Color Me Green - Reflections on Earth Day

As we celebrate Earth Day on April 22 this week, I have set my mind once again on contributing to the survival of the planet. This is the time when we are inundated by green and eco messages that abound everywhere, and we feel the urge to chime in, drink one less can of soda, recycle more stuff, or donate to an environmental non-profit.

In the spirit of the season I have compiled what I believe to be the most complete list of Earth Day Events, Green Events, and Vegan Events in the US for April and May 2011. Please find an event near you and participate in the efforts that your city or state have undertaken to save the planet.

Among all the good intentions and willingness to do more for Mother Nature, something often stands in our way, and it's two-fold: convenience and ignorance. Two powerful opponents that can drown any sensible effort to change our lives for the better of the planet. As it is with human nature, we often need a serious calamity happening somewhere or see our own life impacted to be shaken out of our comfort zone and to embark on a change in habits or, God forbid, in lifestyle.

I will not drone on the Japan disaster and the insanity of pushing nuclear energy as safe and desirable. Anybody with cognitive ability should have recognized the events that befell our Asian neighbors as cataclysmic enough to be jolted into immediate action for Mother Earth: cease and desist! But, as media attention wanes and people go back to their own convenient life, it is hard to tell how much a catastrophe like the Japan earthquakes (which do still continue as afterquakes), will resonate well enough to attack the problem at hand, and what ha been known for many years: Humans are the one life-threatening force that can - and will - bring all life as we know it to extinction, if we don't change our behavior radically today, not in 5 months and not in 5 years - today!

Of course there is one thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint that makes a greater impact than anything else: start with your plate! You can go green with your food and save more greenhouse gases than driving a hybrid car or buying expensive gadgets. See here for yourself how this works.

But apart from embracing a meat-free diet, we also need to look at our own trash: we have to clean-up our act and eradicate the plastic in our lives!

And that brings me to the story of the day, as I just watched a brand-new powerful documentary called "Bag-It", which takes us on a journey through the history of plastic, it's (ab)use in today's societies, and why we poison and suffocate ourselves in the endless streams of plastic in a mind-blowingly accelerated way every year.

Some plastic facts:

• First of all, plastic is made from highly undesirable, un-renewable resources: fossil fuels. Petroleum or natural gas are used to make plastic (natural gas is NOT green, even if the producing energy giants want to make us believe so). As we attempt to cut lose from fossil fuels towards cleaner energy, plastic in all its forms has to be eradicated, and particularly in consumer goods like packaging. There are many very good uses for plastic in many industries, but consumer packaging is not one of them: it’s a huge, wasteful, and often redundant use of plastic. More than anything else, we use plastic bags and plastic bottles.
• Even if you recycle, only very few recycled plastic items of types 1 and 2 will re-enter the production cycle. The vast majority of plastic – recycle symbol or not, ends up on landfills and in our oceans. 
• And why isn’t all plastic recycled that has the chasing arrows symbol on the bottom? Because US plastic companies prefer the freshly made clean plastic pellets that they can mold into any form, rather than repurposing old, recycled plastic materials. So what happens to all our recycled stuff? It is often shipped to Asia, where underpaid, unprotected workers sift through the barrage of dirty, filthy, highly toxic plastic waste to find anything they can still reuse for their own needs. The rest? It’s often burned without filters in large open incinerators, and the toxins invade nearby cities and streams.
• And then there is the main perpetrator, the ubiquitous plastic bag, which cannot be recycled at all. It will end up in landfills and in our oceans, where it never fully degrades.

Some staggering stats on plastic:

• In the US alone, 800 lbs of plastic packaging are used per person every year.
• 106,000 aluminum cans are used in the US every 30 minutes.
• 60,000 plastic bags are used in the US every 5 seconds.
• Bottled water has now surpassed the sale of beer in the US, and soon will surpass soda as well.
• The energy content of one plastic bottle is enormous: fill it half with petroleum and you have the amount of energy that is used in the making and transport of just this one bottle.

