quantities of plastic debris.

The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel introduced a new report entitled "Marine Debris as a Global Environmental Problem: Introducing a Solutions Based Framework Focused on Plastic." But despite the somber words of this report there is some encouraging news. Firstly, the report clearly identifies the problem so it can be the focus of solutions: the problem is plastic:

Man-made debris in the oceans is now found from the poles to the equator and from shorelines, estuaries and the sea surface to ocean floor. While the types and absolute quantities vary, it is clear that plastic materials represent the major constituents of this debris, and there is no doubt about the ubiquity of such debris on a truly global scale.

Many talks on the subject of "Marine Debris," especially those funded by industry, have been avoiding discussions about plastics. The most destructive and commonly used materials that makes its way to our shores then out to the oceans and back onto shores around the globe.

Here's where the solutions enter the picture. And you can help with this process too! It's very simple. Stop using disposable plastics. Find alternatives. Demand alternatives. Invent alternatives!! Now that your aware of the problems of plastics you can make better informed choices when shopping.

The report also acknowledges that the companies who produce the VAST amounts of disposable plastics must take part in effective management of the resulting plastic waste. Alot of cities and communities simply cannot afford to maintain a recycling infrastructure and consequently alot of the plastic waste ends up in landfills.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner is quoted in the report with a message he delivered to the 5th International Marine Debris Conference in 2011:

Marine debris -- trash in our oceans -- is a symptom of our throw-away society and our approach to how we use our natural resources. It affects every country and every ocean and shows us in highly visible terms the urgency of shifting towards a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy... However, one community or one country acting in isolation will not be the answer. We need to address marine debris collectively across national boundaries and with the private sector, which has a critical role to play both in reducing the kinds of wastes that can end up in the world's oceans, and through research into new materials. It is by bringing all these players together that we can truly make a difference.

The report also cover several key points recommending strategies to implement solutions, taking into account all kinds of plastic waste and regional capacity to manage the waste. Here are some of the key points:

1. An appropriate starting point is to identify a specific problem in terms of the types of marine debris of concern (e.g., consumer waste, industrial waste, and packaging), including volumes and flows.

2. The next step is to bring together the key players in the supply chain, and organize an evidence-based dialogue aiming at the identification of ways to reduce the accumulation of debris.

3. The next step would be to facilitate the most desirable immediate and long-term options via a range of implementation strategies such as public awareness, development incentives and regulation.

4. Finally, it is crucial to measure success via monitoring of both changes in the scale of the marine debris problem identified at the outset, and assessment of the effectiveness of the individual implementation strategies and action plans.

Key Pre-Consumer methods of reducing plastic pollution, identified in the report, that can be integrated into regional solutions include:

1. Molecular redesign of plastics through "green" chemistry incorporated into the production of goods and packaging so that they will be safer to use and less harmful to the environment when they become waste.

2. Design criteria to develop new polymers and products including specifications to enhance reusability, recyclability or recovery of plastic once it has been used.

3. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to help redistribute the burden of handling end-of-life plastic from governments and individuals who may be impacted by the waste, to producers whose interests would then be aligned with those of the region.

As calls for increased study continued, the report cautions that: "lack of a complete accounting of every impact and/or methodology to control plastic pollution should not be used to delay immediate efforts to halt the accumulation of plastic pollution in our environment."

The authors of the report believe that sufficient knowledge exists to support progress on this issue now. The knowledge gaps are outlined and should be considered as means of refining actions, rather than defining or delaying them. "It is only with this type of rational approach to environmental protection that we can hope to make significant and timely reductions in any of the pollutants threatening our environment, from plastic pollution to the carbon that is warming our planet, so that we can avert disaster before all systems are overwhelmed."

