Surf, sand, sun and garbage! Beaches all over the world are facing a momentous man made threat, debris. The effects of debris can be devastating and it's continuing to increase world wide. It's astounding that we have a trash island in the Pacific bigger than the United States. Yesterday researchers announced that we have a second marine garbage patch in the Atlantic. The great Atlantic marine garbage patch stretches over thousands of square miles and we still aren't taking the problem seriously. Debris is more then just an eyesore when we hit the beach; it's a real threat to our health, the health of the ocean, and wildlife.
It's estimated that 80 percent of marine debris comes from the land, while 20 percent comes from sea based sources, such as shipping, boating and fishing. There is approximately three and a half million tons of debris just off the coast of California. Poor disposal of trash from things like our Sunday picnic and other beach side activities are one source. The Ocean Conservancy just released their marine debris index which shows that 60 percent of all marine debris items found in 2009 were disposable. Simple items like plastic plates, forks, and cups are turning our waterways into aquatic dumps.
Trash from inland sources can just as easily end up in the ocean as it gets washed out to sea through storm drains. What was carelessly thrown out of the car miles inland can end up adding to our mountain of marine debris. Because of the surge in debris from these areas, some local community leaders are working to take action and raise awareness. Kristi Blicharski, a Neighborhood Council Member in Woodland Hills, CA, is one local leader who is taking the lead on helping to keep inland trash from hitting beach. Blicharski is organizing a town hall meeting for Earth Day to raise awareness and help residents in the San Fernando Valley understand more about the effects of litter and toxic runoff in the Pacific Ocean. "It's important to get more facts out to people so they understand how and why our trash and chemicals, especially plastics, end up polluting our coast, even though we are several miles away," says Blicharski.
There is a huge cost associated with debris. It effects tourism and other industries that depend on the ocean for their survival. It also impacts our health. Pollution of our oceans makes the food we eat increasingly toxic. It has changed something as simple as going for a swim or doing other water related activities. As debris is washed out to sea it brings with it high bacteria levels. Just ask any surfer. After it rains, the ocean can become so filled with bacteria that you have to stay out of the water for about three days. Yet most of us find this acceptable. Why should you have to worry about taking your family to the beach? Something that should be fun, low cost and everyone can enjoy. Even if you don't take a dip, most beach goers can find a wide array of trash right in the sand. I have come across everything from sharp and dangerous objects to things that have a surprisingly high ick factor.
Carelessly tossed fishing lines, nets and plastic bags have been harming sea birds and marine life. What is trash to us may look like food to some animals, which can choke or starve to death when they try to ingest these items. What is going on with debris ends up hurting all of us, and we all pay the cost.
Fortunately, there are things we can do to help.
1. Get your garbage off the beach! Help to save the planet just by cleaning up after yourself! Dispose of all waste materials properly.
2. Spread the word about marine debris. Heal the Bay has a new "Trash your Friends" campaign that let's you eco- punk your friends. You send an e-mail tease to someone that you "trashed" them and when they click on the link the page fills up with harmless images of plastic bags. http://trashed.healthebay.org/#/actnow
3. If you are a boater, hold all your trash for proper disposal back on land.
4. Watch the fishing line. Make sure it is properly disposed of in a trash container. Fishing line is a death sentence for marine birds and other wildlife!
5. Don't dump in storm drains! The chemicals you put in many storm drains end up going out to sea. Dispose of harmful liquids properly.
6. Kick the disposable habit. Purchase items that reusable.
7. Inland trash matters too! Trash doesn't have to be left on the beach to get to the beach. Garbage carelessly tossed may end up in a storm drain and then out to sea.
8. Get involved with a beach clean up! It's a great way to give back, meet people and enjoy the beach. Heal the Bay sponsors monthly beach clean ups. www.healthebay.org . The Ocean Conservancy will hold an international coastal clean up on September 25th, 2010. www.theoceanconservancy.org
9. Support legislation that discourages the use of single use plastic bags.
10. Kick the habit. Cigarettes and cigars pollute your lungs, the air, land and waterways.
The good news is by doing a few simple things and keeping debris where it belongs, we can help turn the tide for our oceans.
Follow Michelle Harris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/greengirlca
Wallace J Nichols: Our Plastic Ocean Turns Forty
http://www.itsamanmadeworld.com/home.html
That will generate history's deadly waste: million year nuclear waste.