But even as we citizens may be ready to roll up our sleeves and use both arms to dig us out of this man-made mess, corporate America does not allow us to make a real change for our planet! We already know that the oil, food, and drug industries have our elected officials in their pockets and make them dance like wooden puppets, but now add the American Chemicals Council to the list. The ACC is responsible for all things made with chemicals, among which are, of course, plastics.

I honestly think we could move more in this country if citizens were allowed to elect the board members of the largest industry councils, but that’s a story for another day.


So what is the threat of plastic?

• It is estimated that 6 million pieces of litter enter the oceans every day, mostly plastics.
• There are 5 major trash gyres in the world’s oceans, which means the trash floats there forever and will not be washed away by currents. The largest is the “giant garbage patch” in the Pacific, which has now reached the size of Texas.
• Plastic does not degrade in the ocean, it “photodegrades” in the sun, which means it degrades into smaller pieces and affects wildlife, which mistake it for food.
• When plastic degrades, its toxins concentrate.
• In many parts of the oceans there is now more plastic than plankton, which marine life feeds on. The ratio of plastic to plankton is now 40:1 in some areas. This affects every ocean species from fish to sea turtles. Needless to say, these plastics make it back into the human food chain too.
• When not ingesting it as food, wildlife gets entangled and suffocated by plastic.
• It is estimated that plastic kills over 100,000 marine animals per year.
• Plastic contains bisphenol A (BPA) and phtalates, which are highly toxic and can lead to diseases and disorders like breast cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, reduction of sperm count, hyper activity disorder, and endocrine disruption, which upsets the hormone system.
• Phtalates are often used to soften consumer plastic products, and as opposed to BPA, it is not required to be labeled as ingredient and may often appear as “fragrance” on bottles, including baby products.

So what can you do to avoid the most harmful affects of plastic on your health and on the planet with its marine life?

• Don’t use plastic bags – period! If you still don’t own a good reusable shopping tote, strike two goals at once and get one from one of these very worthy non-profits who fight for human health, animal welfare, and the protection of the planet:
• Greater Good Network allows you to pick your favorite cause and then shop for bags & totes here. A percentage of the proceeds will benefit the cause of your choice.
• PCRM is the Physicians Committee for responsible Medicine, which offers excellent information about fighting and preventing diseases with the right diet and lifestyle choices. They also support healthy school lunch programs and fight to end the lab testing on Great Apes. Check here for a sleek and compassionate PCRM tote. 
• PETA is a well-known animal rights organization that fights for the rights of creatures large and small all over the planet. You can sport your message in support of exploited animals with a PETA tote too.
• Don’t drink bottled water! Instead, filter your tap water and store it in glass containers in the fridge, then take it out in reusable bottles that are not laced with BPA.
• Bring your own reusable bottle to the coffee shop – don’t use styrofoam cups. They never degrade!
• Bring your own tupperware to the restaurant for leftovers after dinner.
• Don’t microwave your food in plasticware, it’s toxic! Instead, get some good glassware of ceramic containers to heat your food. 
• As a general rule, don’t eat or drink anything in plastic if you can avoid it.
• Buy as little as you can in plastic or tin containers (while tin is recycled many times better than plastic, the tins are often laced with BPA). Instead, look for paper or glass containers. Even better: bring your own, clean container and buy your groceries in bulk, so that you can avoid access packaging. Here are some ideas on what you can buy in bulk and save some money on the way.

I hope that my reflection on Earth Day this year gave you some inspiration and ideas on what you can do to protect the planet. While it may appear that big corporations can force us into unhealthy behaviors and products, we the consumers – you and I – have the power to make a huge difference.

A single step can start an avalanche of great change, so never ever give up the hope that we can save our earth and her creatures. We just have to really want it – and demand it loudly!

Happy Earth Day!

Ina Mohan