Our oceans are filling up with plastic. But you know that or you probably wouldn't be here. Aside from personal changes to reduce plastic in our own lives, there are a few things we can do in the next few days to be part of a bigger solution. Check out instructions at the bottom to learn how to win a prize from Fake Plastic Fish.
1) Today: Obama wants your opinion. And it's not about health care or Kanye West!
If you live near San Francisco, you have a rare chance to make your voice heard in Washington. The president has created an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, which will be holding a public meeting today in downtown San Francisco to gather recommendations for a "national policy that ensures protection, maintenance, and restoration of oceans, our coasts and the Great Lakes. It will also recommend a framework for improved stewardship, and effective coastal and marine spatial planning."
What: Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting
When: Thursday, September 17, 2:30 – 6:00 p.m.
Where: Hyatt Regency San Francisco at Embarcadero Center, Ballroom A 5 Embarcadero Center San Francisco, CA 94111 (near BART and MUNI Embarcadero Station)
There are so many important environmental issues affecting our oceans: overfishing, runoff pollution, acidification, offshore oil drilling, etc. But I wonder how many people will mention the fact that our current consumer lifestyle is turning our oceans into a plastic soup, swirling masses of plastic that kill wildlife and bioaccumulate toxic chemicals that make their way up the food chain. I wonder how many people will speak for the albatross with a belly full of plastic pieces or the sea turtle choking on plastic bags. Will anyone think to address the fact that the problem is not simply an issue of litter but, as Captain Charles Moore put it, "the symbol of our global crisis of overconsumption."
I wish I could be there. Unfortunately, I have to work today and can't make it. Showing up would be great, but for those of us not in San Francisco or unable to attend, there is a way to speak out!
Submit a comment to the task force via the Ocean Policy Task Force Web Site. That is how I'll be making my views heard. I'll post my letter on Fake Plastic Fish this weekend after I finish writing and uploading it to the site.
2) Now through next week: Friends on Midway up to their necks in plastic.
I'm so envious of my activist friends Manuel Maqueda and Chris Jordan who are out on Midway Atoll right now with 3 other artists photographing dead albatross carcasses, sitting in piles of plastic, witnessing the toll our way of life has taken on creatures thousands of miles away from civilization and posting their thoughts via video, Twitter, poetry, and even humor. T
Please check out Midway Journey. Few of us will ever get the chance to ever visit this remote island ourselves. I'm glad this awesome group of humans is there now showing me what I can't see for myself.
3) This Saturday, 9/19: Get out and pick up some plastic!
International Coastal Cleanup Day is this Saturday. And while I realize that spending one day picking up plastic and other trash from the beach for a day will not have a significant impact on the oceans, it will have a significant impact on those who participate.
Beth Terry writes about finding alternatives to plastic and tracks her own plastic consumption and plastic waste at www.FakePlasticFish.com. Why Fake Plastic Fish? "Because if we don't solve our plastic problem, they could be the only kind of fish we have left." Please stop by and leave a comment!
