Published in Sputnik news February, 5 2017
The tropical islands of Hawaii are known for its beautiful white beaches and crystal clear blue waters. It's hard to imagine that one of these picturesque far-flung holiday destinations is also considered to have one of the dirtiest beaches in the world.
Kamilo Point, a beach in the rural Ka'u district of the Big Island of Hawaii, is a wasteland according to experts. Despite its pockets of lava rock and beautiful natural wildlife, the ocean's currents are so powerful that the winds deposit thousands of pounds of man-made trash on the beach every year.
Kamilo, also known as "plastic beach," has been know to host hair brushes, cigarette lighters, shards of plastic as well as water bottles, all of which wash up on the beach every week.
Experts claim it's the graveyard for the world's junk and a powerful reminder of what plastic can do, if not recycled or discarded of correctly.
The Hawaii Wildlife Fund (HWF), discovered that in one weekend alone in April, over 15,000 pounds worth of trash, nylon nets and fishing line was collected from Kamilo beach.
So why is there so much trash on Kamilo beach and where is it all coming from?
Well, it appears the Kamilo is relatively close to the eastern Pacific garbage patch, which is part of the massive convergence of marine litter known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The easternmost concentration of trash is midway between the Californian coast and the eastern shores of Hawaii.
The trash that ends up on Kamilo beach is a result of oceanic and atmospheric pressures that push the items in the ocean — such as sea life, pollution and tiny pieces of plastic — into one general area.
According to Carey Morishige, formally of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations' Marine Debris Program, it is like a "soup of pollution," which includes plastic debris, that floats freely on the ocean's surface and then ends up on the beach.
As the most easterly island, Kamilo Point and the larger Ka'u coast on Hawaii island have always acted as the perfect colander for items drifting across the ocean.
Megan Lamson, a survey diver for the state's Division of Aquatic Resources, said that the area is prone to the collection of more rubbish due to the powerful currents.
"Kamilo itself means 'whirling, swirling, twisting currents," Lamson said.
Lamson also pointed out that Kamilo's pollution problem can only be handled at a global level.
"The solution is not to encourage more people to come to Kamilo to clean up. The solution will come with [humans] reducing our dependence to plastics, especially single-use items that we can do without."
And with an estimated 8 million metric tons of discarded plastics turning up in the ocean every year, experts say humans are the only ones who can stop it from pouring into the sea.
Showing posts with label Plastic Island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plastic Island. Show all posts
Friday, May 5, 2017
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
David Cuellar Pens "Plastic Island"
Published March 13, 2015 in Books News Desk
San Jose, Calif.A 2001 study found an average of 334,271 pieces of plastic per square mile in the northern Pacific Ocean. The middle of the Pacific Ocean holds a stationary garbage heap about twice the size of Texas that goes unnoticed. Author David Cuellar is trying to change that.
In his short children's story, "Plastic Island," Cuellar stresses the importance of keeping the environment clean. Pollution affects all living beings, from a boy who plays the flute to an eagle that flies in the sky. Cuellar believes that Mother Nature has done her part, so it's time for mankind to do his.
While on a hiking trip in Middletown, California, Cuellar first learned of garbage patches in the ocean from a fellow hiker.
"My first reaction was disbelief," Cuellar said, "But after researching it, I realized the truth. I saw the vortex in the ocean as the Earth doing its part to gather up our mess."
Everyone can contribute to the beautification of the earth. Kids, teens, adults, CEO's and even members of the United Nations have a part.
Cueller hopes to spread awareness of the garbage patches in the ocean and to help raise more environmentally conscious kids.
"Plastic Island"
By: David Cuellar
ISBN: 978-1-4907-4903-7
Softcover: $16.49
E-book: $3.99
Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Trafford.com
About the author
David Cuellar is a Financial Advisor and Certified Financial Planner in San Mateo County, Cal. Committed to financial education, Cuellar has taught thousands of classes at the College of San Mateo, CAÑADA College and De Anza College. Cuellar is involved in his community as a volunteer for CORA, an organization designated to end domestic violence, and attends many local theater, musical and arts events. Sometimes you might even find him playing his Native American flute in a local community park.