Fabco, says "So What?" to deadly nuclear waste 1000 times more radioactive than today's reactors!
Fabco's "Proliferation resistant" Thorium reactors are being used by India to make weapons material.
But FabCo wants to lecture us about the "Dangers" of "heavy metals" in burned bio mass?!?!?!?
FabCo took over a month to figure out the Bio Char is Carbon negative.
We have the technology to Waste Bio Fuels, Bio Char for instance, cheaper and far cleaner than dumping.
What's really funny, is that FabCo's nuclear power waste is one of the re3asons SOME waste cannot be used!
Duh.
Nobody wants the smokestacks of either in their backyards. The public down wind wonders if they are in danger or are safe for either. Sitting hearings that let everyone voice their complaints take years to get site approvals -sometimes decades for either. Nobody downwind can ever sure if those smokestack scrubbers or radiation shields are really doing their job the way they are being hyped up to be until perhaps someone does some conflicting epidemiological studies 20yrs later, for either. Obsticles to both Waste-To-Energy and nuclear power sound pretty similar to me.
Waste-to-energy plants produce some pretty concentrated toxic waste just as any coal plant would if it were using the same type of scrubbers. Scrubbing is concentrating. Everyone should keep in mind, that scrubbers are not 100% effective leaving who knows what to breathe downwind, as well.
Are glass, plastics, or paper separated out first at this plant?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/science/earth/13trash.html
'this new type of plant converts local trash into heat and electricity. Dozens of filters catch pollutants, from mercury to dioxin....
At the end of the incineration ... Small amounts of highly concentrated toxic substances, forming a paste, are shipped to one of two warehouses for highly hazardous materials, in the Norwegian fjords and in a used salt mine in Germany. "
Yet, the LFTR produces 0.003 of the volume of waste a uranium reactor produces. Quite an improvement. That is 1000% less volume of that waste. Indeed, a LFTR's most long lived wastes has a 50yr half life.
A 50 year half life while initially hotter, is far more desirable than a 10,000 year half life when it comes to waste management, because it is reduced to near background levels in only 300 years. That radiation will be reduced by 75% in the first 100 years.
There are buildings in Europe older than 300 years. The task of sequestering a much smaller volume of that waste would seem vastly more realistic compared to the task of sequestering 10,000 year plutonium or uranium waste that we have now. Proposing to turn that 10,000 year problem into a hundred year problem provides considerably more benefit than harm.
Yet, while most environmentalists would applaud these vast technological and sustainability improvements, RESEARCH only focuses your attention on the 0.003% of waste that still remains. Yet, he seems to care nothing about the Chernobyl sized amounts of uranium and thorium being released into the air from your local coal plant every day, and mentions nothing about the equally deadly dioxins produced from his garbage burning energy plant, that would also have to remain sequestered an equally long time.
http://www.corkscrewroad.com/westwind/cementplanthealth.htm
"No matter what the company says will come out of the stack, studies worldwide have shown that real emissions are considerably greater and subject to sporadic events of particularly high concentrations."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste-to-energy
"Concerns regarding the operation of incinerators include fine particulate, heavy metals, trace dioxin and acid gas emissions
Other concerns include toxic fly ash and incinerator bottom ash (IBA) management.[citation needed] Discussions regarding waste resource ethics include the opinion that incinerators destroy valuable resources and the fear that they may reduce the incentives for recycling and waste minimization activities.
One serious problem associated with incinerating MSW to make electrical energy, is the pollutants that are put into the atmosphere when burning the garbage that power the generators. These pollutants are extremely acidic and have been reported to cause serious environmental damage by turning rain into acid rain.
In thermal WtE technologies, nearly all of the carbon content in the waste is emitted as carbon dioxide(CO2) to the atmosphere (when including final combustion of the products from pyrolysis and gasification). Municipal solid waste (MSW) contain approximately the same mass fraction of carbon as CO2 itself (27%), so treatment of 1 metric ton (1.1 short tons) of MSW produce approximately 1 metric ton (1.1 short tons) of CO2."
We can all start calling our city councils to see if ours are properly installed.
then when you have no use for the waste...
Bio Char it into energy, charcoal and fuels.