OCEAN CLEANUP- THERE IS HOPE

There is plastic in our oceans. Lots of plastic. Literally tons of plastics. 300 tons generated per year.

The birds eat it and die. The fish eat it and die.

There is more and more added every day.

What are we going to do?

We are hopefully going to listen to Boyan Slat. Never heard of him? Understandable.

He is young, very young, but he is wise beyond his years. He has come up with a concept for cleaning the ocean of plastic debris that has been proven out through many feasibility studies.

It is a very complicated task due to ocean conditions, weather, sea life, sheer volume and costs involved. I believe he has the right idea.

I am not going to get all technical and scientific on you but there is a word used throughout his work that we need to understand first.

Gyre : definition from National Geographic Education: An ocean gyre is a large system of circular ocean currents formed by global wind patterns and forces created by earth’s rotation. The movement of the world’s major ocean gyres helps drive the “ocean conveyor belt”".” The ocean conveyor belts circulates ocean water around the entire planet.

Photo from National Geographic, click here to see more.

It is gyres that are moving much of the plastics into an area known as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is not the only patch but is the biggest.

It was discovered by a racing boat captain named Charles Moore while sailing from Hawaii to California and becoming absolutely surrounded by the plastic debris. Some of it washes up on the beaches but tons of it just floats around decomposing and leaching chemicals into the sea water.

 

So what can be done about it besides the obvious point of not polluting our waters to begin with?

Become aware and support the brilliant minds that are trying to clean up what is there. Have a look at Boyan Slat’s video that show them in action developing their ideas into something that most certainly can work.

Since the areas are so far out to sea individual countries are not taking responsibility for the clean up. Does that surprise anyone?

How about a video of the young guy nervously giving a TED TALK speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROW9F-c0kIQ… click here….

The thing is the collected plastic will be recycled into other uses paying the costs for the collection and then some.  

So what do you think?

 

Click here to read his responses to his critics… and we know there are always critics.

OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY, WATERY WEDNESDAY - YANN ARTHUS-BERTRAND

Welcome to Outdoor Wednesday hosted by Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer and Watery Wednesday hosted by 2Sweetnsaxy 
Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them for better viewing.

I have quite a treat for you. The photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand has given me permission to use his photographs on my site. As much as Yann is an amazing photographer he is also an active advocate for ecological issues. He is the chairman of the GoodPlanet Organization and has participated in the creation of the Action Carbone project in order to persuade governments, institutions and individuals to reduce their individual impact on the climate.

Now to take such beautiful photographs Yann realized he is creating a carbon imprint on the world and greenhouse gas creation. With this in mind he has financed projects to promote renewable energies and to encourage reforestation.

In 1994 Yann (also referred to as Yab as in Yann Arthus-Bertrand) started a project called "Earth from above" to survey the state of the Earth as we went into the 21st century.

On his site Yab states:
"Year 2000 was almost upon us, and I wanted to tackle an ambitious long-term project. Since the lions, nature has been one of my chief concerns, though I was then less committed to sustainable development and more interested in the preservation of exceptional sites. However, working on location soon made me realise that Man cannot be dissociated from the landscape. Gradually, I became convinced that supporting the theories on sustainability was the way towards a reasoned form of development.”

 This project was not an easy sell however and the response from potential partners was very low. Eventually they managed to secure enough support and they started to photograph from above...even if the first project was Club Med piece.

The team has been to over 150 countries to photograph the Earth from above. In his work we see mountains that should be covered with snow that are bare. Rivers that are drying up. Landscapes that should be forested and green that have been denuded.
Yab also photographs people and animals. I love his animal shots.

Please visit his sites and see what they are all about. If you do contact them please let them know where you saw the photos. The more we do this the more likely it is that photographers will consent to the use of their photos for non-commercial blogs. It is about spreading the word.
An exhibit of Yann's work will be at the New York Public Library starting on April 1st. 2010

Remember bloggers...never use someones photos without their permission.

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