I’d
like to take a moment to introduce myself to you. Ko James tōku ingoa
and I’m the new Seabed Mining Campaigner for Greenpeace Aotearoa.
Ko Māhuhu-ki-te-rangi te waka
Ko Taurere te maunga
Ko Tāmaki te awa
Ko Ngāti Whātua te iwi
Ko Te Uri O Hau te hapū
Ko James Hita ahau ,
I’d
like to take a moment to introduce myself to you. Ko James tōku ingoa
and I’m the new Seabed Mining Campaigner for Greenpeace Aotearoa.
I began life as a young Māori boy growing up in urban Auckland. Living
in the suburbs of Tāmaki Makaurau I saw diversity, care, and compassion
amongst the community I grew to call family. Being raised in a community
with a large Pacific population, I developed a strong sense of home
with my Pacific brothers & sisters.
Whilst I saw happiness in the world, I also saw it being taken advantage
of. Our planet has been subjected to huge pressures from extractive
industries worldwide, being ripped apart for oil, gas, metals, and
minerals. I knew then that I needed to join my elders in fighting for
what is right: Protecting our natural environment.
The oceans are a direct lifeline to the people of the Pacific. A place
to harvest kaimoana, connect with one another, and to share knowledge.
Ko te wai te ora ngā mea katoa – water is the life giver of all things.
I’m humbled and privileged to be the Seabed Mining Campaigner at
Greenpeace Aotearoa, working to protect the ocean that is such a huge
part of my identity and culture.
There is a huge threat on the horizon. Seabed mining companies
are eyeing up the Pacific to yet again take advantage of its resources.
Dredging up soil from the bottom of the ocean, taking what is of “value”
to the industry, then pumping back the rest in a sediment plume,
leaving a trail of darkness and destruction behind.
The seabed mining industry PR spin promises untold riches and a
seemingly magical ability to do no harm, but their promises are empty
and their words are hollow. We’ve just recently seen a glaring example
of how untrustworthy the seabed mining industry is right here in
Aotearoa. The Media Council upheld a complaint by our allies Kiwis
Against Seabed Mining, and found two statements in an industry opinion
piece defending seabed mining in the South Taranaki Bight, contained
lies. A decision by the Supreme Court around Trans Tasman Resources’
(TTR) bid to carry out seabed mining in the South Taranaki Bight is
looming.
The good news is that it hasn’t started at full scale yet and we can stop it together!
I’ll be working to amplify the voices of indigenous people fighting
this industry, sharing their stories of resistance against this
dangerous new form of extraction. You can take a stand right now, by
learning more about the issue, sharing conversations about the risk of
seabed mining, and adding your name to the ever growing list of people
who want to see a ban on seabed mining both in NZ and around the world.
We’re calling for New Zealand to become the first country in the world to ban seabed mining - closing the doors to this nascent industry.
Many
communities in the Pacific are already mobilising to keep the mining
machines out, and as their neighbour it’s essential we join this call.
I look forward to sharing with you; the stories of the Pacific, and the
actions we can all take to stop seabed mining in its tracks. In the
meantime whanau, stay safe, warm, and healthy.
Ngā mihi nui koutou,
This sounds absolutely fantastic, if anyone has the time to sign the petition that would be really great.
If one country starts then the rest are sure to follow. As individuals we can all try to do our bit, but we need governments on board too, after all they are individuals too.
It is too late to stop some things but from now on we can slow down others. It is the responsibility of our generation now to do something.
The blog song for today is "Moonshadow" by Cat Stevens
In June, a heat dome descended over the Pacific Northwest, sending temperatures soaring 30 to 40 degrees above normal. It was so hot that plants scorched in the soil, roads cracked, and streetcar cables melted in temperatures that reached over 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then, in July, extreme floods ripped through northwest Europe, leaving at least 199 dead. The same happened in China’s Henan province, where subways flooded, roads collapsed, and at least 99 people died. And last week, yet another heat dome swept the US, putting 17 states under some form of heat advisory.
Scientists and activists have been warning about climate
change for decades — and plenty of people around the world have
experienced its effects long before now. John Paul Mejia, for example,
became a climate organizer as a Miami high school student, after seeing
what Hurricane Irma did to “people who both looked like me, and came
from the same background as I did.” (Climate change didn’t cause
Hurricane Irma, but it did worsen its impacts.)
“These are the harbingers of climate change that
have now arrived in Germany,” said German Minister of the Environment
Svenja Schulze in response to the flooding in northwest Europe earlier
this year.
Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images
“I understood the climate fight through the justice lens
from experience, not from an article,” Mejia, now a spokesperson for the
Sunrise Movement, which mobilizes youth to fight climate change, told
Vox.
But through the events of this summer, many Americans —
including those from more affluent communities that have been insulated
so far — have seen more direct and devastating impacts of climate change
on their own lives. For a lot of people, that can come with a sense of
despair: What can one person possibly do to save a world literally on fire?
“What happens is, when people first realize how bad it is, they feel powerless,” Mary Annaïse Heglar, a climate writer and co-creator of the podcast Hot Take, told Vox. With the extreme weather this year, “there’s a new wave of new people realizing how bad it is.”
