We’ve been talking about Climate Change pretty much the entire semester, but as we get more into the topic I can’t help but be reminded of this image posted on NPR. “Since 2009, photographer Chris Jordan has been documenting birds on Midway Atoll way out in the Pacific Ocean — near what’s known as the “Pacific Garbage Patch” or, essentially, a swirling heap of plastic the size of Texas.”
The images that Jordan has taken speaks a lot to the long way we have to go to reverse climate change or our dependence on materials that don’t degrade. “about one-third of all albatross chicks die on Midway, many as the result of being mistakenly fed plastic by their parents.” That’s insane. I’ve spent my entire life using these products thinking, oh well we recycle so that should help, but the harsh reality is you have to do more than just recycle. That’s why I’m glad I live in the Bay Area where we have the opportunity to compost the materials we use and more and more people are continuing to use reusable containers and restaurants using compostable materials.
We still have a long way to go as many cities aren’t as “green” as Bay Area cities. The eight images shown are pretty disturbing and should be shown along side those images of marine life getting stuck in soda can rings. Even though the SF State campus provides us with so many options to recycle, compost or use reusable materials I see too many students ignore this and simply throw recyclable materials into the trash, compostable materials into the recycle bin or simply toss everything in the trash. Seeing people do that in this class is even more frustrating, its like “haven’t you guys been paying attention all semester?”
Baby steps I guess is better than no steps at all, but as we’ve been learning we could be at a point of no return unless we start to turn things around fast.
Full Article including images: http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/10/31/141879837/how-soda-caps-are-killing-birds