Pacific TV

'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.

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?

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.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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.

READ FULL ARTICLE

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.

Read Full Article

Facts About Plastics in the Ocean and What You Need to Know About Them

2012-03-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

To date, we use over 248,000 chemicals in commerce and we don't know which ones are harmful or safe. Why? Because the vast amount of research on plastics we use in our lives comes from the plastic industry.
Greenpeace estimates that of the 200 billion pounds produced annually, 10% makes it into the ocean.
Columbia University Researchers took all the major data sets that exist and calculated 73,878,000 pounds of plastic in the area of the gyres, which accounts for 16 million of the earth's 315 million square kilometers of ocean surface.
Americans alone discard 22 billion pounds of plastic a year.
To date, 177 species of marine life have been shown to ingest plastics and the number is likely to get much higher as more research is done.
9% of base food chain fish (which represents as much as 50% of the biomass of fish in the entire ocean) sampled in the North Pacific have been shown to ingest plastics.
Concentrations of the chemicals in ocean-borne plastics have been shown to be up to a million times higher than the ambient sea water around it.
According to the Ocean Conservancy's annual report, 11% of beach litter is plastic bags.
Americans consume more than 100 billion plastic bags per year.
In 2009, the rate for plastic bag recycling is 6.1%; and in 2010, the rate is 4.3%.
From 2009 to 2010, plastics generated in the municipal waste stream jumped from 59,660,000 to 62,080,000 pounds.
Coca-Cola is one the world's largest producers of plastic waste.

Quote from Stiv Wilson:

So what's a citizen to do? Unfortunately, cutting through the spin is a difficult task, but as always, when there is a lot of money to be had, injecting oneself with a healthy dose of skepticism about the intentions of chemical companies that manipulate nature for profit is a good start. What's the best solution? Remember this: if you don't consume it in the first place, it can't damage you or the environment.

Avoiding plastics is not just a personal responsibility, it's an environmental mandate and should be as common in our global society as turning off the lights when you leave the room. There is no silver bullet solution to plastic pollution, more like a silver buckshot, but it all starts with you saying two words: "No Plastic."

SOURCE

Watch the Debris from Japan Tsunami Travel Across the North Pacific Gyre

2012-03-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

Quote from: NOAAVisualizations

After the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, tons of debris was swept into the Pacific. Much of it is buoyant enough to float on the surface and can be moved around by small scale currents and large scale circulation patterns, such as the North Pacific Gyre. The gyre, bounded by the Kuroshio Current on the west, California Current on the east, and Equatorial Current on the south tends to entrain debris in the center of the Pacific basin, creating what is commonly known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." Though the bulk of the marine debris remains in the ocean for years in an area north of Hawaii, individual pieces are continually washing up on the continental and island shores that border the basin. NOAA's Marine Debris Program leads efforts to track and remove much of this existing trash, and is currently assessing the tsunami debris. Scientists as NOAA's Earths System Research Laboratory developed the debris dispersion model, shown here. Using five years of historical weather patterns, the model is used to approximate how debris will circulate across the basin.

ALERT - Tsunami Debris from Japan Headed Towards the Pacific Garbage Patch!

2012-03-05T21:27:00.001-08:00

Quote from comlike4:

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is expanding. For those who do not know what this is, it is basically comprised of two floating landfills one between Hawaii and California, and the other between Hawaii and Japan. These patches have been growing exponentially, from the first few pieces of fishing nets and plastic bottles discovered 30 years ago, to two patches at least twice the size of Texas (that's a total of over one million square miles of junk). These patches are made up of plastic bottles, furniture, home appliances--pretty much anything you can think of, though 90% of the trash is plastic.

Quote from mallugirls15:

The Fukushima power plant meltdown isn't the only environmental problem created by the Japan tsunami. Refrigerators, TVs, rooftops and other items that the tsunami swept away last year are now floating in the Pacific Ocean, the Washington Post reported. Officials expect the debris to get caught in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The tsunami, which killed 15,844 people and left over 3,000 missing, also washed out 8 million tons of debris to the sea. Most of the debris sank near the shore, the Los Angeles Times reported. But the debris that didn't sink has since traveled 3,000 miles away.

