Here is a list of the questions that were asked of our intrepid City Council Candidates, in the video of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition Environmental Forum, posted below. This Green Forum was devoted entirely to environmental issues. The Candidates were not given the questions in advance. Pity the person that had to go first!
1. Please take one minute and introduce yourself. In your introduction, please tell us what type of support for environmental issues we can expect from you as an Ojai city council member.
2. What do you see as Ojai’s most pressing environmental concern? How would you work on this as a city council member?
3. One of the more difficult environmental issues facing our valley is the spreading of arundo grass throughout our watershed. The county has proposed eradicating the weed with the herbicide Roundup to keep this grass from destroying our native plants. Environmental health concerns have been raised from people concerned about putting herbicides into our water and air. Where do you stand on this issue?
4. The county of Ventura put into place a gray water ordinance 8 months ago. To date, no one has yet applied for the permit. Some of the reasons for this are that it is to cumbersome to meet the county requirements and it is too expensive to implement. My question is twofold. Do you support allowing graywater systems in the City of Ojai? If so, how will you make this happen in such a way that people will actually use the process?
5. According to Californians Against Waste, 19 billion plastic grocery and store bags are used each year in California. To put this into perspective, it takes 4000 barrels of oil a day to produce a year’s worth of our bags. These bags also contribute to litter, landfills, and debris in our oceans and waterways. Despite increased efforts, less than 1% of these bags are recycled and it uses more energy to recycle the bag than it does to make a new bag. Would you be in favor of a ban or use fee on plastic bags in the city or would you take some other approach to this problem?
6. How would you work to support green building and remodeling or natural building in the City of Ojai?
7. The City of Berkeley recently passed a plan that has the City paying up front installation costs for solar panels on private homes and then recouping those costs from homeowners over 20 years through additional assessments on property tax.
What are your opinions on the City of Ojai implementing such a plan? Do you see the City stepping in to support city residents in other ways such as creating a city owned power company or water company?
8. How would you encourage more biking and walking within the City?
9. Please identify any goal from the City of Ojai Roadmap to Sustainability and give us an overview on how you will work to make significant environmental changes in this area in the next six months.
10. Please take one minute and give us your concluding remarks.
See related story http://www.ojaipost.com/2008/10/city_council_candidate_forum_t.shtml
{ 35 comments }
This question has been asked and answered several times in the ’80s, ’90s, and now in the ’00s.
Plastic. Now, and forever.
Compared to paper grocery bags, plastic grocery bags consume 40 percent less energy, generate 80 percent less solid waste, produce 70 percent fewer atmospheric emissions, and release up to 94 percent fewer waterborne wastes, according to the federation.
Source:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/09/0902_030902_plasticbags.html
Dear Johnny Chingas,
I appreciate your feedback.
With all due respect, the article cited in your comment tells only part of the story.
Experts worldwide have documented that the plastic bag is an environmental scourge like none other, sapping the life out of our oceans and thwarting our attempts to recycle it.
Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. More than 1 million bags a minute are consumed, becoming trash and choking marine mammals.
Regular plastic bags do not biodegrade, they photodegrade – breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest them.
Ojai should join other cities and move in the direction of a plastic bag ban. Meanwhile, we can do what other cities are doing: start charging customers a small fee (10 cents is suggested) for every plastic bag they give out and credit customers who bring their own bags and boxes 10 cents for every bag saved.
All stores should provide a bin where customers can use recycled paper and plastic bags brought in by other customers, for those times they forget to bring their own.
Each cloth shopping bag has the potential to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic and paper bags over its lifetime.
Every store should have a sign near the check-out counter reminding consumers that it takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the plastic bags Americans use each year.
In addition, about 15 million trees are cut down to produce paper for paper bags. This would help remind shoppers that they can reduce oil consumption and save trees simply by bringing their own bag to the store.