Indeed, 40 percent of Americans feel helpless about climate change, and 29 percent feel hopeless, according to a December 2020 survey.
It’s also no surprise that these emotions are coming up during a
devastating pandemic — yet another global disaster over which individual
humans have seemingly little control.
To help stop climate change, we’ve sometimes been told to
change our personal habits: recycle, reuse, take shorter showers, etc.
But these individual choices are dwarfed by the actions of corporations
and countries.Just 100 companies are responsible for 70 percent of the world’s carbon emissions since 1988, according to one study,
and sweeping changes aren’t possible without government intervention.
Not to mention the fact that poverty and other factors constrain the
choices many people can make in the first place.
That’s why it will take government action, not just
individual sacrifice, to meaningfully rein in emissions. For example,
Congress could pass a nationwide clean electricity standard,
requiring utilities to get their electricity from renewable sources
like solar, rather than fossil fuels. Without that, even supposedly
environmentally-friendly individual decisions like driving an electric
car may not mean much, since that electricity could still come from
burning coal. And only governments have the money and authority for the improvements to public transit and other infrastructure that are needed to dramatically reduce emissions over the long term.
In recent years, there’s been growing awareness
of the outsize role that big companies and government entities play in
climate change. “We’ve really changed the conversation around climate
change away from individual action, which I think we really needed to
do,” Heglar said. However, now we’re “in danger of the pendulum swinging
too far,” she said, with people thinking “they can’t do anything at
all.”
Here are some ways Americans can think about — and act on — climate change
Giving upon our climate is not an
option, experts and advocates say. As Mejia puts it, “cynicism serves no
purpose but to uphold the status quo.”
Instead, people who’ve been steeped in climate action for
years or decades have some advice for those who might feeling powerless
today in the face of the problem.
Don’t try to do everything. Do what you can.
Individual “green” behaviors aren’t enough to stop
climate change on their own. And not all people have the same ability to
reduce their carbon footprints. Many Americans can’t afford solar
panels or insulation for their hot water heaters
— many others don’t live in places where they can control such things.
Time is also a factor — reducing waste in a society designed to produce a
lot of it is labor-intensive, and that labour often falls
disproportionately on women, as Alden Wicker reported at Vox.
So rather than beating ourselves up when we fall short of
environmental perfection — or criticizing others when they do — we can
choose the most meaningful actions that are doable for us. Things like
reducing consumption of animal products, driving less, and taking fewer
airplane flights likely have the biggest impact on our personal carbon use.
Everyone’s capabilities are different. Overall, “it’s
important to find the ways that you can reduce your consumption, that
work for your lifestyle and within your means,” Heglar said.
And it’s important to remember that those consumption
decisions are just the beginning. “It’s a good starting point, but it’s a
really dangerous stopping point,” Heglar said. People need to exercise
their power as consumers, but remember that they have power as citizens
and community members, too.
Think communally
The most important step, many say, is collective action.
In America, “we have such a myth of individualism,” said Humboldt
State’s Ray, also the author of A Field Guide to Climate Change: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet.
That myth can make people feel “that they have no power, because they
can’t do anything against such as something so big as climate change.”
For many in climate movements, the antidote to that feeling — and the
way to build real power — is to band together.
At the Sunrise Movement, for example, that means advocating for a Green New Deal, alongside other priorities like climate investment in the infrastructure deal currently before Congress. The movement has hosted marches across the country in recent months to bring the Biden administration’s attention to the problem, as well as reaching out to more than 6.5 million voters in the 2020 election.
“Since the winds of change are blowing,” Mejia says, “why don’t we make them sail in our direction
The Sunrise Movement is just one of many groups working
on climate advocacy today, and for some, getting involved with
collective action can seem as daunting as reducing your individual
carbon footprint: Where do you even start? For Heglar, the answer is
simple: “You do what you’re good at, and you do your best.”
“If you’re good at organizing, organize. If you’re good
at taking care of people, take care of people who do other things,”
Heglar said. And “no matter who you are, build community.”
Around the world, people are already working on communal
solutions to environmental degradation, and have been for generations,
whether that’s Indigenous firefighting practices or the fight to protect the rainforest in Colombia. And for Americans looking for ways to join together to help one another and the planet, there are many options, like local mutual aid groups that help communities cope with the impact of climate change, such as by providing water and sunscreen during heat waves. Local Buy Nothing groups can help people reduce waste by giving away and sharing used items.
Putting pressure on elected officials is one of the most important collective actions people can take. People can urge their representatives in governments, state legislatures, and city governmentsto
support climate investments, public transit, and clean energy
standards, for example.
Getting involved in communities doesn’t just multiply
your impact — it can also stave off despair. Ray has seen this in her
classes at Humboldt State, in which she encourages students to build
trust, express their feelings about climate change, and essentially
practice for going out into the wider world. “The alleviation of anxiety
that happens when you’re working towards a common goal, even if it’s a
really depressing one, in community is actually very joyful and very
fulfilling,” she said.
