Plastic Soup

While somewhat reminiscent of Bridget Jones' infamous "blue soup", to quote Billy Crystal, this is neither fun, nor funny.  This is major, and should be a monumentally disturbing reminder to every single soul on this planet: we are destroying the most precious thing we have--our world. Without it, nothing else exists. 

A story released today by the Associated Press chronicles the findings of several researchers who  uncovered yet another giant island of plastic floating about in the ocean.  This time it's in the Atlantic, and this time is inherently more troubling.  The floating garbage, which apparently is hard to spot from the surface and is spun together by a vortex of currents, was documented by two groups of scientists who trawled the sea between scenic Bermuda and Portugal's mid-Atlantic Azores islands.

The studies describe a "soup of micro-particles" similar to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  This garbage patch was discovered in the late 1990's and exists between Hawaii and California.  Researchers say that it is very likely these types of garbage patches exist in other places around the globe.


This is the type of stuff that keeps me awake at night.  What are we doing to our precious little planet?  We are ruining our environment with death-defying speed, and are so wrapped up in our Iphones and Facebook pages, and twittering endless drivel to the world that we seem to be oblivious to the fact that at some point, nature will self-correct.  We cannot survive in a world with oceans of plastic soup.   We cannot survive in a world where we can't breathe the air or safely harvest food.

I agree that it takes a village and the village is indeed forming.  I only fear that it is not happening fast enough. I drive a hybrid, I've reduced my carbon footprint to the best of my ability, and I reuse any material--plastic or otherwise--in as creative a manner as possibly can.  I reused 90 year old nails on a renovation project in my home because they were still good, they still worked just fine, and they were better than the ones I could buy at Home Depot.

I don't mean to sound like a doomsayer and I realize there are many, many problems in the world that warrant equal attention; starvation, poverty, genocide, and human rights violations to name a few, but this stuff is just scary.

If we are fortunate enough to keep our space program alive, let's hope that the next set of pictures we receive from space are not snapshots of our beautiful planet with a giant plastic footprint in the ocean.   

Is Social Media Making Us Anti-Social?

I was in the gym this morning, minding my own business on the elliptical machine. I was humming along in my usual routine but couldn't help notice my fellow gym-mate on the machine next to me, who was updating her Facebook status about her gym activities. This wouldn't be so out of the ordinary except for the fact that she was specifically communicating with her fellow gym-mate on the treadmill on the cardiac deck below.

There is something inherently bizarre about this and as much as I am a fan of social media, it struck me as incredibly odd and incredibly anti-social that these two individuals chose not to communicate one on one when their cardio session was complete. Was the update that pressing that it couldn't have assumed the format of real-life conversation after the 40 minutes were up?

It is not my intent to disparage my two fellow gym rats but I can't help but think about this philosophically about what is says about the behaviors we have become habituated to, and the diminished value that is increasingly become a sad side-effect of the social age.

I go out of my way to write cards and personalized notes. I like shaking people's hands and having real-live conversations, even if only to talk about reality TV, current events, or their kids' soccer tournament.  It's interesting, fun, and real.

Balance is always a part of life--social or otherwise. There is something about social networking, texting, voicemail, email, or any form of communication that does not require real-live interaction that allows us to evade that most important elements which makes us distinct as a species -- human interaction.

This is not to say that I will stop tweeting, posting on Facebook, or blogging. It is only an observation that speaks to the need to more consciously seek balance in what I think is becoming an increasingly unbalanced world.

What will we do without the bees?

I read an article today about the alarming decrease in the honey bee population and it really struck a chord.  The study concluded that the combination of a harsh winter and an alarming increase of pesticides present in honey bee carcasses are causing a dramatic decline in their population. 

This is frightening to say the least.  Honey bees are at the most basic level of our food chain.  Don't get me wrong; I'm concerned about polar bears, staggering poverty, starving children, and genocide as well but we can't survive without the bees.  This is a basic ecosystem equation.  We can forget all about modern convenience, connectivity, Ipads, and social media.  If we don't have the bees, we don't survive.

I'm not a doomsayer but is anyone else concerned about this?