The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and this is mine.

Tag: environment

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Save the World

I recently posted some random thoughts about our environment, about the state of the world, and particularly related to the enormous amount of plastic waste ending up in the oceans (it’s really enough to account for some sea level rise). I was doing a bunch of farm work the other day, and during a break, drinking a much needed cool drink my GF provided, I noticed the plastic bottle had a five cent deposit (if you were in Maine), which got me thinking, “Why doesn’t my state do this?”

As a kids, we used to collect glass soda bottles and turn them in for the deposit. That’s how I remember making my first pocket money. My brother and I would pick bottles up from the side of the road, and cash them in at the convenience store. I think they were worth like a nickle a bottle even back then. Half a dozen bottles and we were on our way to the candy isle! The point is, as a state, as a country, as a global community, we have gotten away from that idea of reusing and recycling. We throw away plastic. It’s cheap. We’ll make more. No need for the whole deposit thing any more. Well the cheap and “we’ll make more” is catching up to us. Globally now.

Recent news around my state and the nation and the world, now includes gross amounts of plastic waste being discarded, ending up in the oceans, killing marine life. Causing problems, crazy problems everywhere. Go to any beach anywhere, walk along the shore 100 meters, and tell me there is no plastic trash washing up. Municipalities in my state struggle with maintaining recycling programs, communities are trying to ban plastic straws and shopping bags, and inexplicably, legislators are trying to outlaw those same plastic bans. We have a problem.

I will not argue plastics are a boon to both safety and convenience. Plastic saves tons of energy to transport due to their lower weight. Without a doubt, plastic containers have a lot of advantages. The problem is, we are making far more plastic than we are recycling. If you want to talk about something which really can end the world in 12 years, I will argue, drowning and choking to death on waste plastic is it.

Voluntary plastic recycling is great, but hit and miss and does not seem well supported by communities as a whole across the nation. Government curbside recycling often struggles to break even, often giving the impression these programs are only in place to check-off the “we recycle” box and to keep a lid on the environmentalists. I suspect the prime reason there is so much plastic waste is because it generally has no intrinsic value.

I really don’t think there is an easy fix. As a consumer we’re encouraged to “Pitch it in.” We’re doing the right thing by properly disposing of our waste, right? Maybe not any more. As a consumer, we have no skin in the game. But my thought is, a state “bottle bill” could help change this. By placing a value on these types of containers, people would be incentivized to return plastic bottles and containers. In my country, there are only ten state (out of fifty) which have some form of a container deposit legislation. These states with such laws, have less litter and more recycling. They are capturing the plastic before it enters the waste stream and becomes a problem. It’s an idea we can build on.

Fight Litter. Save the world. Ask your legislator for a bottle bill.

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Thoughts and comments, Please!

Columbia Glacier in Alaska; glaciers in Alaska are currently contributing the most of glaciers worldwide to sea level rise. David McNew / Getty Images

Melting ice and some random thoughts about our environment

Here’s a frigging idea. Maybe it’s not the ice melting (which has recently been reported are re-freezing)? Follow along, please.

I recently read an online article from EcoWatch which popped up in my news feed. The article indicated “glaciers lose about 335 billion tons of ice a year, the equivalent of one millimeter per year of sea level rise.” Curious, I explored this statement a bit. According to some quick math, 1 ton of ice equals about 264.5 gallons of water (I know it’s not as simple as this, but this is the internet, so we’ll run with it).

So, 335 billion tons of melting ice would be something crazy like adding 88.6 Trillion gallons of water a year to the oceans just to push the level up 1 mm. However our planet also has other things which “displace” water, like boats. These things would also have the effect of adding volume to the oceans and would also contribute to “sea level rise.” According to the 2018 e-Handbook of statistics, globally, we have a growing fleet of commercial (those over 1000t capacity) vessels in the neighborhood of 1.9 Billion tons, this would be the equivalent of an additional 502.6 Billion gallons of water added to the oceans. And trash also displaces water. According to the earth day folks, we add an estimated 8 Billion tons of plastic alone to the oceans, each year. This would be like pouring in an additional 2.1 Trillion gallons of water every year. if we’ve dumped at the same rate for the last 10 years, we’re at an additional 21.2 Trillion gallons and rising. And of course, our rate of “contribution” for plastics in the ocean is set to increase tenfold by 2020. And this doesn’t include all the other garbage we generously include, like
cruise ships pumping a billion gallons of sewage (that’s poop, feces, or sh*t for the layman) in to the ocean a year. We dump or pump untold quantities of junk into our oceans. Sadly.

I don’t dispute our climate can and does change. I don’t dispute we, as people, can have some level of influence on any possible change. I ‘m just not convinced melting ice is our problem. I do think our “problem” comes from an ironically deeper, darker place. A place where we keep disregarding the natural world around us. We keep reaching for those shinny brass rings on the bright loud carousel ride of life and not looking around. we’re distracted by the loud music and bright lights. I think we need to get the hell off the ride and leave the noise of the amusement park sometime. We need to walk in grass with bare feet. Look at the stars at night. Hike up a mountain sometime. Sit with the warmth of the sun on your body and smell clean air. Maybe then we’ll appreciate more, and take better care of, what our mother nature has given us.

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