http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#CF000313%2018x24
As some of you may know, I have a thing against plastic. I've posted about it several times, mostly on Earth Day. For those of you who don't know, I think that of all the ways we can and are destroying this planet and the life on it, the thing that will get us in the end is plastic.
The American people and the people of the world have been sold a bill of goods. We have been told, and we have accepted it wholeheartedly and without question, that plastic is the most wonderful invention, that it is harmless, that it is responsible for all that is good in our lives. What they didn't tell us is that it never, ever, ever goes away. Never. Oh yes, it will eventually break down into smaller and smaller pieces, but it does not change and does not go away.
And, as it turns out, it is not harmless. The toxic chemicals leach out of the plastic and into our food.
Not harmless. Not to us or to other species.
Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the largest body of water on the planet, is Midway Atoll, more than 2,000 miles in any direction to any continent. One would think that that far distant, at least, one would find an unspoiled area on the planet. One would be wrong. There is a mass of detritus twice as large as the state of Texas (only one of several that have been discovered), a floating conglomeration of plastic from intact items to plastic bits the size of plankton. And baby albatrosses are dying by the thousands.
http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#pile%20CF000740%2016x21
I recently came across this film and website by photographic artist Chris Jordan. These images from his website have not been altered in any way.
Take a little time and watch the film, explore his website. Look at the artworks in the other categories. And then consider your own relationship with plastic. Start accumulating glass containers to hold your food. Start refusing all those plastic bags (do you really need a plastic bag to carry one or two items out of the store?). Bring your own bags when you shop. Buy the product in the glass container when you have a choice. Recycle the plastic you do accumulate. Stop buying disposable products.
And above all, start thinking about where that stuff goes and what it affects when you blithely throw it away.
http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#CF000774%2015x20
Yes! We have to change or be killed by it the way we are killing every other being that ingests it.
ReplyDeleteI have a love / hate relationship with plastic myself. Don't even talk to me about tiny little Lego pieces. I think that it has been helpful, but I often wonder at what cost. Apparently, a very great one.
ReplyDeleteSad, sad, sad. Everything we do has ramifications in some way, doesn't it.
ReplyDeleteellen - it's a puzzler for sure. my town recycles plastic. in my naivete, i thought everyone recycled plastic. it's a stop-gap solution until something better than plastic emerges because frankly, the energy it takes to create, recycle, and then deal with plastic products over and over is beyond the capacity of the planet to manage. as key players in nature we have a powerful impact on the nature of nature. steven
ReplyDeleteI have a dilemma in that my town's water is not safe to drink. They issue warnings in the summer after rains to boil your water before drinking it. So, everyone I know who is on the town water buys water in plastic bottles. I know this is wrong and meanwhile, it is also expensive. I buy the better plastic (what an oxymoron) when I can afford it. Also, we have absolutely no recycling. I still recycle at home out of habit, but bottom line is it all goes in the same container in the end. Also, this is a very poor town and people really don't care. It's sad, but it is so.
ReplyDeleteDisturbing, awful images, but we need to see these to remind ourselves of the consequences.
ReplyDeleteRecycling has become so easy, but it isn't enough, and it isn't widespread around the planet.
Plastic bags are beginning to be outlawed in some places here in OR, and you should read the letters to the newspaper from people who oppose this movement! It's like they defend their right to use plastic as though it were part of the constitution. They should be forced to see these images.
My heart just fuckin breaks...all the time-My husband is Mr. Plastic man- he even puts plastic inside of plastic and goes to the big box store and , given a choice of pulp recycled container or plastic ALWAYS goes for plastic! Out of control and beyond reason...as so many. Whatchagointodo? I put it on his facebook page but he will just kiss it off I am sure.
ReplyDeleteIt's always something- nets, plastic, radiation, war, greed...humans suck.
Great post Ellen - sitting at my computer scanning my room I feel all smug, nothing plastic in sight - oh except for the computer of course, and the plastic bag I stick all my rubbish into, the knobs on my radio, the iron, my glasses case ...
ReplyDeleteAt the grocery store, they look at me like I've got two heads when I ask for paper sacks. One of the checkers told me that only about 1% of their customers do. I was amazed by that.
ReplyDeleteI was just lookng at the floatsam along the Mississippi and you see a variety of junk that doesn't decompose headed for the ocean
ReplyDeleteThank you. Yes.
ReplyDeleteThis is heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteVery sad. You would be completely horrified by the way the people live in this country. It's starting to change but very, VERY slowly :(
ReplyDeleteYour post has really stuck with me, Ellen. Much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteThis just makes me sick. I do all the things you suggested and still find myself innundated with plastic.
ReplyDelete