Forum Topic

World Oceans Day

There are lots of lovely pictures of oceans today online.I'm very sad to see that the Phoenix Islands Protection Area (PIPA) a World Heritage site is being o opened up to fishing.  How many more of these pristine sites will be lost to big business?https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/travel/world-heritage/article/phoenix-islands-1

Philippa Bond ● 1566d11 Comments

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wo0R7cVLyd8I watched the Kiribati flag being carried up The Mall with those of the other Commonwealth countries.  I'd read that the Chinese were offering to resurface the airstrip on Kanton...  but not about this precious UNESCO site being given up to fishing again.

Philippa Bond ● 1565d

It's the huge amount of plastics debris dumped in the Mediterranean Sea by countries like Turkey,Spain and Egypt that come to mind.One wonders how much from Hounslow gets traded onwards from unscrupulously waste dealers..to Turkey in particular.What with lives lost crossing the Sea by desperate migration groups..I certainly haven't bathed in the South of France for years! All my plastic waste is delivered to Marks and Spencers at Tolworth from where it is used to produce those ubiquitous dark green M&S bags.

Jim Lawes ● 1564d

Henderson Island in the Pacific is interesting.  It is reckoned yo have more plastic on it than anywhere else in the world.  The Royal Navy have recently found it is in the wrong place on maps!https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2019/april/an-expedition-to-the-uninhabited-island-harbouring-38-million-pi.htmlYes, some of the supermarkets are taking back the soft plastics we can't recycle kerbside.  I'm not convinced that it can all be turned into anything really useful or that we want or need it all to start with.  You have to weigh up the pros and cons of saving it and transporting it against avoiding it in the first place.  EfW can also be too easy an option which produces unwanted CO2 and has costly gate fees. The Reduce at the beginning of the age old mantra of the waste hierarchy Reduce Reuse Recycle too often seems to be forgotten or not made easy for us to achieve and in fact made more difficult.I took a photo of a collection box in an Oxford M&S which listed the types of plastic they could recycle.  I would have to consult it to remember!  One supermarket uses three different types of plastic bags to package their bananas.  I do however applaud the responsibility being taken for the packaging  when it is being taken - I just wish there was less to start off with!

Philippa Bond ● 1564d

Absolutely crazy!!! Tragic!! You can buy bin bags that break down but who buys them?? Hardly anyone.  Also,  I don't know why people don't use, for rubbish, the charity bags that are regularly dropped through our letterboxes. My brother in law gives them to me and instead uses those awful thick black bin bags that'll take a thousand years to break down.  Can you imagine how many of those charity bags go to landfill?? Millions!!!😡😡

Juliet Hogg ● 1562d

Plastic all needs trapping so that it can go to efw unless it is one of the few plastics which is truly recycled so that it can't escape into all our waterways.I believe there is a new law which has recently come into force sbout using a percentage of recycled plastic mixed with virgin plastic when creating new packaging.Avoid it where you can and use your own containers.

Philippa Bond ● 1562d

Look up the name Lewis Pugh.Four years ago he swam some 330 miles from Lands End to Dover to raise awareness of the "Crisis in our Oceans" and in particular Pollution.I recall his greatest obstacle was the amount of plastic floating around.The general disregard for recycling plastics properly is a disgrace.

Jim Lawes ● 1562d

And it's not just Oceans and Seas that need care..local Rivers and streams too are abused.Just look at the front page of the Ealing Forum..several subjects down..and you'll read  about the well established local volunteers who have retrieved some 150 fly-tipped rubber tyres from the River Brent..weighing tons...Well done them.Closer to home the River Thames foreshore adjacent to Watermans Park in Brentford is littered again with the most unsightly rubbish.(rubber tyres again etc) Fish, swimming upstream, must dread arriving in our area!Is the Thames 21 organisation still alive?

Jim Lawes ● 1562d

Thanks Jim for the Lewis Pugh info.  What an amazing swimmer!And for reminding us about Thames 21.  It's nearly London Rivers Week.  I remember lots of things happening at Strand on the Green.  There are several nearby events:https://www.thames21.org.uk/events/category/london-rivers-week-2022/

Philippa Bond ● 1561d

How did I miss the man who swam under the ice sheet in just his speedos?https://lewispughfoundation.org/news?offset=1591623900513

Philippa Bond ● 1561d

https://theconversation.com/pacific-islands-an-unexpected-new-dimension-to-power-struggles-between-us-and-china-184292?

Philippa Bond ● 1554d

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P1DedPA8jBY

Philippa Bond ● 1551d