Marine Debris as a Global Environmental Problem: Introducing a solutions based framework focused on plastic was prepared on behalf of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) by Richard C. Thompson (University of Plymouth, United Kingdom), Bruce E. La Belle (California Environmental Protection Agency, United States), Hindrik Bouwman (STAP, North-West University, South Africa), and Lev Neretin (STAP). The authors of the report give thanks for input from experts in the field including the United Nations Environmental Programme, Natural Resources Defense Council and Plastic Pollution Coalition.

'Earth Day' Weekend - A Call to End Plastic Ocean Pollution

2012-04-20T12:07:00.001-07:00

As the world prepares for the Earth Day celebrations we would like to draw your attention to the very important matters of plastic pollution in our oceans. Here at Pacific TV we are pleased to hear that ocean pollution will be on the table for discussions at the Rio+ 20 Earth Summit coming this June 20th 2012, but we as citizens need to do more. If we really love this planet Earth we call home than we need to get serious about plastic pollution and finding alternative solutions.

Some may believe that it's too late and that the damage is already done to the oceans and some may disagree. As citizens, we may not be able to solve all the problems of the oceans but we certainly don't need to be contributing to it any more, so that's where we believe our personal responsibilities are as a citizen living on this planet. We can stop ocean pollution. We are the problem and we are the solution. It may be easier for some of us to blame a company or point a finger at a government entity as the ones who should be responsible for cleaning it up. But that simply is not true. We all bear a responsibility in the solution to ocean pollution.

You may be asking yourself: How can I help? What can I do? The answer is very simple, but challenging. It requires you to make a noticeable change in your shopping habits. First you can start off by using reusable washable canvas bags instead of disposable plastic shopping bags. AND most importantly, reusing your plastic shopping bags as "garbage bags" only ensures that it ends up in a landfill, which eventually makes its way to the beaches and oceans. We need to stop using plastic bags altogether. They do not biodegrade, they are not compostable, and they are not earth friendly.

The next thing you can do is to look for "compostable" packaging when buying your favorite products. Avoid any plastic containers if possible. For example: Laundry Soap, buy the cardboard packaging instead of the plastic container. Some may argue that it's more expensive to purchase eco-friendly products as opposed to the cheaper plastic packaging, and some may even be on a tight budget and can't afford it. But consider this: you WILL pay eventually. You'll pay for it now, or you'll pay for it later, in hospital bills for a lifetime of eating foods contaminated with plastic chemicals. Buying products with "compostable" packing is an investment in the future. It may seem more expensive to you, but we believe its a worthy investment to consider.

The next thing you can do is, especially if you have kids, encourage the schools to sponsor plastic litter cleanup programs around the rivers and beaches in your local area. If they can make it into a field trip while teaching the kids their responsibilities of being a pollution-free citizen on this very fragile planet Earth, the kids will love it! That's the generation we have to get too before it's too late. These young minds will eventually be inventing new products and paving new ways. So lets make sure they care about the environment and consequences of not taking care of such a fragile eco-system.

Earth, it's our only home. We should have earth day everyday. There is no other planet in this solar system that we can live on. So we must take care of this one. It's not too late, as this eco-system has remarkable healing and regeneration properites if we just give the planet earth a chance to replenish herself. We do not need to be contributing to the pollution problems anymore, we can change our ways and encourage a better quality of packaging from the companies who make the products we use everyday.

Happy Earth Day ~ Love your Mother!

As Earth Day Approaches Let's Think About The Oceans

2012-04-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

Trashing Our Oceans: Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Written by: The IS Foundation

There is a growing environmental problem that is notoriously under-reported in the media. Much of the general population is not even aware that a soup of plastic trash exists right now in the North Pacific. This area of the North Pacific is know as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, and is located within the North Pacific Gyre. The area is located between California and Hawaii, and between Hawaii and Japan. There are similar patches of trash in the South Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Indian oceans.

The trash has been traveling to these areas since World War II when people began manufacturing, using, and throwing out plastics on a large scale. Sources of the trash include sea vessels like cruise ships, freighters, and fishing boats. The garbage also comes from shorelines and waterways that feed into the ocean. Although the United States does contribute a big portion of the waste, the ocean currents pick up items from all over the world. Once in the ocean, a piece of garbage travels along the currents until it reaches the gyre. Some of the items wash up on shores around the world leading to trash covered beaches.