# # #
For review copies or interview requests, contact:
Craig Cainkar
317.602.7137
ccainkar(at)bohlsengroup(dot)com
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Amazing Documentary by Chris Jordan
Midway: A Message from the Gyre trailer by Chris Jordan
Check out Chris Jordan's website - here's the link to his "Running the Numbers" gallery, where he uses computer tricks to create huge large scale works depicting things like: number of pieces of junk mail mailed every 3 seconds in the US, or number of plastic bottles consumed each minute.
Check out Chris Jordan's website - here's the link to his "Running the Numbers" gallery, where he uses computer tricks to create huge large scale works depicting things like: number of pieces of junk mail mailed every 3 seconds in the US, or number of plastic bottles consumed each minute.
Filmmaker sounds alarm over plastic
published 2012-02-06 in kalahari.com
Hong Kong - On Midway atoll in the North Pacific, dozens of young albatross lie dead in the sand, their stomachs filled with cigarette lighters, toy soldiers and other plastic scraps their parents mistook for food.
That sad and surreal sight is one of the many symptoms of a plague afflicting the world's oceans, food chains and human communities: The onslaught of discarded plastic, said Hong Kong-based film director Craig Leeson.
"Every piece of plastic ever made since the 1950s exists in some shape or form on the planet," Leeson said. "We throw plastic into a bin, it's taken away from us and we never see it again - but it still comes back at us."
Over the past year, the Australian director has been following the menace of plastic from Sardinia to Canada to the Indian Ocean for a film that aims to combine the art of nature documentary with a campaigning quest.
Provisionally called Away, the movie - backed by David Attenborough and the UK-based Plastic Oceans Foundation - brings together new research on the spread of plastic with missions by "explorers" such as Britain's Ben Fogle to show the diverse effects of plastic trash.
Research
Its message is that while you may throw out your plastic goods, they are never really thrown "away".
Crews under Leeson's direction have so far swum with blue whales, taken a deep-sea submarine to the depths of the Mediterranean and found swirling clumps of plastic trash in the Indian Ocean.
They have used a harpoon-like instrument to take biopsies from whales and dissected a dead Corsican turtle in a laboratory - "dead turtles are the smelliest things you can imagine", he said. Sea lions are yet to come.
The foundation cites research showing that at least 250 species are known to have ingested or become entangled in plastic in the seas.
They put forward plastic ingestion as one of the main causes of "skinny whale syndrome", in which whales are discovered mysteriously starved.
The 250 million tons of plastic we discard each year make their way for thousands of miles around the oceans, and Leeson's team - many of whom have backgrounds in the BBC's Natural History Unit - are determined to document this in spectacular fashion.
But beyond this, their goal is to show that the environmental damage is systemic, going far beyond a series of water-borne trash heaps.
Health problems
In fact, Leeson said, the mass of plastic the size of Texas often said to exist in the North Pacific is a myth. Instead, particles of plastic lurk there invisibly, in seemingly clear water.
"If you trawl for it with these special nets that they've developed, you come back with this glutinous mass - it's microplastics that are in the water along with the plankton," he said.
"The problem is that it's being mistaken for food and being eaten by plankton eaters, who are then eaten by bigger fish, and so it goes on, and it ends up on our dinner tables."
Studies have linked this with health problems in humans including cancer, diabetes and immune disruption.
And it is not just the plastic itself that enters the food chain, but other man-made substances from sources such as industrial waste that attach themselves to plastics in the water.
The team will be shooting until mid-2012 and will also visit communities living beside rivers that are heavily polluted with plastic to see its more direct effects on human life.