Check it out for yourself:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/08/10/plastic_bags/
Only 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled worldwide — about 2 percent in the U.S. — and the rest, when discarded, can persist for centuries. They can spend eternity in landfills, or they blow away to the far corners of the earth and deep into the ocean. They’re so aerodynamic that even when they’re properly disposed of in a trash can they can still blow away and become litter.
So the National Geographic article is just “part of the story?” It seems like the facts presented there would be a big part of the story! Well, here’s another one that should blow your mind. This is from the Times of London. As Noam Chomsky says, “don’t take my word for it, look it up!”
Plastic Bags Evil? Think Again, Some Scientists Say
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Scientists and environmentalists have attacked a global campaign to ban plastic bags that they say is based on flawed science and exaggerated claims.
The widely stated accusation that the bags kill 100,000 animals and a million seabirds every year are false, experts have told The Times of London. They pose only a minimal threat to most marine species, including seals, whales, dolphins and seabirds.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced last month that he would force supermarkets to charge for the bags, saying that they were “one of the most visible symbols of environmental waste.”
Retailers and some pressure groups, including the Campaign to Protect Rural England, threw their support behind him, and similar movements have spread across the United States.
But scientists, politicians and marine experts attacked the British government for joining a “bandwagon” based on poor science.
“The Government is irresponsible to jump on a bandwagon that has no base in scientific evidence,” said Lord Taverne, the chairman of Sense about Science. “This is one of many examples where you get bad science leading to bad decisions which are counter-productive. Attacking plastic bags makes people feel good but it doesn’t achieve anything.”
Campaigners say that plastic bags pollute coastlines and waterways, killing or injuring birds and livestock on land and, in the oceans, destroying vast numbers of seabirds, seals, turtles and whales. However, the Times has established that there is no scientific evidence to show that the bags pose any direct threat to marine mammals.
They “don’t figure” in the majority of cases where animals die from marine debris, said David Laist, the author of a seminal 1997 study on the subject. Most deaths were caused when creatures became caught up in waste produce. “Plastic bags don’t figure in entanglement,” he said. “The main culprits are fishing gear, ropes, lines and strapping bands. Most mammals are too big to get caught up in a plastic bag.”
He added: “The impact of bags on whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals ranges from nil for most species to very minor for perhaps a few species.For birds, plastic bags are not a problem either.”
The central claim of campaigners is that the bags kill more than 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds every year. However, this figure is based on a misinterpretation of a 1987 Canadian study in Newfoundland, which found that, between 1981 and 1984, more than 100,000 marine mammals, including birds, were killed by discarded nets. The Canadian study did not mention plastic bags.
Fifteen years later in 2002, when the Australian government commissioned a report into the effects of plastic bags, its authors misquoted the Newfoundland study, mistakenly attributing the deaths to “plastic bags.”
The figure was latched on to by conservationists as proof that the bags were killers. For four years the “typo” remained uncorrected. It was only in 2006 that the authors altered the report, replacing “plastic bags” with “plastic debris”. But they admitted: “The actual numbers of animals killed annually by plastic bag litter is nearly impossible to determine.”
In a postscript to the correction they admitted that the original Canadian study had referred to fishing tackle, not plastic debris, as the threat to the marine environment.
Regardless, the erroneous claim has become the keystone of a widening campaign to demonise plastic bags.
David Santillo, a marine biologist at Greenpeace, told the Times that bad science was undermining the government’s case for banning the bags. “It’s very unlikely that many animals are killed by plastic bags,” he said. “The evidence shows just the opposite. We are not going to solve the problem of waste by focusing on plastic bags.
“It doesn’t do the government’s case any favours if you’ve got statements being made that aren’t supported by the scientific literature that’s out there. With larger mammals it’s fishing gear that’s the big problem. On a global basis plastic bags aren’t an issue. It would be great if statements like these weren’t made.”
Johnny,
Are you actually promoting the use of the disposable plastic? Are you really willing to take the chance that these billions of bags are not the blight and menace that many claim them to be? Why not just bring a cloth reusable bag to the grocery store?
