Water World

We learn in school that three fourths of the earth’s surface is made up of water. The assumption has always been that oceans are so vast they will break down whatever we dump in it. That used to be true perhaps. In ways that might not seem apparent to a good many people, the high seas are becoming as dangerous as they were in olden days, for people and for sea life.

Japanese Whalers Ram Sea Shepherd Ship Ady Gil « Motoring Scoop

“The Japanese whalers have now escalated this conflict very violently,” said Captain Paul Watson. “If they think that our remaining two ships will retreat from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the face of their extremism, they will be mistaken. … Press Release – New Zealand Police At 7 am on Sunday 11 October 2009 New Plymouth Police responded to a call from Port Taranaki that two Greenpeace boats were writing on the side of a ship berthed at a wharf. …

Greenpeace is doing a yeoman’s job of policing faraway places but who is there to police the neighbors that throw their recyclables in the trash or those that seem not to care about tossing their trash on the street? There are hefty fines for littering the streets in the U.S., for example – not easily enforced; at least the statutes exist – but how can we really get folks to comply, when their trash, including harmful plastics, is being deposited in the oceans of the world, food for sea creatures? We might need to put in place measures like those in Hartlepool:

…Hartlepool Borough Council – Recycling Letters Issued by Council

Hartlepool Borough Council News – Recycling Letters Issued by Council – LETTERS are to be sent to thousands of homes in Hartlepool calling on people to recycle as much of their waste as possible.

Recycle Match: The eBay of Recycling? |Triple Pundit

Waste. Every company creates it, in some form or another. For some materials, the path to recycling is clear – paper, plastics, and industry specific waste that has a known reuse within your sector or a related one.

There are individuals, groups, municipalities and businesses that are making themselves part of the solution. They can be found with minimal effort, usually on the internet. The consequences are too grave to ignore what is happening to the world’s oceans. We were given to be proper stewards and negligence should exact a penalty.

Ocean Pollution Viral Video