The following article appeared in the March 11, 2009 edition of The Tacoma News Tribune. The author is Brian Skoloff of The Associated Press. "West Palm Beach, Fla.- Nearly 7 million pounds of debris were collected from waterways and shorelines around the world on a single day last year, illustrating that careless people are discarding trash just about everywhere, with much of it eventually finding an aquatic home, according to a report released Tuesday.
Nearly 400, 000 volunteers scoured about 17,000 miles of coastline, river bottoms and ocean floors during the Ocean Conservancy's 23rd International Coastal Cleanup in September.
The group's report said more than 3.2 milion cigarette butts were picked up, the item most commonly found. The butts were followed by about 1.4 million plast bags, 942, 000 food wrappers and containers, and 937,000 caps and lids. Volunteers also collected 26,585 tires, enough for 6,646 cars-and a spare.
Volunteers collected about 11.4 million items overall, which weighed a total of 6.8 million pounds. They snagged more than 1.3 milion cigarette butts in the U.S. alone, about 19,500 fishing nets in the United Kingdom and more than 11,000 diapers in the Philippines
"Our ocean is sick, and our actions have made it so," said Vicki Spruill, the Ocean Conservancy's president and CEO.
During the event, participants found 268 marine animals that survived being entangled in debris. But 175 weren't so lucky and died."
About a week ago, I cleaned up a local beach on the Puget Sound. I found several plastic bottles, styrofoam and a number of small pieces of plastic. Plastic does not dissolve, it just breaks into smaller pieces. Sometimes marine animals injest the plastic pieces mistaking them for food. The plastic eventually clogs the digestive system, causing the animal to starve.
There is no excuse for discarding trash in the water or on land.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Endless Winter
March 15, and It is still snowing. I can't remember what it felt like to be warm outside. I often wonder how the wildlife survives such a brutal climate, but I guess they have adapted over thousands of years.
world population
A recent newspaper article (Seattle Times, March 12, 2009.) said that the world population will reach 7 billion people in early 2012 and will reach 9 billion by 2050. Already we are having serious water and food shortages around the world and climate change willl only make those
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