Dozing polar bear, Indianapolis Zoo

Monday, October 29, 2007

Instead of the cross/the albatross/around my neck was hung*

Other than the many Sancho seekers, the most common query onto this blog is some variant of Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Most of the searchers end up on this post or this one.

So what's the practical effect of our love affair with plastic, and perhaps tangentially, the Texas-sized patch of the indestructible crap that's floating around in the Pacific?

Watch this and you'll know.







*Name that poem you haven't read since high school.

7 comments:

KCB said...

Rime of the Ancient Mariner, yo.

Did you catch that part in World Without Us about the plastic microbeads in facial cleansers that wash right out into the water supply to feed the jellyfish? I had no idea I was rinsing plastic down the drain while washing my face. Grrrrr.

Trailhead said...

See, I knew Coleridge would be too easy for the eggheads that read this blog.

Yeah, I caught that part. And at the risk of going on another rant (there's always that risk with me) it pointed up perfectly how flawed this system is, that environmentally knowledgeable people are still tricked into sending little frigging plastic beads down the drain, because who in the hell would concoct such a cockamamie scheme?

Can you imagine a word where plastics would have warning labels?

Anonymous said...

Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner?

Trailhead said...

Rime.

But yes.


(Oh, and I meant a "world" with plastic warnings on my previous comment.)

Anonymous said...

Hi Trailhead,

It's crazy, It's like you can't even live your life without destroying the enviroment. And I didn't know about the little plastic beads in face clenser. I don't use the plastic bead cleaner because I usually use something to dry out my oily face a bit more but who knows. Maybe that is dissolving and destroying snow caps on mountains. (That's according to a Fall song how Clearasil does this)
But you really can't even buy anything without it coming in a container. Lipstic Face Powder, deoderant, everything comes in a plastic case to end up in a landfill. I wouldn't mind buying a stick of deoderant in a paper container. I have no problem with that. But the deoderant will probably destroy the rainforrest somehow too! We need to go back to a day where things were kept in wooden containers and buffalo scrodem. I dunno what else to do. YOu can be sooo super concious and still be destroying the enviroment. Even when you make an effort. It's crazy.

I'm worried about my Cat. He's acting kinda weird like he hurt himself and he is snapping, which is out of charecter for his usual Loverboy self. If he's not better by tomorrow he's going for x-rays. I dunno.

Later
-Toots-

Trailhead said...

Wooden containers and bull scrotum. Sounds good to me.

Hope your kitty feels better!!

Underpinning Edison said...

Veryy creative post