Think long-term
Just as no one person can fix climate change, the crisis
isn’t going to be solved overnight — and it may not be “solved” in a
conventional way at all. In order to confront this fact, people need to
think of fighting climate change as a long-term process they engage with
over time, Heglar said.
We should see the problem “in the same realm that you
would see reproductive justice or racial justice or any other justice
issue,” she explained. “You would never say, what’s the one thing I can
do about racism?”
Especially since the uprisings last summer following the murder of George Floyd, more people — especially white people — arebeginning
to internalise the idea that the fight against racism will be a
long-term struggle, one that probably won’t ever be “over,” but that
they have a responsibility to keep committing to, again and again. And
racial justice activists have experience working for a cause that can
seem hopeless, and confronting an existential risk to themselves and
their families — but they keep doing the work anyway.
It’s also important to remember that for many communities
the world over, facing a major threat to the present and future is
nothing new. Anti-colonial and abolitionist movements “have had long
traditions of movement resilience that have a lot to teach the climate
movement,” Ray noted, including the message that climate change is not
“the first and only existential threat we’ve ever faced.”
Indeed, social movements from the opposition to apartheid
in South Africa to Indigenous rights activism here in the US have “seen
a lot of reason for despair, and no evidence for hope, and have still
figured out how to fight the fight,” Ray said.
Seek joy, but allow for grief
The fight against climate change can be slow, difficult,
and painful. But in order to stay committed for the long haul, people
need to think about the positive too, Ray said, to “actively discipline
into your life the cultivation of joy.”
That could mean something as simple as reading news about environmental success stories or successful activism in your local community. Ray is involved in a local group with the Just Transition movement,
which works toward an equitable shift away from fossil fuels, and says
“the newsletter that they send me is enough to keep me going.”
“The world is awful,” Ray said. “And there’s so much beauty, joy, and delight to be had too.”
Cliff divers spend time at High Rocks Park in Portland during the heat dome that descended over the Pacific Northwest in June.
Nathan Howard/Getty Images
It’s also okay to feel the awfulness of the world. After
all, climate change for many people today means risk to themselves or
their loved ones, or destruction of their homes or places they’ve come
to love. And part of acknowledging climate anxiety and grief, for people
not yet personally affected by disasters, can be asking yourself, “If I
am hurting so much, what is happening to people who are less
privileged?” Kritee, a senior climate scientist at the Environmental
Defense Fund, recently told the New York Times.
People who have been involved in climate science or
activism for years still feel sorrow, despair, or rage, Heglar said. In
fact, “I feel comforted by the fact I can still feel that way, because
it means I’m not desensitised,” she said. “I never want to be that
person who can look at the world burn and feel fine.”
But when climate grief or despair become overwhelming,
the key is to reach out to others in your community. “You are not the
only one feeling this way,” Heglar said, adding that “it benefits the
fossil fuel industry when you think you are. So find the other people
who are feeling it too.”
Given all this, it’s no surprise that “all of a sudden, everybody’s going into nihilism,” as Heglar puts it.
But experts say we’re notcompletely
powerless, and there’s a way to live in an age of climate change
without giving up or sticking your head in the sand. It’s not
necessarily about going vegan or making your home zero-waste, either.
The idea of reducing your personal carbon footprint,
while not inherently wrong, has often been used as a distraction,
“pitting working people against each other with morality choices about
how sustainable you are,” rather than “realizing how much you actually
have in common,” Mejia said.
Instead, many say the key to fighting despair is to think
beyond the individual and seek community support and solutions —
especially those that put pressure on governments and companiesto
make the large-scale changes that are necessary to truly curtail
emissions. As Heglar put it, “the most detrimental thing to climate
action is this feeling that we’re all in it alone.”
Many Americans are recognizing the reality of climate change
Climate anxiety and despair are far from new phenomena. But thisdisastrous summer has drivenhome
the message that the changing climate “is not something we can avoid,”
Sarah Jaquette Ray, leader of the Environmental Studies Program at
Humboldt State University, told Vox. “I’m literally talking to you from
the smoke right now.”
That message is showing up in polling. About a third of Americans
(and two-thirds of Republicans) still don’t believe that humans are
causing climate change, but a lot of people have been growing more
concerned in recent years. This year, for example, 50 percent of
participants in a Morning Consult poll
said the changing climate poses a “critical threat” to American
interests, up 6 percentage points from 2019 and 10 points from 2017.
American attitudes about what to do about climate change
are evolving too. Carbon emissions have often been treated as a problem
to be solved by changing our personal consumption habits, with an
explosion of green products
aimed at capitalizing on people’s desire to be environmentally
friendly. Aside from the irony of getting people to buy more stuff as a
way of reducing their environmental impact, this approach also obscured
the real culprits, many say: companies that produce or use large amounts
of fossil fuels, and governments that have been far too slow to curb
emissions.
Indeed, oil companies like ExxonMobil have used
sophisticated PR campaigns to make climate change seem like an issue of
personal responsibility, and deflect blame away from their own actions, as Rebecca Leber reported for Vox.
