Next time you go to the beach
Next time you go to the beach, take a closer look around you. Is it the pristine, white sand and occassional driftwood paradise you last saw a decade or so ago. I rather think not. Plastic bottles, wrappers and bags, fast food packaging, nappies, you name it you'll find something shamelessly discarded for you to enjoy with your picnic.
Fortunately for us there is Sustainable Coastlines who do a great job of cleaning up our coastlines and providing education about recycling and better methods of disposing of waste. Sustainable Coastlines go beyond the shores of New Zealand, recently organising a major cleanup of Ha'apai Islands in Tonga. The waste collected from the shorelines of these small islands in the pacific was incredible. You can read more about this at Sustainable Coastlines
Thing is, these were a couple of small islands in a very large ocean of small and large islands surrounded by some very large continents. Tons and tons of our waste is either left on or washed up on our shores every day. The only way the problem is going to be fixed is by us humans changing our habits. I should remind you all at this stage the meaning of human (according to wikipedia as follows) >> "Humans commonly refers to the species Homo sapiens (Latin: "wise man" or "knowing man").
Maybe not so wise after all.
All this rubbish discarded on our beaches will end up in the currents of the ocean and eventually find its way to the North Pacific Gyre (or other massive ocean eddies) where it will remain for decades to come. Along the way and forever more providing what looks like feed to smaller fish species who will be consumed by larger fish species who will be consumed by you and me. This is a problem !!! These plastics break down in to smaller and smaller pieces. They never go away, they just get smaller and smaller and they attract bacteria and toxins which are eventually passed back to us through the food chain. Links are now being made to lower human reproductive capabilties. It has something to do with "endocrine disruptors" as so described below >>
Endocrine disruptors are exogenous substances that act like hormones in the endocrine system and disrupt the physiologic function of endogenous hormones. They are sometimes also referred to as hormonally active agents[1] or endocrine disrupting chemicals.[2]/compounds[3] (EDC) Studies have linked endocrine disruptors to adverse biological effects in animals, giving rise to concerns that low-level exposure might cause similar effects in human beings.[4]
Like I've said elsewhere in this site, we have a few other problems apart from climate change.
Fortunately for us there is Sustainable Coastlines who do a great job of cleaning up our coastlines and providing education about recycling and better methods of disposing of waste. Sustainable Coastlines go beyond the shores of New Zealand, recently organising a major cleanup of Ha'apai Islands in Tonga. The waste collected from the shorelines of these small islands in the pacific was incredible. You can read more about this at Sustainable Coastlines
Thing is, these were a couple of small islands in a very large ocean of small and large islands surrounded by some very large continents. Tons and tons of our waste is either left on or washed up on our shores every day. The only way the problem is going to be fixed is by us humans changing our habits. I should remind you all at this stage the meaning of human (according to wikipedia as follows) >> "Humans commonly refers to the species Homo sapiens (Latin: "wise man" or "knowing man").
Maybe not so wise after all.
All this rubbish discarded on our beaches will end up in the currents of the ocean and eventually find its way to the North Pacific Gyre (or other massive ocean eddies) where it will remain for decades to come. Along the way and forever more providing what looks like feed to smaller fish species who will be consumed by larger fish species who will be consumed by you and me. This is a problem !!! These plastics break down in to smaller and smaller pieces. They never go away, they just get smaller and smaller and they attract bacteria and toxins which are eventually passed back to us through the food chain. Links are now being made to lower human reproductive capabilties. It has something to do with "endocrine disruptors" as so described below >>
Endocrine disruptors are exogenous substances that act like hormones in the endocrine system and disrupt the physiologic function of endogenous hormones. They are sometimes also referred to as hormonally active agents[1] or endocrine disrupting chemicals.[2]/compounds[3] (EDC) Studies have linked endocrine disruptors to adverse biological effects in animals, giving rise to concerns that low-level exposure might cause similar effects in human beings.[4]
Like I've said elsewhere in this site, we have a few other problems apart from climate change.