READ FULL ARTICLE

Fungus Discovered in the Amazon That Eats Plastic

2012-04-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

A solution for the Pacific Garbage Patch?


Plastic eating fungi found in Amazon.

For decades we have known that the Amazon is home to more species than almost anywhere else on Earth. Amazon Rainforest constitutes the world’s largest “pharmacy” yielding thousands of previously unknown substances found no where else. Compounds from tropical flora relieve headaches, help treat glaucoma and provide muscle relaxants used during surgery. The Amazon Rainforest has also yielded guanine for the treatment of malaria and periwinkle for the treatment of leukemia. Given the rainforest’s teeming biological diversity, its value to humanity as a laboratory of natural phenomena and as a medical storehouse is priceless.

Recently, the “pharmeceutical” benefits of the Amazon have been expanded to the potential of healing the Earth from the plague of plastic waste. A group of Yale students discovered, quite by accident, a fungus that appears to be quite happy eating plastic in airless landfills. This fungus shows a voracious appetite for a very common group of plastics: polyurethane.

The Amazon is home to many species

Human beings have only begun to catalog & name the creatures that live here. Home to thousands of varieties of flowering plants, the rainforest supports endless varieties of hummingbirds, butterflies & insects such a the rhinoceros beetle and the army ant. It is also home to the spider monkey, pink & gray dolphins, Amazon river otter, piranha, anaconda, jaguar, blue and yellow macaw, toucan, harpy eagle, fishing bat, tapir sloth, tarantula, Cayman crocodile, manatee, etc.

READ FULL ARTICLE Secrets of the Amazon

Official Trailer for "Aqua Seafoam Shame"

2012-04-11T13:44:00.003-07:00

The official trailer of the upcoming film called "Aqua Seafoam Shame" documenting the horrors of the Pacific Garbage Patch and finding eco-friendly alternatives to disposable plastics.

The Surf Lady and her team of environmental activists embark on a journey into the plastic pollution problems in our oceans. Viewers will be shocked at the reality of this critical situation, of which most folks are unaware. With this film it is our hope and intention to raise more awareness of the problems with disposable plastics and to also encourage earth-friendly packaging such as: bioplastics.

Aqua Seafoam Shame will not only open your eyes to the pacific garbage patch, but will also offer you viable solutions and changes you can make to your shopping habits so that we are not contributing any more plastic to the oceans. Our belief is that "We are the problem, and we are the solution."

This film will also feature informative webisodes on the re-uses of plastics and how to approach companies about the devastating effects of disposable plastics as well as encouraging them to change their packaging. It will also feature a special presentation by Stuart Coleman of WaikikiSurfrider.org about the horrific shocking details that are emerging about the reality of the Pacific Garbage Patch. Did you know there is not 1 patch, there is not 2 patchs, there is 5 garbage patches!!!

All this and more coming soon in the upcoming film Aqua Seafoam Shame.

Filmmaker : thesurflady.com
Producers: hopestudios.ca
In Association with: pacific-tv.com

Special Thanks to Charles Moore for bringing the Pacific Garbage Patch to the worlds attention, and WaikikiSurfrider.org for their heroic efforts to save the oceans from pollution!!

Easter egg candy packs are renewable, compostable

2012-04-08T12:16:00.000-07:00

Canadian candy company selects cellulose-based film for its stand-up pouch packaging for competitive advantage with Easter treats.

Canada’s oldest candy company, family-owned Ganong Bros Ltd. in New Brunswick, has selected a cellulose-based packaging film for its range of Easter confectionery in stand-up pouches. NatureFlex™, from Innovia Films, is a renewable, compostable material made from wood pulp.