“A lot of the individualist solutions that have propagated across
society and across our discourse, such as the carbon footprint and the
idea of self-sacrifice in order to save the planet, really have the
fingerprints of a few oil companies,” Mejia said.
In truth, the biggest contributors to carbon emissions in the United States, transportation, electricity, and industry,
are only partly under individuals’ control. People can choose to use
less energy in their homes, but household electricity use only accounts
for about 10 percent of CO2 emissions in the US — even getting rid of it
entirely wouldn’t be enough to stop climate change. And while some
people can choose to drive an electric car or go car-free, they can’t
individually shut down coal plants or redesign America’s public transit
systems to make that an option for everyone.
It is something to think about and take heart over. We can do our bit as normal people but we need to put pressure on those big companies who surely must have children and grandchildren in the families of the owners. Is it a case of we´re all okay, we aren´t going to think of anyone else or the planet, well I hate to break it to you but the awful stuff will filter it´s way to you somehow. I am sure that one way or another they have been affected by the severe climate changes, fires, floods and tornadoes!
Onward we all must go, thinking positive and knowing that if each of us makes a small change the ripple effect will be awesome.
The blog song for today is "Chelsea Dagger" the Fratellis
The government’s landmark Environment Bill is nearing the end of a
complex and fraught journey. When Parliament returns on 6 September,
Peers will debate and vote on a series of key amendments.
The bill is expected to pass in the autumn ahead of the COP26 summit,
where we hope that it will help spur successful negotiations.
The bill is also destined to kickstart domestic action to address
environmental challenges ranging from toxic air in cities to worsening
river pollution to species decline and habitat loss to our throwaway
society.
The main question likely to exercise Peers is whether the bill – and
the new environmental governance system at its heart – is fit for
purpose and equipped to stand the test of time. While the environmental
credentials of current Defra ministers are well established, their
enthusiasm will not necessarily be shared by their successors, so legal frameworks must be durable, and clarity and ambition embedded rather than assumed.
The environmental NGO community has been working tirelessly on the bill ever since it was a glint in the eye
of ministers. The final throes of a bill’s passage are when amendments
not initially proposed by the government can be progressed. But this
process is far from trivial as changes must be agreed by all government
departments.
At this stage in the parliamentary process, a degree of pragmatism
must therefore set in. While there are of course many other areas where
the bill could potentially be strengthened, these improvements are
essential ‘must have’ changes that we hope to see come to pass. They are
also necessary to justify the world leading badge that the government
craves to pin to this bill.
Environmental governance to stand the test of time At
the heart of the new governance system lie a set of five environmental
principles and the new oversight body, the Office for Environmental
Protection (OEP). While ministers will have to respect these principles
in their policy making, policy relating to two key areas – defence and
spending – will largely be carved out. These loopholes must be closed.
The OEP’s independence and powers have been a standout issue in every
parliamentary debate. The appointment of Dame Glenys Stacey as the
first Chair has been universally welcomed, but her high calibre is no
guarantee that future appointments will be made to similar high
standards. A greater role for Parliament in the hiring and firing of
board members would be a welcome additional safeguard. This would mirror
existing arrangements
for several other oversight bodies and would not interfere with
ministers’ commitment to ensuring prudent use of public resources.
The power of the Secretary of State to instruct the OEP on how to
develop and implement its enforcement policy has unsurprisingly come
under considerable attack as a slight to the body’s independence. Rethinking this will be essential if the bill is to proceed with the Lords’ blessing.
Concerns that developers and private interests have been given
priority over the environment in the new enforcement system have been
highlighted in Parliament and by the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.
Peers have proposed a middle way in which unlawful decisions can be
effectively remedied and the interests of third parties considered.
An ambitious targets framework will help drive nature’s recovery Comparison
with the Climate Change Act reveals some key differences in how the
government is planning to set and meet environmental targets. Businesses
have called for
greater certainty to support investment and to drive ambition through
binding rather than optional milestones and requiring environmental
improvement plans to set out policies and proposals for how the targets
will be achieved.
Our wildlife and green spaces are under threat, in some cases
existentially. But the glitch in the government’s otherwise welcome
target on species abundance risks missing an opportunity to drive and
sustain a better future for our wildlife. This could be addressed
through the simplest of amendments.
Adding a requirement for habitats created through biodiversity net
gain to be maintained for 125 years, not 30 years, would add an
intergenerational dimension to this welcome policy. Boosting the role
that local nature recovery strategies will play in local planning and
spending decisions and guiding the new powers for ministers to revise
the habitats regulations towards enhancing site and species protections
would complete an ambitious nature package.
On resources and waste, the measures in the bill are designed to move
us toward a more circular economy that keeps materials in use for
longer. This is very welcome but one of the powers in the bill jars with
this holistic approach. Broadening the power to charge for single use
plastic items to cover all single use items would better fit with the
tenor of government policy and help avoid the risk of unintended and
harmful material substitution.
Seizing the opportunity to reduce our global footprint Ministers
have clarified that the powers in the bill can be used to set a target
to reduce our global environmental footprint. But such a target is
absent from the first tranche and there is no clarity on when it would be brought forward. As research from WWF shows, a 2030 target is necessary but is not possible under the current bill framework.