This is not the first high-profile campaign on the subject: Greenpeace, currently researching plastic in the Arctic Ocean, has warned that urgent action is needed to address the sources of plastic waste, and campaign group WWF calls the problem "staggering".
Message
But Leeson hopes the images in his film will jolt viewers out of their complacency about rubbish that apparently disappears into the waste collection system.
"When you see a toy soldier or a lighter that's manufactured in China that ends up in the stomach of an albatross at Midway Point in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that just shows you how much effect you're having on the environment," he said.
Leeson will not divulge all the findings from new research carried out for the film, but it is clear the message will be an alarming one.
Does he think his team can compete in the busy market for alarming messages, currently dominated by the threat of climate change?
"Clearly climate change is one of the most pressing issues, if not the most pressing issue that we face, because it affects everything we do," Leeson said.
But plastic and carbon emissions are directly linked: Plastic is estimated to account for around eight percent of the world's fossil fuel use, half of it in energy consumed during its manufacturing.
The film will question the "disposable lifestyle" behind discarded plastic, but not advocate banning the substance altogether.
It will also look at solutions to the waste mountain, including plastic recycling and biogenesis, in which plastic is reduced back to its core elements while producing energy.
An initial aim is to persuade consumers and manufacturers to reconsider their use of disposable plastics such as mineral water bottles.
Leeson said responsibility for waste cuts across different environmental issues, including climate.
"Plastic is part of that, but also if we are raising awareness about issues such as plastic then we’re raising awareness about what does actually affect the planet we live on, and I think that’s a good thing," he said.
That sad and surreal sight is one of the many symptoms of a plague afflicting the world's oceans, food chains and human communities: The onslaught of discarded plastic, said Hong Kong-based film director Craig Leeson.
"Every piece of plastic ever made since the 1950s exists in some shape or form on the planet," Leeson said. "We throw plastic into a bin, it's taken away from us and we never see it again - but it still comes back at us."
Over the past year, the Australian director has been following the menace of plastic from Sardinia to Canada to the Indian Ocean for a film that aims to combine the art of nature documentary with a campaigning quest.
Provisionally called Away, the movie - backed by David Attenborough and the UK-based Plastic Oceans Foundation - brings together new research on the spread of plastic with missions by "explorers" such as Britain's Ben Fogle to show the diverse effects of plastic trash.
Research
Its message is that while you may throw out your plastic goods, they are never really thrown "away".
Crews under Leeson's direction have so far swum with blue whales, taken a deep-sea submarine to the depths of the Mediterranean and found swirling clumps of plastic trash in the Indian Ocean.
They have used a harpoon-like instrument to take biopsies from whales and dissected a dead Corsican turtle in a laboratory - "dead turtles are the smelliest things you can imagine", he said. Sea lions are yet to come.
The foundation cites research showing that at least 250 species are known to have ingested or become entangled in plastic in the seas.
They put forward plastic ingestion as one of the main causes of "skinny whale syndrome", in which whales are discovered mysteriously starved.
The 250 million tons of plastic we discard each year make their way for thousands of miles around the oceans, and Leeson's team - many of whom have backgrounds in the BBC's Natural History Unit - are determined to document this in spectacular fashion.
But beyond this, their goal is to show that the environmental damage is systemic, going far beyond a series of water-borne trash heaps.
Health problems
In fact, Leeson said, the mass of plastic the size of Texas often said to exist in the North Pacific is a myth. Instead, particles of plastic lurk there invisibly, in seemingly clear water.
"If you trawl for it with these special nets that they've developed, you come back with this glutinous mass - it's microplastics that are in the water along with the plankton," he said.
"The problem is that it's being mistaken for food and being eaten by plankton eaters, who are then eaten by bigger fish, and so it goes on, and it ends up on our dinner tables."
Studies have linked this with health problems in humans including cancer, diabetes and immune disruption.
And it is not just the plastic itself that enters the food chain, but other man-made substances from sources such as industrial waste that attach themselves to plastics in the water.