Explains Bruce Rafuse, Ganong vice president of marketing, “We had two primary objectives in selecting the package: first and foremost was to improve sales and distribution, and second to differentiate us from the competition. We considered several alternatives, but based upon feedback from consumers and retailers decided upon NatureFlex due to it being compostable and the distinct competitive advantage this gives us. Our ultimate goal is to move all our products into compostable pouches.”

READ FULL ARTICLE

Upcoming Film about the Pacific Garbage Patch!

2012-04-01T13:19:00.001-07:00

A sneak peek at the upcoming film by The Surf Lady called "Aqua Seafoam Shame" due to hit the film festivals for 2013. We'd really appreciate it if you could support our project by rating and sharing this video with all your friends on twitter and facebook! Thank you so much for your help in this important cause!!

A CALL TO END PLASTIC POLLUTION

Video by : http://HopeStudios.ca
Music by : http://seasunz-and-jbless.bandcamp.com/track/water-world-2

Kyra Sedgwick: Call to End Plastic Pollution!

2012-03-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

From the NRDC Blog

As part of this week’s preparatory meetings for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development – known as the Rio+20 Earth Summit – to be held in Rio de Janeiro this summer, we are producing an exciting event at the UN tonight. We’re hosting a panel of leading international experts and U.N. officials on the urgent need to curb plastic pollution, which clutters our oceans and land, on a larger scale. We are calling for countries, businesses, and organizations to take immediate action to end their contribution to this plastic pollution.

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Around the world, huge quantities of plastic trash – especially the packaging and to-go ware that we use in everyday life – makes its way into rivers, streams, lakes, and the ocean. For example, a recent study of the San Francisco Bay found that 100,000 trash bags-worth of litter ends up in the Bay every year – up to 80% of that is plastic.

Plastic pollution has serious consequences for the marine environment, for local economies, and potentially for human health. Many whales, seals, turtles, birds and fish are killed by eating or becoming entangled in plastic trash. Marine litter has a major cost to local coastal economies that must deal with cleaning it off of beaches and out of storm drains so that it doesn’t harm the tourism industry, or cause flooding. Plastic in the ocean doesn’t biodegrade, but it does break down into tiny particles that absorb toxins, such as persistant organic pollutants. We have documented that fish eat these toxin-soaked pellets. What is currently being studied, is whether the harmful pollutants are making their way from the pellets, into the fish tissue, where it may be eaten by humans or other predators.

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I would like to add that alot of times it seems like the public tends to focus on the specific problems with plastic water bottles when in actuality, it's all the disposable plastics at large. ~Kim

San Jose Students to Beautify Their School with Plastic Trash Murals and Sculptures

2012-03-19T18:36:00.002-07:00

Students and staff are recycling plastic caps from milk jugs, butter tubs and Gatorade bottles to be used in murals and sculptures that will beautify their school.

City sustainability coordinator Valerie Brown watched a TED Talk a few years back and was floored at what she learned.

Oceanographer Capt. Charles Moore had discovered a expansive plankton-rich patch of floating plastic garbage at sea. It was enough plastic garbage to fill two Texases. He found that currents carry the world’s plastic trash to this common place in the Pacific Ocean, and seabirds were dying with large quantities of plastic caps in their bellies. (Watch TED Talk "Capt. Charles Moore on the seas of plastic" here.)

Brown wanted to do something. So, she asked city employees to remove the caps off everything from their milk jugs and Gatorade or soda bottles to their peanut butter jars and cream cheese or butter tubs before recycling them.

They collected a whole lot them, Brown said, and ultimately supplied Garrison-Jones Elementary School students with enough plastic caps and tops to construct a colorful underwater manatee mural a couple years ago.

Now, San Jose Elementary School’s “Green Team” is in the process of collecting plastic caps and lids for its own plastic art mural.

Green Team students have drawn pictures of what they want to create from the tops. Some of those renderings will be blown up and cut into plywood as standalone sculptures, and others will be incorporated into a mural, Janine Munns, the school family and community liaison, said.

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