Oh my, the venerable Times of London. Well, in that case you must be right JC. Anything printed in the Times is at least as valid as FOX News. After all, Rupert Murdoch owns both of these news organizations, and we all know how accurate News Corp. can be.
I’d love to know what those inaccuracies are.
Hey Johnny!
Perfect Timing! Tomorrow is Ojai’s Day Without a Bag. The Ojai Valley Green Coalition will be giving out free cloth bags all day at our local grocery stores. Try it! You’ll lighten your footprint on Planet Earth.
I have seen some of these commenters using plastic market bags recently. Ho-ho-ho…
Yo Santa, I just woke up!
Those “plastic market bags” you saw are ones left over from eons ago that have been re used a dozen times.
So see, I have been good!
When you go to the store on Saturday, Dec. 20, you will be offered a free reusable shopping bag.
Ojai’s first Day Without a Bag is being staged to encourage the use of reusable bags, which save landfill space, clean up our waterways, and reduce the amount of oil consumed and the amount of global greenhouse gases emitted in the manufacture of throw-away plastic bags.
The tables offering the bags will be located at Vons, Starr, Rite Aid, Rainbow Bridge and Westridge Markets.
I put up a link to a National Geographic article, and posted a Times of London article. No one has posted arguments or dispute to any facts contained, therein. Some seem to want to argue, but haven’t provided an issue.
A “ban” on plastic bags? Kind of Draconian. This issue has been around since the ’70s, it’s nothing new. For those who want to use cloth bags, I salute your freedom to do so regardless of the cost to environment in milling, dying, silkscreening, assembling in a China sweatshop, shipping across the ocean in a diesel freighter, trucked up to Ojai, etc.
There is a price to everything, including credibility, when you pick too many losing issues to force down Ojai’s throat. Have a good 2009.
I think the plastic bag issue, regardless of impact, is part of a greater awareness of consumption and sustainability, sorely needed in our culture.
The same people who make an effort to use a cloth bag are the same ones who turn off the lights, use CFLs and LEDs, will get a hybrid or very fuel-efficient next car, ride their bike more, get an electric meter monitor, start a vegetable garden and generally shrink their footprint.
What are the other losing issues being forced down Ojai’s throat, Johnny Chingas?
JC’s argument seems to be stuck on the old paper versus plastic dynamic. That really isn’t the issue. There is no real argument that disposable plastic bags are bed for the environment. Similarly, paper bags made from pulped trees is not a sustainable solution either. JC’s argument that cloth or reusable bags that have to be manufactured and then shipped, probably from China, using fossil fuels the whole way is valid. However, he misses the point that the bags are being reused, thus at some point there is a break even where the resources to produce/ship the bags is overcome by the continual use.
This said, I am not really in favor of a ban on plastic bags. First, which governmental body would propose the ban. Local Ojai? What about Rite-Aid and all the other stores and shops outside of the city limits of Ojai. The county of Ventura? Not very likely, but it would have a much bigger impact.
Why are talking ban anyway? The event that the OVGC(and I don’t mean the Ojai Valley Gun Club Mr. Lenihan(sp?)) is really a great thing and I salute them. How about we don’t talk ban and we just talk the merchants of the Ojai Valley into voluntarily ceasing the use of plastic bags. They can: 1) Furnish the cloth bags themselves to customers because the bags are fairly cheap and they can come with advertisements for their store. 2) Furnish the cloth bags for a deposit added to the bill of whatever the person is buying. Say 5 cents a bag that can be redeemed whenever the bags are returned by the customer. 3) Charge customers something like 25 cents for every plastic bag their order takes when they are finishing ringing people up to discourage the use of plastic. 4) Furnish cloth bags that are donated by some other organization/group/body/etc. The first three of these solutions have the added extra benefit of becoming income streams for the merchants, albeit small ones. All we have to do is get everyone together on the same page here and solve the problem. Bans just make people angry.
