As I’ve said numerous times, just because I do not agree with man-induced “climate change” doesn’t mean I hate the environment. From my favorite New Climate Denier website, Grist (yeah, I cite them a lot)
Back in 2012, 561,633 very nice people went out on beaches around the world and picked up the trash that other people had thrown there. They picked up an astounding 10 million pounds. That’s the weight of 5,000 cars. It’s heavier than the Capitol dome.
What’s even more astounding is that this isn’t even the most trash the Ocean Conservancy has collected in the 27 years this challenge has been going. Twice before, volunteers collected more than this amount of trash, measured in weight, and once before, they collected more total items.
That first link in the excerpt goes to Treehugger (another of my favorites), which notes that this is the weight of 41 Blue whales. And here’s a summary of what was picked up
- 2,117,931 cigarette butts
- 1,140,222 food wrappers / containers
- 1,065,171 plastic bottles
- 1,019,902 plastic bags
- 958,893 caps, lids
- 692,767 cups, plates, forks, knives, spoons
- 611,048 straws, stirrers
- 521,730 glass bottles
- 339,875 beverage cans
- 298,332 paper bags
Also, 117 mattresses, 40 lottery tickets, and almost 2,500 sports balls.
So, when you head to the beach this year, pick your garbage and stuff up. Bring a garbage bag to put it in (and properly dispose of the bag). Don’t leave your cigarettes on the beach. If the beach allows smoking, bring something, like a used bottle, to put them out in. Don’t throw them in the ocean. As a smoker, I have no problem with banning smoking on the beach (I don’t do drugs, I rarely drink even beer, and I’ve reduced the amount I smoke to half a pack a day. Working towards quitting….hey, let’s see you give up drinking or another guilty pleasure, OK?). It always drove me nuts when I lived at the beach in NJ and would see, or step on, garbage. Clean it up! Better yet, do not leave it there.
No matter how you look at, doing our part for the environment is a good thing. Don’t destroy it.
[…] Stolen Borrowed from William Teach: As We Come Into Beach Season, Please, People, Clean Up Your Garbage […]
Right On Teach. Keep Nature clean and green is easiest when all we do is not trash it.
However, wouldn’t time be better spent repairing things, or painting public structures… instead of COUNTING all the cig butts? or every little piece of garbage picked up?
Although, I honor all those people who took time out of their days to voluntarily go out and pick up someone else’s trash.
You know, instead of mandating a carbon trading pyramid
scandalscheme, wouldn’t it be better for the environment if we actually paid skimmers to roam the Pacific Ocean and clean out all the floating plastic and garbage?[…] at Pirate’s Cove is blogging about “As We Come Into Beach Season, Please, People, Clean Up Your Garbage.” It’s a great […]
Good ideas.
I personally would go with the one where people who litter on the beach are given a few lashes and stuck in the stocks.
And, yeah, I get a bit cranky on it beach litter. Back in the day I jumped off my surfboard on my last wave of the day and landed on a broken bottle. Could only stand a few stitches after 6 shots of novacaine in the bottom of my foot on the heal, could barely walk for two weeks, missed a lot of good waves.
Quitting smoking is hard. I managed to quit for three months back in August, but picked it up again. A whole lot easier to say than do.
That would be great Gummie if you volunteered other people to do what you think should be done by them.
Smoking? Nicotine is an excellent way to control emotions. It traditionally was given to someone about to be executed before a firing squad. This was actually done to protect the men who were doing the shooting. It ws found that if the victim was given a chance to smoke he was less likely to begin crying or begging for his life, which the shooters might find disturbing.
Teach why do you need to smoke ?
I never started smoking, so while I appreciate, intellectually, that it’s hard to stop, it’s not something I understand from experience.
part of john’s psychosis prevents him from grasping the inherent differences between volunteerism, mandated servitude and paid work.
There are several components, John. First, physiological addiction. Second, psychological addiction. Third, I like smoking. I barely drink. I don’t do drugs. Quitting is not easy. I munch on nicotine gum (went down to 2mg recently). I’m about half a pack a day. Doing my best to not substitute food for smokes.
Nicotine gum helps with physical cravings, but not for mental. I’ll often go 4-7 hours without a smoke.
As bad as the addiction to nicotine is, the addiction to leftism is much worse. There is no gum to fight off the addiction of leftism. It’s cold turkey all the way and very few leftists have the fortitude to take the plunge.
A 35 yr, two pack a day habit is hard to break, but I’ll try again. It will have to be cold turkey for me. The gum gave me vision problems and headaches and I don’t care for the patch. Both times I quit, I did it cold turkey, once for a month and again for three months.
Keep trying Mike 2 packs a day is a killer for you and those around you. Nicorine is the most widely abused drug on the planet. People say it calms their nerves, but bthat means it deadens their thoughts and emotions, That is one reason why ciggies were issued to soldiers in WW II
Maybe try one of those Electrics, Mike. I’m planning on going to those shortly, not so much for physical but for mental. The pleasure factor without all the bad crap.
Haven’t had a smoke in 5 hours as of this time.