Here is real horror.

[john_jons]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXVw19bP0tw


Please disregard the anti-Obama stuff at the beginning. I don't support Obama, but I don't see why this had to be a part of the video.

[rurallib]

1. Good video - really brings it home.

[gateley]

2. This IS horrifying. I've sent it to all my friends. Thank you for posting it. nt Rec

[AndyA]

3. It's really shameful, isn't it?

The companies that make plastics should pay into a fund to clean this stuff up and recycle it.

I recycle most plastics, and reuse whatever I can so it isn't just thrown away. The problem will only get worse if we don't do something about it.

[Frustratedlady]

4. I agree! What did the Obama segment have to do with plastic?

Too bad, as the message was one we needed to hear.

[gateley]

7. I thought his anti-Obama statement was totally lame - and thankfully short! nt

[john_jons]

5. Maybe we could make grocery stores

intitiate a manditory bag return policy. They would need to account for evey bag they give away, and force a penalty for any they don't get back. Draconian, for sure, but this could spell the end of life on Earth as we know it if it is allowed to continue.

Here is another informative link on this topic;

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Synthetic-Sea-Moore.htm

[Booster]

6. Nothing will be done about this problem until stores just stop

providing the plastic bags. When people are inconvienced by having to put their groceries from the cart into their car one item at a time, and then carry them into their house one item at a time, believe me, they will find another solution, like buying the bags made of canvas or something else. Inconvenience is the key.

[gateley]

8. San Francisco has banned plastic bags -- we need to do that as a country. Then

on to plastic bottles. When I was growing up, we didn't HAVE plastic bottles or bags - and we got along just fine.

[SmokingJacket]

11. Bags are a small part of the problem.

An important one, but only part. EVERYTHING is wrapped in plastic these days. Everything is made of plastic. What did we think, that it would all magically disappear when we were done with it??? We didn't think, is the problem.

[SmokingJacket]

9. I couldn't even finish watching this; I feel so frustrated.

I live in a liberal, relatively environmentally conscious town. But do people think twice about using plastic? No they don't -- it's too inconvenient to do otherwise. And even people like me who **try** really hard to use as little plastic as possible, are frustrated over and over again at the difficulties recycling plastic or just finding products that don't use it. For God's sake, my computer is plastic. Half my neighborhood is coated in vinyl siding.

We have SO FAR to go to change this, but we have to, because producing so much non-biodegradable material is simply unsustainable. When will we stop -- when the whole ocean is covered in plastic?

:banghead:

[john_jons]

10. At the rate we're going and

with China coming on in such a big way and the bush-ites trying to spread the American way of life globally, it probably won't take too long before the oceans will be plastic. The second video I included in the follow-up post says that in that Gyre, researchers find 6 pounds of plastic to every 1 pound of sea life. And since it is increasing ten fold every ten years. It won't be long before we can walk to China.