Yesterday, I attended most of the Environmental Film Festival. The first film, Garbage, was introduced by Canadian filmmaker, Andrew Nisker. The premise behind the film is to document one family’s experiment with garbage. This 5-person (2 adults, 3 children) family saves their garbage and recycling for 3 months to observe how much they were generating. On the way, questions are asked and issues of recycling, composting, and toxic household materials are explored. The film was informative, funny, and entertaining. The one critique I have is that at the end, someone comes to pick up their garbage, and the couple is so happy to see it go “away,” except of course it did have a destination - a lot of it ends up at the landfill. I question whether or not the experiment moved the family to change their behavioral practices, i.e. generate less garbage. The wife does mention that she is definitely more aware, but I’m left wondering how far she will take that awareness.
Edward Burtynsky, Dam #6, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, 2005
The 2nd film I watched was Manufactured Landscapes, a documentary about the photographic works of Edward Burtynsky. The artist produces absolutely stunning images of the landscapes forever altered by humanity through resource extraction, building, and manufacturing. His work declines to politicize the subject matter, yet I could not walk away from it with any sense that we have done good work on this planet. I was particularly interested in his images of China; he explores Three Gorges Dam, a manufacturing facility as big as anything I’ve ever seen, and the urbanization of Shanghai. Although his images are at times stark and at other times quite dark, they are all compelling.
Web Links:
Garbage
Edward Burtynsky
Exciting things are happening for Americorp! Obama has tripled the size of Americorp, and created new divisions such as the GreenCorp. Yay!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090421/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_national_service
For those who still aren’t sure if Americorp is for them, it is! Americorp is for everybody. Check out www.edcc.edu/americorp for more information.
It’s about time.
The EPA has ruled that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are “a danger to public health and welfare.” More here: Seattle Times
When one says they’re going to be volunteering to survey microplastics, it’s likely that most people don’t have a clue what microplastics are, and wonder why you’re surveying them. Well, to answer the question, microplastics are pieces of plastic that have photodegraded into smaller and smaller pieces. Since plastic doesn’t actually biodegrade, the plastics stay there in the ocean, imitating pieces of food for fish, birds, etc. While “nurtles” are a fun name to say, it’s not so exciting to know that these plastic pieces are harming the ecosystem. Even more disturbing is the presence of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where, because of the currents of the ocean, a good portion of the Earth’s trash ends up floating in this gyre, accumulating trash, debris, and plastics into an area the size of Texas.
I first heard about this phenomenon from Curtis Ebbesmeyer (I would highly recommend reading some of his work), when he came as part of the People For Puget Sound/REI Talk Series last year. So, when I found out that my former organization, the Snohomish County Marine Resources Committee, was teaming with WSU Beach Watchers, and the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, I decided to tag along with the other volunteers from Edmonds Community College.
The first day was the field day, where we would collect the samples at Mukilteo Lighthouse Park and Howarth Park. I was happy to be out in the field, and on the beach again, although it was pouring down rain, and I was drenched. By the afternoon site, the weather cleared, and it was refreshing. The process of collecting the samples was simple enough, but the analysiswas the hard part. I was in charge of sorting pieces of plastic, Styrofoam, twine, and other human-made debris out of a tray of rocks, twigs, sticks, and shells, only using tweezers and a microscope. Can you say tedious? I started going stir-crazy at the end, so I must give my special thanks to David for helping me finish my tray.
Overall, it was a great experience, and I am curious to see the results of the survey and notice any trends or differences across the sites in Puget Sound.
Anyone else want to share their experiences on the microplastics survey? How about the sand flea incident? 