I think everyone is probably against the wasteful use of plastic and its’ pollution of the environment, even JC. He’s probably just mad because people are using the word ban.
please note: 600 bags PER SECOND…. in California alone:
from Californians Against Waste:
The Problem of Plastic Bags
Plastic Bags are a true menace to our ecosystems and our waste diversion goals. Barely recyclable (current figures have stalled at 1-4%), almost all of the 600 bags used in the State per second are discarded. Once discarded, they either enter our landfills or our marine ecoystem.
People think of plastic bags as being free. Instead, they actually cost taxpayers millions every year. In San Francisco alone, City officials estimate that they spend $8.5 million annually to deal with plastic bag litter–that equates to roughly 17 cents for every bag distributed in the city. Additionally:
It costs the state $25 million annually to landfill discarded plastic bags.
Public agencies in California spend in excess of $303 annually in litter abatement.
Southern California cities have spent in excess of $1.7 billion in meeting Total Maximum Daily Loads for trashed in impaired waterways.
Cities and Recyclers spend incalculable amounts removing plastic bags from their recyclables stream, where they jam machinery and add to the manual labor costs of recycling.
Beyond the economic costs, plastic bags are a blight to our marine environment as well. We have all seen plastic bags in transit to our rivers and oceans–trapped in trees or in storm gutter drains–but it is less often that we see the full environmental affects of plastic bags.
At least 267 species have been scientifically documented to be adversely affected by plastic marine debris and it is estimated to kill over 100,000 marine mammals and turtles each year. Plastic bags are considered especially dangerous to sea turtles, who mistake them for jellyfish, a main food source. Currently, 86% of all known species of sea turtles have had reported problems of entanglement or ingestion of marine debris.
Additionally, all plastic products that enter our marine environment eventually break down into small fragments, which in some areas of the ocean outweigh plankton by a factor of six and are inextricably altering the marine ecosystem.
Plastic bags, which are made from natural gas or oil, consume an energy equivalent of thousands of barrels of oil a day just to meet California’s consumption.
Taxing has worked very well in Ireland. Having lived there before and after the introduction of the tax, I have seen firsthand how the landscape has changed.
Before the so called plas tax, Ireland was struggling with a plastic bag problem that is typical in much of the world. Frank Convery, a professor at University College Dublin and head of ENFO, Ireland’s environmental information service, said: “You’d be driving in the Irish countryside and the sides of the roads were covered in plastic – when the foliage dropped off in the fall what was left on branches was a bunch of old plastic bags waving in the wind. That’s gone and people love it.”
In a determined attempt to deal with litter, Ireland passed a plastic bag tax in 2002 – now 22 euro cents, about 33 U.S. cents – at the register if you want one with your purchases. There was an advertising awareness campaign. Then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts.
Within weeks, there was a 94 percent drop in plastic bag use. Within a year, nearly everyone bought reusable cloth bags, which they now keep in the office and the back of their cars. Plastic bags became socially unacceptable – on par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after your dog.
Tourists coming to our town, because they were unaware of the plas tax at the outset, were still able to take home their purchases in plastic bags but they were made aware of the legislation through their wallets.
Attempts at taxing plastic bags have failed in many places because of opposition from manufacturers and merchants, who felt it would be bad for business.
But there were no plastic bag makers in Ireland (most bags here came from China) and a forceful environment minister gave reluctant shopkeepers little room: It is illegal for shopkeepers to pay for the bags on behalf of their customers.
More to the point, the environment minister told shopkeepers that if they merely changed from plastic to paper, he would tax those bags too.
While paper bags are in some ways better for the environment in terms of litter, studies suggest their manufacture causes more Co2 emissions than making plastic bags.
Today, Ireland’s retailers are great plas tax boosters.
“I spent many months arguing against this tax with the minister, I thought customers wouldn’t accept it,” said Feargal Quinn, a senator and founder of Ireland’s largest chain of supermarkets. “But I have become a big, big enthusiast.”
Lets start a tax on bags here in Ojai and let it spread from there to Ventura County etc. It will raise needed revenue and raise awareness that every action we take as consumers has a price and offers the possiblility for change towards sustainable living.