The government has pledged to tackle global deforestation through a
new measure in the bill to require businesses to undertake due diligence
on their supply chains and through a prohibition on certain high risk
forest commodities. As the new system is based on the eradication of
illegal deforestation, there is an inherent risk
that producer countries may seek to change or fudge their laws to
accommodate the new provisions. The inbuilt review within the bill
assumes a greater importance in this context and should be more
expansive to enable the due diligence system to keep pace with global
change.
I should imagine that most of the governments of Europe are facing the same issues. It is the time to tackle this problem head on. We cannot waste any more time and energy wringing our hands and doing nothing. Everyone has to do their bit, no matter how small they think it is, something is better than nothing.
Small steps lead to big changes. The small changes I have made for me and my family have now started to be noticed. I make all my own cleaning products along with soap, shampoo, shower gel and even mosquito repellant. I try to buy products not packaged in plastic as much as I can, but this is not always possible, especially with water. Unfortunately the water where we live is not drinkable and we have to buy bottled. I normally buy as large as possible, I cannot remember the last time I bought a small bottle of water, so that is a change. When I recycle now, I have noticed that it is only once or twice a week, which is fantastic, because before it was every other day. I buy tinned cat food because the pouches are not recyclable for our kitties and that makes a huge difference.
The blog song for today is: " Happy Hour" by the Housemartins
If you’ve painted your house, refinished your floors, or switched
your lightbulbs from CFLs to LEDs, chances are you had some leftover
products containing dangerous ingredients. Paints, cleaners, batteries,
and pesticides are among the common household materials that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies as household hazardous waste (HHW):
EPA considers some leftover household products that can
catch fire, react, or explode under certain circumstances, or that are
corrosive or toxic as household hazardous waste.”
Many types of HHW aren’t recyclable; for those products, the focus is
on keeping hazardous materials out of the landfills and water supply.
Let’s take a closer look at why proper storage and disposal of these
common household products is so important.
1. Why should I care about HHW?
First, it’s the law. The 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA) put rules in place for the storage, handling, and disposal of
HHW. If you dispose of it improperly (for example, pour it down the
drain), you are likely breaking the law.
Second, HHW often contains toxic chemicals like cadmium, lead, and mercury. There’s a reason you can no longer find paint containing lead or alkaline batteries containing mercury. They present a health hazard to people, animals, and the environment.
2. How do I identify HHW?
Unfortunately, household hazardous waste is rarely labeled explicitly. Some words to look for on the container include:
Signals
Characteristics
Caution
Corrosive
Danger
Flammable
Poison
Reactive
Warning
Toxic
If you see any of these words on the label, you’re dealing with a
hazardous material. Store the product away from children and pets.
Dispose of any remaining product through the proper channel.
3. Where do I find HHW?
You’ll most often find hazardous household products in the garage, in
the form of automotive fluids, paint, or pesticides. They are also
common in the kitchen (aerosol cans, cleaning supplies, fire extinguishers), bathroom (medications, nail polish, hypodermic needles), and living areas (batteries, electronics, thermostats).
4. Who accepts HHW for disposal?
Because household hazardous waste comes in two forms, liquid and solid, they have different disposal options.
Most solid HHW, including batteries and fluorescent bulbs, has been classified as universal waste.
This means relaxed collection and storage requirements that allow
retailers to collect these items for safe disposal. For example, Home
Depot and Lowe’s accept used compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), Best Buy
and Staples collect electronics, and most electronic retailers accept
rechargeable batteries and cell phones.
Liquid HHW is one of the most frequently banned materials
from landfills in America, so you should find a safe disposal option.
Unfortunately, only local municipalities will offer free collection. If
your community doesn’t offer HHW collection you can take it along to the waste disposal site in town. If you are a business and dispose of a lot of this material you will have to pay. However, some object to this because they say they already pay for rubbish collection and why should they pay more. If they are a business surely they can include the cost for disposal in their quotation and following invoice for this disposal, so in effect they are not really paying at all.
Check with your local waste management program for instructions for the proper disposal of HHW.
5. When can I get rid of HHW?
Some communities operate permanent HHW facilities where you can take it year-round. These facilities are often residency restricted,
which means you can’t use the community’s facility unless you reside
there.
If you have unused medications, every chemist here in Menorca and probably in most places have a drop box where you can leave everything.
6. What happens to HHW?
Some forms of household hazardous waste can be recycled. You may be familiar with the acronym ABOP,
which stands for “antifreeze, batteries, oil, and paint.” All of these
products are recyclable, as well as aerosol cans, CFLs, mercury
thermostats, and oil filters.
HHW that isn’t recycled or reused is typically incinerated
through a process that significantly limits the release of pollutants
into the air. Scrubbers collect emissions at the incinerator smokestack,
according to EPA rules.
Take the time to dispose of household hazardous waste properly. It
will protect your family and property from contamination and improve the
local environment.
This is just a small thing that is quite easy to do, and it does make a difference.
