Global plastic pollution

need to change our throwaway society

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robert99 Sweden • Posts: 1360

1 8 Sep 2017

From Greenpeace Australia Pacific
http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/

By the time you’ve finished reading this, approximately 5 truckloads of waste will have been dumped into our oceans. Five truckloads. It only takes one plastic bag to kill a defenceless sea creature. Imagine the devastation of an entire truckload of rubbish.

Picture this - every single piece of plastic ever produced, still exists today. And all that plastic has to go somewhere, right? Sadly, a huge proportion of it ends up in the bellies of sea creatures like whales, turtles and sharks, slowly killing them or causing painful injuries.

And it doesn’t end there. Reports show that microplastics (tiny fragments of broken-down plastic) enter the food chain, consumed by smaller fish, which are then consumed by people. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to eat plastic for dinner.

The scale of global microplastic contamination is only just starting to become clear. But it doesn’t take a genius to guess that eating plastic might be bad for your health. Each piece of plastic waste can last up to 1,000 years, breaking down into our water and turning into a near-invisible form of plastic pollution. Even if we don’t know the full extent of what this does to our bodies, I hope you share my concern about the importance of getting toxic plastic out of our food chain.

Greenpeace recently visited Scotland with our ship Beluga II, bringing scientists on board to sample seawater for microplastics. They documented the impact of the microplastics on local wildlife to show that ocean plastics are becoming a greater threat. There’s no escaping it. Even in the pristine Arctic we have exposed piles of rubbish in uninhabited areas, washed up on beaches.

The only way we can solve this problem is by working together to force corporations to take responsibility for their impact on the environment. It’s going to take a united, persistent and powerful voice to force our governments to regulate against single-use plastics and stand up for systems that will help change our throwaway society.

We know we can win this because we’ve done it before. Together, we won against Coke and the beverage industry after they tried to block a drink container deposit scheme in NSW, despite drink bottles being one of the main causes of plastic litter in the ocean.

Globally, we’re tackling plastic pollution on all fronts - from pushing state-by-state plastic bag bans here in Australia, to documenting ocean plastics in the Mediterranean. We’re showing the world what’s at stake if we don’t take immediate action. All life on earth relies on healthy oceans. Whether you’ve lived by the beach your whole life, or if you’ve never seen the coast - the health of our oceans is inextricably linked with the health of our planet. That’s why we’ve come to know our Earth home as the ‘Blue Planet’.

On Tuesday, the Queensland Government officially passed the bill for a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags AND a container deposit scheme, starting in July 2018. This huge win for the planet was made possible by people like you taking action and speaking up. Now it’s time to get NSW, Vic and WA on board.

robert99 Sweden • Posts: 1360

2 14 Sep 2017

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/13/choking-plastic-pollution-time-uk-act/

We are all choking on plastic pollution – it's time for the UK to act

a plastic-free aisle in your supermarket

A landmark study revealed earlier this week that billions of people globally are drinking water contaminated by plastic particles. Almost 95 per cent of tap water samples tested in the US contained traces of plastic.

Drinking water in the UK didn’t fare much better, with almost three-quarters of European drinking water tainted by the spectre of plastic pollution. We can’t go on like this. Whitehall needs to wake up and end the plastic crisis.

It’s not hard to see why plastic has become such a menace to our water supply. Plastic debris fills our oceans, rivers, and reservoirs. Last year I swam in the Indian Ocean while filming a documentary about the curse of ocean plastic.

Just moments after diving in I discovered the true horrors of what was lying beneath the seemingly pristine surface. I was swimming in a toxic soup of plastic debris. Trying desperately to avoid swallowing any of the polluted water, I was surrounded by a hideous mix of polyethylene bottles, carrier bags, and plastic wrapping.

Plastic doesn’t discriminate. It taints all marine environments regardless of where they are in the world. The pollution crisis is particularly bad in the Pacific Ocean, where plastic has become a mainstay of the marine environment. First discovered around 30 years ago, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a hideous smog of plastic debris which covers an area bigger than India.

While the Government must do more on plastic, that’s not to say that UK plc doesn’t have major room for improvement. Earlier this year, I joined forces with campaign group A Plastic Planet to call for a plastic-free aisle in supermarkets. A plastic-free aisle would be a great way of giving consumers real choice over what they buy. Given that shoppers are increasingly hunting for purchases that don’t cost the earth, a plastic-free aisle would allow supermarkets to attract a growing band of eco-savvy consumers.

robert99 Sweden • Posts: 1360

3 17 Sep 2017

Indonesia ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/09/15/the-stunning-underwater-photo-this-nature-photographer-wishes-didnt-exist/

The powerful and poignant image shows a tiny sea horse holding tightly onto a pink, plastic cotton swab in blue-green waters around Indonesia.

California nature photographer Justin Hofman snapped the picture late last year off the coast of Sumbawa, an Indonesian island in the Lesser Sunda Islands chain. The 33-year-old, from Monterey, Calif., said a colleague pointed out the pocket-size sea creature, which he estimated to be about 1.5 inches tall — so small, in fact, that Hofman said he almost didn't reach for his camera.

“The wind started to pick up and the sea horse started to drift. It first grabbed onto a piece of sea grass,” Hofman said Thursday in a phone interview.

Hofman started shooting.

“Eventually more and more trash and debris started to move through,” he said, adding that the critter lost its grip, then latched onto a white, wispy piece of a plastic bag. “The next thing it grabbed was a Q-Tip.”

Hofman said he wishes the picture “didn’t exist” — but it does; and now, he said, he feels responsible “to make sure it gets to as many eyes as possible.” He entered the photo and was a finalist in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition from the Natural History Museum in London.

Hofman, an expedition leader with EYOS Expeditions, said he was wrapping up an expedition in December 2016 when he photographed the sea horse.

As he watched the creature through its journey, he said, his “blood was boiling.”

Hofman said the garbage had washed in, polluting their spot in the sea with sewage that he said he could smell and taste, and that the sea horse was searching for a raft on which to ride it out.

“I had this beautiful, little tiny creature that was so cute, and it was almost like we were brought back to reality — that this is something that happens to the sea horse day in and day out,” he said.

see for photo
http://www.animalsaustralia-media.org/resources/resample.php?i=7752_seahorsewithqtip.jpg&u=1&m=532