Reference: International Herald Tribune, International Herald Tribune
By ‘bagging it,’ Ireland rids itself of a plastic nuisance
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Good article Wayne,
But if anything, taxes are loathed more than bans. I think pushing for a tax on the county or even state level is a very good idea as it might be difficult if not impossible to get all the merchants in the state to agree to something like the solutions I’ve outlined above.
In the valley I think we should have a meeting with all the retailers and come to an valley-wide consensus on how to deal with the problem. Perhaps the chamber of commerce could organize it with the help of the OVGC. Once the businesses realize that they are being given a green light to charge people for plastic bags rather than having to do the accounting for a tax or deal with a ban, I think they’ll come around.
I’m reading all these posts about plastic (and paper) bags, and will add mei twee cents when I’m free. (Great to see Wayne’s perspective here!)
As I mentioned in previous articles, my Dutch relatives bring card board boxes and knap sacks to the store. And their bicycle baskets are ENORMOUS! It’s just so natural to go to the store with canvas bags, sturdy wicker baskets…this business of wasting mountains of paper and plastic at the late hour on Planet Earth only shows how people are living with their heads in the sand…
#13, Tyler the other issues always seem to involve telling other people how to live and what is acceptable, and demonizing anyone who doesn’t agree. Like the O-Hi Frostie (making Polito into a boogie man and his development seem like Wal-Mart), low-income housing and Jeff F.’s SLAPP suit (as if anyone who sides with the city or wishes Jeff had gone another way with the issue is against the U.S. Constitution), recalling Joe DeVito instead of taking him at his word (when he delayed a vote for good reason, and would have been outvoted by the rest of the City Council anyway), and here is a ‘ban’ on plastic bags (as if anyone who doesn’t support this proposed law wants to turn Ojai into a Tijuana tire dump), etc., those are just a few examples.
#14, spk, Some people seem to get mad when I object to the word ‘ban’, and note that everything has a cost. Cloth bags are great, pass them out, persuade a few people, that’s great.
JC – what neither of us did was define the “you” who is picking the issues. None of what you mentioned has any direct correlation to green/sustainable issues, which is what I thought we were talking about. (and on an aside, the “demonization” has come from both sides)
With respect to the plastic bag issue, who called for a ban? At the Green Coalition Candidate Forum, the question asked was:
According to Californians Against Waste, 19 billion plastic grocery and store bags are used each year in California. To put this into perspective, it takes 4000 barrels of oil a day to produce a year’s worth of our bags. These bags also contribute to litter, landfills, and debris in our oceans and waterways. Despite increased efforts, less than 1% of these bags are recycled and it uses more energy to recycle the bag than it does to make a new bag. Would you be in favor of a ban or use fee on plastic bags in the city or would you take some other approach to this problem?
At no time has the Green Coalition advocated a ban as the solution. At the Forum, where I was a moderator, we basically said: here’s an issue that affects us locally and globally. There are various initiatives to address this. What do you think?
Nobody has been demonized, nothing is being forced down anyone’s throat. You’re picking a fight where there is only discussion.
And the “federation” you casually mention to make your point? C’mon, JC.
The Film and Bag Federation, a trade group within the Society of the Plastics Industry based in Washington, D.C., said the right choice between paper or plastic bags is clearly plastic.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of choice quotes in the article you linked to (which is five years old – the situation hasn’t gotten any better in the last half decade) which aren’t exactly favorable to your plastics argument:
The success of the plastic bag has meant a dramatic increase in the amount of sacks found floating in the oceans where they choke, strangle, and starve wildlife and raft alien species around the world, according to David Barnes, a marine scientist with the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, England, who studies the impact of marine debris.
Dear Johnny Chingas,
As a courtesy, would you be so kind to let us know if you read all the Comments, including #15 which is addressed to you.
You may disagree but people are spening time responding and I for one would like to know if you are considering the points raised in today’s new comments.
Thank you!