The blog song for today is: "Rat trap", by the Boom Town Rats
Below is a really good report from : https://only.one
It is an organisation totally dedicated to all matters concerning the sea.
A report by Tyler Dunning, an environmental writer.
Deep Dive
The planet is being ravaged by plastics and stopping it requires more than recycling. Prevention starts with mitigating production.
Plastics have visibly contaminated our ocean and afflicted countless marine species. Because they’re derived from fossil fuels, they have contributed heavily to the heating of our planet and have spread petrochemicals ubiquitously through our water and soil and air. They’ve also had disturbing consequences for public health.
The statistics are so dire that they are difficult to conceptualize: that by 2050 there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish; that a garbage truck’s worth of plastic enters the ocean every minute; that microplastics are now being detected in utero and that petrochemicals are diminishing the ability of current and future generations to reproduce—all while a mighty few profit from plastic production.
But here’s the better news: we don’t live alone in this world of accumulating hazards. Collectively, our voices can bring global accountability to the goliath interests that have gone unchecked for far too long. By treating pollution as a symptom and not the disease, we can finally address this plastics crisis at the source.
Plastic has a young yet complex story. This “material of a thousand uses,” though still revolutionary and advantageous in many aspects, has resulted in an even greater number of misuses and dire consequences. The most obvious is marine pollution.
Damage from pollution is escalating—it’s estimated that by 2040 there will be 110 pounds of plastic for every three feet of coastline on the planet · Shawn Heinrichs
About half of all plastics float. Other types, such as vinyl, sink like stones. Because of this, plastic products bob on the water’s surface while simultaneously littering the deepest reaches of the seafloor · Cristina Mittermeier
Beach surveys consistently report that 60 to 80 percent of coastal pollution is plastic · Shawn Heinrichs
Plastic debris was initially observed in the ocean in the late 1960s, and a mere thirty years later, the first of five major “garbage patches” was discovered. Think of these as massive aquatic areas of trash soup—regions formed by circulating currents, called gyres, that navigate debris to central stagnant locations. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, situated between California and Japan, was initially thought to have the same surface area as France, but is now more accurately estimated at three times that size. The five main gyres that form garbage patches collectively cover 40 percent of the ocean’s surface—and plastic production, as no surprise, correlates directly to the accumulating debris.
We’ve unfortunately become too familiar with—and desensitized to—viral videos and images of sea turtles with plastic straws lodged in their nasal cavities, or the decayed remains of albatross with exposed stomachs full of bottle caps and cigarette lighters, or tiny seahorses latched to floating cotton swabs as if courting a friend. Lost and discarded fishing nets, also made of plastic, have become a major ocean pollutant and indiscriminate killer. The toll taken on marine species is incalculable, agonizing, and simply unacceptable.
It’s very common for marine life to get tangled in discarded fishing gear, like plastic nets or line, and drown. This green sea turtle is one such casualty · Shane Gross
If you trace the petrochemical thread from pollution back to production, one theme repeats: unnecessary suffering. Because of this, marine species must increasingly navigate the plastic minefield overtaking their seascape · Sam Hobson
Single-use plastics are made from fossil fuels that can take hundreds of millions of years to formulate. Yet, these items—like bottle caps, fast food packaging, and grocery bags—may only get used for seconds or minutes. Once in the ocean, they may never biodegrade · Cristina Mittermeier
The first plastic was invented in 1869, a substance called celluloid that could be made to replicate the aesthetics of wildlife: tortoiseshell, linen, ivory. Many applauded it as a savior of animals. Nearly a century and a half later, a darker truth has been revealed · Caroline Power Most nets are now made of nylon, a strong and cheap form of plastic that doesn't easily breakdown. When lost or discarded, these nets can tumble across shallow reefs, snagging and destroying the live coral along their path · Richard Whitcombe
To a less visible degree, nature can’t completely decompose plastic molecules—debris degrades into smaller and smaller pieces, but almost never biodegrades—allowing these “forever” micro- and nanoplastics to contaminate ecosystems across the globe. They’ve been detected from the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Microplastics get ingested by a whole suite of organisms, from plankton to krill to larger vertebrates, which then get eaten by even larger predators.
This bioaccumulation of plastic makes its way to the top of any food web—including our own dinner plates.
Many of us have been literally screaming about this gigantic, out of control problem for years, and yet even with the latest report from the IPCC, when I look around this beautiful planet that is, after all the only home we have, the destruction that WE HUMANS are doing baffles me.
I will give you an example, close to home, here on Menorca, this month of August, we have had hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to this island for the peace and quiet. What a joke, when I do get the brave up and go into town, I don´t see happy smiling "we are on holiday" faces, I see angry ones instead. The town is completely packed, there are cars everywhere, even though there is a limit in place on the amount of hire cars on the island, this is because people have brought their own cars with them, clever heh! Thanks a bunch, now the roads are constantly jammed, especially to the ferry port, which they all came from and go to, there are reports in the local papers of cars parked at local beaches for 2 km, along the small lanes around these places.
