While a glass bottle can be a glass bottle again or can be used again, a plastic bottle can never be a plastic bottle again.” (Dianna Cohen)
Artist Dianna Cohen shares some tough truths about plastic pollution in the ocean and in our lives — and some thoughts on how to free ourselves from the plastic gyre.
Dianna Cohen co-founded the Plastic Pollution Coalition, which is working to help end our cycle of plastics use.
A non-profit educational film about the effects of plastic debris on our marine ecosystem
In the year 2010 global plastic production reached 300 million tonnes. A third of this was used in disposable packaging. In the United Kingdom, 3 million tonnes of plastic are thrown away every year, 1% of the total amount of all plastic manufactured on the planet.
But what happens to this plastic when it is thrown away? Most of it makes its way to landfill. Some goes to recycling or incineration. The rest escapes into our environment, and to the world’s oceans…and nobody knows how long it will stay there. Estimates range from decades to hundreds of thousands of years.
‘Plastic Shores’ is a documentary that explores how plastic affects the marine environment. Travelling from the International Marine Debris Conference in Hawai’i to the polluted Blue Flag beaches of Cornwall, the film reveals just how bad the problem of plastic debris is and how it harms aquatic life. There is now not a single beach or sea in the world that is not affected by plastic pollution and the problem is only increasing.
Plastic is a material that the Earth cannot digest. Plastic pollution is growing at an alarming rate, and plastic debris is accumulating fast in all communities, rivers, in the desert and in the ocean. Disposable plastics are the greatest source of plastic pollution. REFUSE disposable plastic, starting today.
We also recommend you to watch the “behind cameras” of this project.
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Environmentalists say leaders at June’s Rio+20 summit must urgently step up nature protection, as a report confirms a 30% decline in wildlife since 1970.
The Living Planet Report combines data on more than 9,000 populations of animals across the world.
Rio+20 is billed as a chance for world leaders to put global society on a sustainable path.
But the report’s main authors, WWF, say progress on nature protection and climate change is “glacial”.
“The Rio+20 conference is an opportunity for the world to get serious about the need for development to be made sustainable,” said David Nussbaum, CEO of WWF-UK.
“We need to elevate the sense of urgency, and I think this is ultimately not only about our lives but the legacy we leave for future generations.”
The Living Planet Report uses data on trends seen in various species across the world, compiled by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
Further analysis from the Global Footprint Network aims to calculate how sustainable our global society is in terms of its overall ecological footprint – a composite measure of issues such as fossil fuel burning, use of cropland to grow food, and consumption of wood and wild-caught fish.
Tropical waste
For this edition of the report, ZSL has examined more species (2,600) and more populations of those species (9,014) than ever before.
Overall, these populations show a decline of about 30% since 1970 – the same figure as in the last edition, published two years ago.
Tropical species show a decline of more than 60%, while in temperate regions there has been an average recovery of about 30%.
The worst affected species are those in tropical lakes rivers, whose numbers have fallen by 70% since 1970.
The health of temperate ecosystems (dark green) has risen since 1970