#20 – Tyler, the article here on the Ojai Post is “Would you be in favor of a Ban…” Thanks for the opportunity to allow my p.o.v., and civil discussion.
#21 – HJ, I did read #15, which appears to be a cut-and-paste from CAW, Surfrider, and other sites, and I’ve seen this before. The link and article I’ve posted addresses the points in your post. Thanks for taking the time, I don’t have a direct response to #15 or #21. Indirectly, it is great to be a good earth citizen, I’m one myself. But I do run into enough people from Ojai (and elsewhere) who’s default position is to lecture and assume a moral high ground. That approach, too, has a cost, no matter how correct you may be. Cheers.
Hi Johnny,
I’m the City Council Candidate who originally posted this article and the complete title is:
“Would You Be in Favor of a Ban on Plastic Bags?, and Other Questions at the Ojai Green Coalition Candidates Forum.”
That was a fair question for the OVGC to ask the Candidates. For the record, I am in favor of a ban.
However, let me hasten to add that a “ban” is usually a lengthy process where a city goes through the steps suggested by spk and others. I does not happen overnight.
If you Google, “cities that ban plastic bags,” you will see that hundreds of cities worldwide are either in the process of drafting a ban or have already banned plastic bags. (Encinitas, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Portland, New York …the list grows longer everyday.)
I have been writing about sustainable lifestyles since 1972. It is only a matter of time before plastic bags at the check-out counter and other wasteful practices are a thing of the past.
Ideally people change their habits voluntarily. But when they don’t, the government steps in.
To be honest, I don’t really much care that JC would prefer to mischaracterize issues of the past in order to further whatever his agenda against “people from Ojai… who’s default position is to lecture and assume a moral high ground” happens to be.
I really think we can solve this problem without a ban or a tax, at least locally. There is no reason that stores have to give plastic bags out free with every purchase. Similarly, there’s no reason they can’t furnish cloth or reusable bags either free or with a deposit as I stated above. I particularly like the deposit idea because that would be a good incentive to people to bring those cloth/reusable bags back to the store. Especially if there were a complimentary disincentive in the form of a price attached to each plastic bag used.
I’m interested in solutions and results. To that end, I’m going to try and organize a meeting of all of the business owners who have opportunity in their dealings with the public to offer and use plastic bags. I think talking to the Chamber of Commerce about sponsoring this meeting along with the perhaps the OVGC and the Ojai Valley Democrats is the next step. Then reaching out to the businesses. None of this is likely to happen until after the holidays. If anyone is interested in helping with this endeavor, you are more than welcome. I’ll be posting more information about this later.
spk, it’s time for another recall! you go boy!!!
What’s a sing nun?
Hi spk,
As far as I know, the Members of the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce Environmental Affairs Committee are Reggie Wood with West Wood Construction, Fred Fox with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, Dale Hanson with Ojai Valley Real Estate, Michael Lind with REC Solar, and Sheri Ann Cate, Ojai Valley Insurance Services. To the best of my knowledge, these same people are members of the OVGC. I would contact them to see if what you are proposing is in the works.
Several other members of the OVGC spoke to the City Council at two recent meetings to explain the rational behind today’s “Day Without a Bag.”
I’m curious to know how it went.
On April 15, 2008, there was an article in the VC Star:
Plastic bags won’t cost shoppers yet–But state aims to cut use
SACRAMENTO — A proposal to charge grocery shoppers a quarter apiece for those omnipresent white plastic bags stalled in the Legislature on Monday, but an Assembly committee approved the idea of stepping up state regulation to reduce the use of what critics say are a huge environmental headache.
The Assembly Natural Resources Committee approved a proposal by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, which would give grocery chains and large drug stores three years to meet bag-diversion goals or else levy a 15-cent fee on each bag.
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/apr/15/plastic-bags-wont-cost-shoppers-yet/
Here’s a recent story:
Palo Alto to consider ban on plastic bags –
Supermarkets would be the first to be affected
The plastic bag, that fluttering fixture of supermarket lots and blighted alleyways, may soon become an extinct species at Palo Alto’s grocery stores.