The team will be shooting until mid-2012 and will also visit communities living beside rivers that are heavily polluted with plastic to see its more direct effects on human life.
This is not the first high-profile campaign on the subject: Greenpeace, currently researching plastic in the Arctic Ocean, has warned that urgent action is needed to address the sources of plastic waste, and campaign group WWF calls the problem "staggering".
Message
But Leeson hopes the images in his film will jolt viewers out of their complacency about rubbish that apparently disappears into the waste collection system.
"When you see a toy soldier or a lighter that's manufactured in China that ends up in the stomach of an albatross at Midway Point in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that just shows you how much effect you're having on the environment," he said.
Leeson will not divulge all the findings from new research carried out for the film, but it is clear the message will be an alarming one.
Does he think his team can compete in the busy market for alarming messages, currently dominated by the threat of climate change?
"Clearly climate change is one of the most pressing issues, if not the most pressing issue that we face, because it affects everything we do," Leeson said.
But plastic and carbon emissions are directly linked: Plastic is estimated to account for around eight percent of the world's fossil fuel use, half of it in energy consumed during its manufacturing.
The film will question the "disposable lifestyle" behind discarded plastic, but not advocate banning the substance altogether.
It will also look at solutions to the waste mountain, including plastic recycling and biogenesis, in which plastic is reduced back to its core elements while producing energy.
An initial aim is to persuade consumers and manufacturers to reconsider their use of disposable plastics such as mineral water bottles.
Leeson said responsibility for waste cuts across different environmental issues, including climate.
"Plastic is part of that, but also if we are raising awareness about issues such as plastic then we’re raising awareness about what does actually affect the planet we live on, and I think that’s a good thing," he said.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The beach of shame…
June 30, 2011 Tim Silverwood
Yes it really is as bad as they say…
The incredibly devoted founders of B.E.A.C.H, Dean Otsuki and Suzanne Frazer
Kamilo Beach lies on the southern-most tip of the Big Island of Hawai’i and hence…is the southern-most point of the entire United States. It is remote and difficult to access, ideally it should be spotlessly clean…it isn’t.
Pretty? Think again..
The shoreline was caked with larger items of debris including huge conglomerates of fishing net mixed with abandoned rope. Everything was plastic – plastic bottles were rife (most of which were in a very brittle state – a sign of the effects of photo degradation where sunlight causes them to turn brittle and break into tiny pieces). So many of the broken items showed evidence of bite marks – some tiny nibbles – some larger, an attempt to swallow the object whole perhaps.
Care was taken to wear gloves at all times to avoid being poisoned by the toxins that are reported to be super-concentrated on marine debris from this area. DDT, DDE and PCB – all banned toxins – are known to be absorbed into plastic debris, likened to a sponge taking in water. The longer the items are there – the more toxins likely to be attached. We found an intact fishing crate with some coral growing on it – a sign it has been floating at sea for around 7 years according to Suzanne. If it has been there that long and is in tact – how long has the confetti been there? The plot doesn’t play out very nicely for the species who are nibbling and swallowing this toxic laden detritus – wait a minute, don’t we eat fish?
The experience put the problem of marine debris into a bleak perspective for me – and I haven’t even reached the Gyre yet. My mind is spinning about how we can all come together to deal with so much of it. It’s ironic that here I am on a global mission to raise awareness of marine debris yet I hail from a part of the world where marine debris is predominantly consumer waste that has escaped our (possibly weak) clutches to seek out a malicious life on the wild sea.
The beauty of Take 3 is that we can put an end to consumer waste entering the sea by simply picking it up off the land before it gets there and being more mindful of our use and abuse of plastic. But Kamilo Beach has REAL marine debris, stuff that has been swirling and circulating the ocean for years or decades: oyster pipes from Japan, eel traps from Korea, consumer goods from the USA – this is the challenge.