Use Less Plastics : Save the Ocean!

2012-02-18T15:36:00.000-08:00

Every piece of plastic ever made still exists today, and much of this plastic has traveled from our hands to our oceans. The most important thing you can do is use less plastic. Join the Blue movement and sign the plastic pledge at SaveMyOceans.com

Brought to you by www.takepart.com
Director: Mariana Blanco
Animator: Sol Linero
Production Co: hoodablah.com
Song: Pot Kettle Black Performed By: Tilly and the Wall

Plastic Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean

2012-02-04T19:28:00.001-08:00

We're on a mission to document the Pacific Trash Vortex (aka "Plastic Island") and to find alternative plastics that can biodegrade back into the earth, such as Hemp Bioplastics. We need your help in raising awareness of this environmental disaster that affects every living creature on the planet. We encourage EVERYONE to take the pledge of "raising awareness" of this very important environmental issue. Blog about the Pacific Trash Vortex (using specific keywords and tags). Record your own video about the Pacific Garbage Patch, upload it to youtube, vimeo etc. and share it with everyone on your friends lists. Think Global Act Local: We can also find alternative ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle the plastic waste in our everyday lives so it doesn't end up in the Pacific Ocean. Join us and make the PLEDGE OF ACTION now! Learn more.

Photo by: Greenpeace.org

Photos by: ProjectRespond.org and Mindfully.org

TAKE THE PLEDGE! Reduce Plastic Waste!

Surf Lady Writes Letter To Companies

2012-02-04T18:07:00.000-08:00

Dear Company X:

We appeal to your sense of community involvement with a most critical issue and we trust you will duly respond as:

Plastic is destroying our planet. This is a more serious problem facing humans than any war, environmental, or economic issue.

We are not here to blame anyone - just to serve everyone because we are both the problem AND the solution:

Maybe you have heard a whiff of a rumor about a giant island of floating plastic garbage somewhere in the middle of the ocean. Well, IT IS NOW THE SIZE OF THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES and right here near Hawai'i, and if we don't stop using non-decomposing plastic, this is cataclysmic to humanity. TIME IS RUNNING OUT - simply search "Pacific Garbage Patch" online to see how on the brink of disaster we are as a species.

The photos will horrify and shock you. And there are not one, but 5 patches of giant garbage islands in the oceans around the world. FACT: 25% of the planet's surface (both sea and air) is now a garbage landfill.

We would love to share with you and your team alternatives to plastic and what can be done to backpedal humans and this planet from the catastrophe of plastic consumption. Again, we are not here to be adversarial. In fact, we are only contacting companies whose products we LOVE. We love your product ((("X"))) but we can live without plastic packaging.

I am merely a spokesperson for the high profile team of concerned citizens supporting the film project "Aqua Seafoam Shame" as part of the Sundance Documentary Fund featured on http://www.Pacific-TV.com

We understand the bottom line necessity of profit and the same amount of profit CAN STILL BE EARNED by switching to hemp plastic for example http://www.hempplastic.com/ or a corn based COMPOSTABLE plastic or PAPER BAGS because simply placing the ECM additive into plastics to make it biodegradable or using recyclable PET plastics is not enough. There ARE definitely solutions. We are not asking you to stop using plastic, just switch out from the "bad" plastic. The word biodegradable is misleading because in truth, plastic never biodegrades and recycling centers recycle only about 10% of plastic packaging because plastic gets stuck in the recycling mechanism. COMPOSTABLE is the only sustainable plastic.

Do you wanna know how "bad it is?" Even if we stop using plastic tomorrow, it has already left an environmental mess that will take THOUSANDS of YEARS to recover from. So it is as if I am typing anyway from a watery grave, like an exercise in futility but we won't go down without at least trying. We are very upset to learn that only 30% of plastic ever gets recycled AT BEST, when it can be used over and over thousands of times when recycled properly. If you have children, we can tell you there is no future for them with the ocean DYING. We are killing the ocean and everything in it, at an alarming rate.

Realize that EVERY PIECE OF PLASTIC THAT HAS EVER BEEN MADE STILL EXISTS HERE ON EARTH IN SOME FORM AND IT IS NOT JUST GOING TO MAGICALLY DISAPPEAR.