The amount of accidents on the roads have increased (naturally) which puts a tremendous strain on the heatlh service already under pressure. The whole situation is laughable. The government here are saying that it is bringing money to the island, I would love to know how that is, a lot are staying in hotels owned by chains, based out of Menorca, and some out of Spain. The people who come from the mainland go to Mercadona, which is not based here, but on the mainland, also Lidl (A german company) so all the money goes off the island.
There is also the problem of when people go the the virgin beaches (so clean and unspoilt) they are not so when they leave. They buy all their picnics and drinks etc to take to the beach, but for some reason feel that they don´t have to take the empty bottles, containers back with them, it´s as if they imagine that we have a huge army of cleaners here who work at night to clean up after them!
I and many others will be so pleased when we reach September, this month has been absolutely awful! There are many people who live here who have been wondering what happened and how come the balearic government allowed the quantity of visitors to come here, I have read somewhere that other Islands have limited the amount of visitors they let on. I do believe that something like that needs to happen here.
Fingers crossed that those public officials realise that money is not everything and quality of life means so much more than a few more euros in the bank, sitting there, doing nothing.
The blog song for today is "Give a little bit" by Supertramp
La zona mediterránea es una de las
regiones con mayor riesgo mundial de incendios por el cambio climático.
La solución, en el caso de España, pasaría por transformar el paisaje
para que sea menos inflamable.
Nuestros bosques y el territorio en su conjunto están también listos
para arder. Las predicciones apuntan a que, si no actuamos, lo peor está
por llegar, y en los próximos años podríamos asistir a un número
creciente de incendios cada vez más severos. Por esa razón, pedimos tu apoyo a través de tu firma con el objetivo de lograr que nuestros bosques dejen de ser pasto de las llamas.
La cuenca mediterránea se encuentra en estos momentos asediada por el fuego. Grecia y Turquía están cercadas por las llamas,
llevando a toda la región a un estado de alerta ante la posibilidad de
que se produzcan cada vez más incendios de extrema peligrosidad. De
hecho, no hay que olvidar que la región mediterránea es una de
las zonas con mayor riesgo por el cambio climático a escala mundial, ya
que el impacto de la subida de las temperaturas será unas 20 veces mayor
que en el resto del Planeta.
Los expertos de WWF valoran a escala regional las causas que hay detrás de los incendios que asolan la cuenca mediterránea:
Desde Turquía, donde la situación está
siendo dramática y ha supuesto hasta ahora la pérdida de ocho vidas
humanas, inciden también en la necesidad de “adaptar” los bosques a este
contexto de cambio climático. Sedat Kalen, director de Conservación de WWF Turquía, analiza la situación: “mientras reducimos rápidamente las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero que causan el cambio climático, necesitamos aumentar la adaptabilidad de nuestros bosques a las condiciones climáticas cambiantes, como en todas las áreas”. Y continúa con varias medidas preventivas: “Tenemos ante nosotros opciones como aumentar
la diversidad de especies en nuestras masas forestales, optar por
especies más resistentes a la sequía, proteger el suelo y los recursos
hídricos, priorizar los servicios de los ecosistemas en lugar de la
producción de madera en el manejo de los bosques”.
También insisten en la prevención desde Grecia, donde apunta Demetres Karavellas, director general de WWF Grecia:
"Literalmente estamos ardiendo en Grecia, con temperaturas récord y más
de 80 incendios forestales que han estallado en solo 24 horas. La crisis climática es una dura realidad, que nos muestra que los bosques serán cada vez más vulnerables, pero también más valiosos por los críticos servicios que brindan. Salvar estos bosques requerirá que nos adaptemos y pongamos mucho más énfasis en la prevención de incendios y la gestión forestal activa, en lugar de luchar, a un gran coste, para apagar incendios feroces después de que estos hayan estallado".
En el caso de España, donde un desastre similar podría suceder, Lourdes Hernández,
experta en incendios forestales de WWF, nos explica las causas que hay
tras este grave problema: “junto a estas condiciones meteorológicas
especialmente adversas (altas temperaturas, sequía extrema, fuertes
viento), la alta siniestralidad e intencionalidad, el
despoblamiento rural, el abandono de usos tradicionales, la escasa
gestión forestal y la ausencia de políticas que gestionen de forma
coherente el territorio son el cóctel perfecto para incendios de alta intensidad, simultáneos e imposibles de apagar”.
Soluciones a los incendios forestales:
Como ya indicamos en el informe sobre incendios forestales presentado el pasado mes de junio, bajo el título "Paisajes cortafuegos", hay
que recuperar el paisaje mosaico, de manera que se conjugue un tejido
productivo con la conservación de la naturaleza y la lucha contra el
cambio climático. Y esto solo se puede lograr si se recuperan los paisajes tradicionales,
que son aquellos donde existen pastos con usos ganaderos extensivos,
masas forestales bien gestionadas, cultivos extensivos y bosques
autóctonos. Y donde se aplican eficaces medidas de autoprotección en las
zonas de interfaz urbano-forestal que eviten la pérdida de vidas
humanas.