Despite filling every little nook and cranny (and roof) of the SUV with debris including over 150kg of rope and net over the two days we camped out the beach was still choked. On the drive out you could see Suzanne was upset that she lives so far away and couldn’t do more on this occasion – you get the impression if she had time she would literally clean that beach until it was spotless with her own two hands. A sign nailed to a tree brought a smile to her face though – a child’s drawing with the simple words, “Please look after our ocean”. Kamilo’s notoriety is bringing people together and the clean up will go on.
Our bounty…3 people, around 8 hours of work. If we all pitch in we CAN make a difference.
Check out the work B-E-A-C-H does here. Support them if you’re able.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Island made from recycled ocean garbage is green in every direction
published on dvice.com on April 4th, 2011 by Raymond Wong
The ocean is a vast place for animals and dumping garbage, so what is one to do about the latter issue? Turn that plastic trash into a self-sustainable island!
"Recycled Island" is the brainchild of Dutch architect Ramon Knoester. The idea to use plastic floating around in the Pacific Ocean's "Great Garbage Patch" was conceived in 2009, but Knoester's design firm, Whim Architecture is now making it a reality with a grant from the Netherlands Archictecture Fund.
The entire island is about the size of Hawaii with roughly 3,860 square miles for sunset romping. Knoester's prototype island calls for a single family home with a solar roof, compost toilets, blue energy from wave motion and a farming system to create food and fertilizer from seaweed.
I never thought I would say this, but living on a patch of garbage sounds pretty cool. If successful, we might see more of these plastic garbage-made islands spring up.
Island made from recycled ocean garbage is green in every direction
The ocean is a vast place for animals and dumping garbage, so what is one to do about the latter issue? Turn that plastic trash into a self-sustainable island!
"Recycled Island" is the brainchild of Dutch architect Ramon Knoester. The idea to use plastic floating around in the Pacific Ocean's "Great Garbage Patch" was conceived in 2009, but Knoester's design firm, Whim Architecture is now making it a reality with a grant from the Netherlands Archictecture Fund.
The entire island is about the size of Hawaii with roughly 3,860 square miles for sunset romping. Knoester's prototype island calls for a single family home with a solar roof, compost toilets, blue energy from wave motion and a farming system to create food and fertilizer from seaweed.
I never thought I would say this, but living on a patch of garbage sounds pretty cool. If successful, we might see more of these plastic garbage-made islands spring up.
"Recycled Island" is the brainchild of Dutch architect Ramon Knoester. The idea to use plastic floating around in the Pacific Ocean's "Great Garbage Patch" was conceived in 2009, but Knoester's design firm, Whim Architecture is now making it a reality with a grant from the Netherlands Archictecture Fund.
The entire island is about the size of Hawaii with roughly 3,860 square miles for sunset romping. Knoester's prototype island calls for a single family home with a solar roof, compost toilets, blue energy from wave motion and a farming system to create food and fertilizer from seaweed.
I never thought I would say this, but living on a patch of garbage sounds pretty cool. If successful, we might see more of these plastic garbage-made islands spring up.
Island made from recycled ocean garbage is green in every direction
The ocean is a vast place for animals and dumping garbage, so what is one to do about the latter issue? Turn that plastic trash into a self-sustainable island!
"Recycled Island" is the brainchild of Dutch architect Ramon Knoester. The idea to use plastic floating around in the Pacific Ocean's "Great Garbage Patch" was conceived in 2009, but Knoester's design firm, Whim Architecture is now making it a reality with a grant from the Netherlands Archictecture Fund.
The entire island is about the size of Hawaii with roughly 3,860 square miles for sunset romping. Knoester's prototype island calls for a single family home with a solar roof, compost toilets, blue energy from wave motion and a farming system to create food and fertilizer from seaweed.
I never thought I would say this, but living on a patch of garbage sounds pretty cool. If successful, we might see more of these plastic garbage-made islands spring up.
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