The city, long known for its green bent, is expected to take steps in the next week to make plastic checkout bags the latest victim in its conservation effort. The City Council will discuss instituting the ban at its meeting Monday.
The idea of banning the bags has been floating around city departments since at least early spring and is hardly unique to Palo Alto. San Francisco, Los Angeles and Santa Monica have already banned plastic bags at their supermarkets and San Jose is currently considering changing its policy on bags soon. Mayor Larry Klein said Palo Alto is one of many communities looking to join the eco-friendly trend.
“Since San Francisco adopted its ban, a number of cities have begun to take a look at this issue and taking actions one way or another,” Klein said.
So far, three of Palo Alto’s seven supermarkets have already stopped using plastic bags at checkout stands, said Phil Bobel, the city’s environmental-compliance manager.
To read the rest, click here:
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=9900
Sean, All you need is a bicycle and you could be the “singing nun” of Ojai. (Or Suza…)
Guess I’m too young to get the reference. This place sure is getting thick with trolls lately.
BTW, when did Norm cut in on Mr. Joyce?
Now eco-friendly bags are popular in China since the supermarkets don’t provide guests with free plastic shopping bags this year.
Sorry to break the news, but the global ocean covering 70 percent of the earth’s surface is rapidly reverting to its gooey-gray primeval state.
Deprived of oxygen, by the end of this century, the ocean will be unable to support the vast diversity of life we have come to associate with it. Instead of shellfish, whales, and tuna, it will be teeming with algae and jellyfish.
Humankind’s gluttonous appetite for plastic, fertilizers, and carbon fuels is the cause.
Plastic? You might wonder what planet I’m writing this from, but the average consumer in an industrialized country uses 250 pounds of this foul stuff every year.
Plastic from around the world, including billions of plastic pellets representing its initial form, gets into the ocean from multiple entry points—rivers, sewage, ship spills, litter, runoff, etc.
Virtually nonbiodegradable, plastic absorbs concentrated amounts of toxic chemicals such as DDT and PCBs. Eating pellets or other pieces of plastic kills more than a million birds each year along with hundreds of thousands of other fish and wildlife.
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that 46,000 pieces of plastic are floating on every square mile of the ocean. It has gotten so bad that a plastic garbage patch the size of Texas has formed in the Pacific in an area of slack wind and sluggish currents between California and Hawaii. And there is another such patch off the coast of Japan.
And now for fertilizer: You may think we are fertilizing lawns and crops, but ultimately we are fertilizing the ocean and feeding algae, jellyfish, and bacteria. As a result, huge dead zones of marine biotoxins are spreading from the mouths of the world’s major rivers, and massive algae blooms are occurring off many coastlines.
Off the coast of Sweden, for example, gigantic blooms of cyanobacteria turn the Baltic Sea into a cesspool of stinking, yellow-brown slush each summer. Off Florida’s gulf coast, toxins from red tides are killing thousands of sea mammals and causing respiratory illnesses among coastal residents. Jellyfish swarm so thick near the Spanish coast that nets have to be strung to protect swimmers, and white mucus blobs of congealed algae and bacteria, some bigger than a person, foul the beaches north of Venice, Italy. And there are many more examples—it’s getting worse every year.
Last but not least is the burning of carbon fuels. Since the Industrial Revolution began, the ocean has absorbed 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide, steadily increasing to today’s rate of 100 million tons per hour. Normally the ocean acts as a passive sponge for CO2, but we’ve long since passed the tipping point where acidification kicks in.
As the acidity of the ocean rises, it produces less of the calcium carbonate that coral and other sea animals need to build shells and skeletons. Since 1980, the world’s coral has been reduced by 20 percent, even though 25 percent of all species of ocean life live at least part of their life cycles on coral reefs. By the end of the century, the acidity of the ocean will have increased by 150 percent. There will be no more coral, no more shellfish, and no more of the plankton that most other fish depend upon.
The ocean, as we know it, will no longer exist.
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