Es clave que el Gobierno central y las comunidades autónomas aprueben una Estrategia
Estatal de Gestión Integral de Incendios Forestales y acelerar la
transición energética hacia un modelo más limpio, eficiente y renovable
que permita combatir el gran acelerador de los incendios, el cambio
climático.
El cancion para el blog de hoy esta: " Mile End" Pulp
Well August is here and this year it is absolutely full to the brim, for those of us that live here all year round it is a bit stressfull.
At this very moment in time we are swamped with visitors to the Island, there have been 500 cars arriving on each boat from various places in Spain, our little Island cannot cope with it. Some of the driving is really dangerous, to risk the lives of your family and themselves to save 5 minutes is baffling to me. The pollution is off the scale not to mention the amount of electricity being used along with the mountains of rubbish being dumped at our virgin beaches (which they get up at 6.00 in the morning to go and fry themselves on, enjoy the pristine cleanliness, litter it then leave). These visitors come to our Island for the natural beauty and cleanliness, which some of them abuse and ruin the very thing they come here for. How twisted is that?
A lot of people seem to think that they don´t need to recycle, just put everything in the green bin, and it magically gets separated by the little elves at the rubbish plant, well I hate to burst that bubble but "IT EFFING WELL DOESN´T".
Near where we live there are a lot of tourists ( alot of spanish who know how the system works) and very few can actually be bothered to walk for an extra 5 minutes to recycle THEIR CRAP. It is the responsiblity of the hotels and private landlords to ask their guests politely to recycle, so that we can all make an effort to preserve the beauty of Menorca.
Save the Mediterranean Our sea is overexploited, polluted by spills and suffocated by excessive maritime traffic and tourism. Protection for the Mediterranean Now!
The Mediterranean, the Mare Nostrum, is not only the cradle of ancient civilizations and one of the busiest places on the planet, but also one of the most important areas for marine biodiversity on our planet.
Although it represents less than 1% of the surface of the planet's oceans, this sea is home to 1 in 10 marine species, of which 28% are unique. Among others, the resident populations of 8 species of cetaceans stand out, as well as populations of loggerhead and green turtles, monk seals and more than 70 species of sharks and rays.
THE MOST POLLUTED SEA IN THE WORLD
But it is also one of the most threatened seas and one that suffers the greatest pressure from human beings. The 200 million annual tourists who visit the Mediterranean coast generate great urban pressures on the coast, contribute to the increase in pollution and the dumping of plastics into the sea and prevent sea turtles from making their nests in their usual areas
The Mediterranean is the most polluted sea in the world and is considered the sixth area with the highest accumulation of marine debris, concentrating 7% of the planet's microplastics. This is a serious problem for the entire ecosystem and for such emblematic species as turtles or cetaceans that can ingest large pieces of plastic.
VICTIMS OF GHOST NETWORKS
In addition, they are victims of the so-called ghost nets, remains of abandoned fishing nets and gear in which different species become entangled, causing death. Globally 45% of marine mammals, 21% of seabirds and all species of sea turtles have been affected by this marine debris. The intense fishing activity also has a serious impact on many species: 75% of the assessed fisheries are overexploited.
DEADLY TRAP FOR CETACEANS
The Mediterranean concentrates 25% of the world's maritime traffic, which causes serious damage to marine mammals (noise, collisions, annoyances, etc.) A level of traffic that has doubled since 2002. This increase has triggered the number of cruise passengers in the Mediterranean from 8.7 to 30 million in just one decade. Luxury tourism is also suffocating our seas: more than half of the world's superyachts ply the waters of the Mediterranean each summer with increasing infrastructure needs on the coast.
The results of all these pressures are truly dramatic. From whales that are hit by boats, turtles that ingest plastic and compete with tourists on their nesting beaches, to sharks threatened by overfishing. As a consequence, marine mammal populations have decreased by 41% in the last 50 years. More than half of the shark and ray species found in the Mediterranean are classified as endangered. There are only about 400 monk seals left in the Mediterranean.
LIKE A SOUP
The Mediterranean Sea is suffering the impact of climate change very directly and is heating up 20% faster than the world average. At least 1,000 invasive species have appeared from warmer areas to the Mediterranean displacing indigenous ones and destroying important habitats.
MEDITERRANEAN ALREADY PROTECTED
Only 1.27% of the Mediterranean is effectively protected, while international agreements establish a minimum of 10% and the world's leading scientists recommend that at least 30% of the sea should be protected through marine spaces protected areas and other conservation and management measures for the most vulnerable ecosystems.
IT'S POSSIBLE
With our work we demonstrate that the protection of the seas is a possible and NECESSARY solution. In addition to fighting against plastic pollution and promoting sustainable fishing, from WWF we are promoting the creation of a network of protected areas where species can find refuge and recover their populations, where activities such as fishing are sustainable and where marine traffic is not. cause damage to marine fauna.
The Marine Reserves of Tagomago, the Medas Islands, Tabarca, Columbretes, the Cabrera National Park, among many other cases show that it is possible.
The Mediterranean is calling us and asking for urgent help. We are suffocating it more and more. We have to act now.
The blog song for today is: "You got the love" by Candi Staton "sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air" I know that feeling!
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