WHAT MAKES THIS ISSUE "SCARY" IS BECAUSE IT IS A SILENT KILLER, not a bloody in-your-face war, it is creeping upon us and almost too late.

It will not be a meteor, or global warming, or a nuclear war, or aliens, or something visually shocking and glamorized by Hollywood films that destroys the planet. It will be the silent deadly killer of plastic pollution.

If you think "so what, it is only a portion of the ocean," well, imagine how it feels when "only a portion of your body hurts." And what if that pain spread? That is what we are doing to the planet, each time we reach for plastic. Our rain comes from the ocean. We will literally have a trash rain upon us shortly. Over 90% of people depend on fish for their protein. Pretty much all marine life now injests this plastic soup, so these horrible disease-causing chemicals in turn wind up in your plates - a great reason to be vegetarian, but that is another story.

Any person from TheSurfLady.com would love to come into your offices in person and film the decision making process of your company switching to a healthier plastic to show the public how you are a leader in environmental salvation.

Think of the great publicity this will raise for you. Even before our film is completed, each time we appear in the media or update our YouTube channel with a monthly webisode http://www.YouTube.com/KrishnaWizard we already start shining a spotlight upon environmentally friendly superstar corporations like yours on http://pacific-tv.blogspot.com/p/superstar-companies.html.

Conversely, we will also have a list of all the companies we contact who don't even bother to respond with so much as an email, http://pacific-tv.blogspot.com/p/companies-who-dont-care.html but, we know this isn't you, because we love your product since y'all do great work!

Thank you Company ((("X"))) for sharing this info with whomever does the packaging for all your products, and for helping this planet remain land of the FREE (from garbage!)

Looking forward to any response,

Gratefully,

Team Veronica Grey
environmentalist / award winning filmmaker
aka The Surf Lady
to speak with a member of our team 310 555 X0X0, our media appearances regarding this topic: http://www.pacific-tv.blogspot.com/p/press.html

Surf Lady Mission Statement

2012-02-03T11:44:00.000-08:00

Cleaning up the Pacific Ocean Trash Vortex

The Surf Lady dedicates her life to this particular cause Pacific Trash Vortex

Quote from: http://thesurflady.com/pacific-ocean-trash-vortex/

Plastic is destroying our planet. Many things are beyond our control – global warming, etc. People can’t imagine not driving their cars. FINE. But there is one thing WE CAN DO and that is GIVE UP plastic. Plastic never decomposes.

Current studies show there is a floating island of plastic trash THE SIZE OF THE UNITED STATES in the middle of the ocean. THERE ISN’T A SINGLE FISH IN THE OCEAN THAT DOESN’T EAT MOSTLY PLASTIC. So if you eat fish, you are eating garbage.

Right now the ocean is more plastic than plankton. Maybe it is already too late for humans, if you consider what that statement REALLY means. There have been cataclysms in our history, but let’s not go down without a fight. Giving up plastic may be one thing that could save our species.

STOP BUYING PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES!!! 2 Million are bought every 5 minutes in the USA alone. It is just glorified TAP WATER anyway. This has been proven and is easily researchable. Either get a water filter for your tap at home or carry your own STAINLESS STEEL water containers.

Many cities have banned plastic bags and with good reason. Carry a canvas bag.

JUST AVOID PLASTIC PRODUCTS WHENEVER POSSIBLE. YOU HAVE A CHOICE – YOU HAVE A VOTE. HOW? VOTE WITH YOUR POCKETBOOK.

When companies see a decline in sales for their plastic based products, THEY WILL RESPOND by coming up with alternatives. Even if you go into Starbucks, hand them your OWN mug. They will gladly fill that up for you.

And finally, we know no one wants to hear this, but the reason our CONSUMPTION FOR LEISURE society is the way it is is because we have more people than ever. STOP HAVING KIDS for now !!! If you need to play house so badly, ADOPT or FOSTER instead. You will save the life of a needy child and fulfill your requirements to play house – if we keep having children, THERE WILL BE NO HOUSE / PLANET EARTH to play in!!!

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