Merchants Of Death: How The Military-Industrial Complex Profits From End...

tie-dye sky

Plastic Straws Aren’t the Problem

The anti-straw movement took off in 2015, after a video of a sea turtle with a straw stuck in its nose went viral. Campaigns soon followed, with activists often citing studies of the growing ocean plastics problem. Intense media interest in the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a floating, France-sized gyre of oceanic plastic – only heightened the concern.

However, plastic straws only account for about .03 percent of the 8 million metric tons of plastics estimated to enter the oceans in a given year.

A recent survey by scientists affiliated with Ocean Cleanup, a group developing technologies to reduce ocean plastic, offers one answer about where the bulk of ocean plastic is coming from. Using surface samples and aerial surveys, the group determined that at least 46 percent of the plastic in the garbage patch by weight comes from a single product: fishing nets. Other fishing gear makes up a good chunk of the rest.

The impact of this junk goes well beyond pollution. Ghost gear, as it’s sometimes called, goes on fishing long after it’s been abandoned, to the great detriment of marine habitats. In 2013, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science estimated that lost and abandoned crab pots take in 1.25 million blue crabs each year.

This is a complicated problem. But since the early 1990s, there’s been widespread agreement on at least one solution: a system to mark commercial fishing gear, so that the person or company that bought it can be held accountable when it’s abandoned. Combined with better onshore facilities to dispose of such gear – ideally by recycling – and penalties for dumping at sea, such a system could go a long way toward reducing marine waste. Countries belonging to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization have even agreed on guidelines for the process.

That’s where all that anti-straw energy could really help. In 1990, after years of consumer pressure, the world’s three largest tuna companies agreed to stop intentionally netting dolphins. Soon after, they introduced a “dolphin safe” certification label and tuna-related dolphin deaths declined precipitously. A similar campaign to pressure global seafood companies to adopt gear-marking practices – and to help developing regions pay for them – could have an even more profound impact. Energized consumers and activists in rich countries could play a crucial role in such a movement.

(Source)

Economic Update: When US Gov't Destroyed a Political Party

Democracy At WorkPublicado a 19/06/2017SUBSCRITO 54 MILSupport the show! Become an EU patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/economicupdate --- [CORRECTION] 47:05 -  Lisa E. Davis, author, Undercover Girl THIS WEEK'S TOPICS: xx:xx - Announcements; xx:xx - Updates on Oklahoma cuts funds for public schools xx:xx - why Americans don't take paid vacations owed them xx:xx - how coal/oil companies fight solar/wind companies to buy politicians that decide what energy system we must live with. xx:xx - MAIN TOPIC: Interview with Lisa E. Davis, author of "Undercover Girl" xx:xx - undoing the New Deal, xx:xx - FBI paid informers xx:xx - the destruction of the CPUSA. --- Learn more: http://www.democracyatwork.info/econo... LIKE Economic Update on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EconomicUpdate LIKE Democracy at Work on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/democracyatwrk Follow Democracy at Work on Twitter (@democracyatwrk): www.twitter.com/democracyatwrk Richard D. Wolff's website: http://www.rdwolff.com LIKE Richard D. Wolff on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RichardDWolff Follow Prof. Wolff on Twitter (@@profwolff): www.twitter.com/profwolff Support d@w by clicking this link before shopping on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2sXtHVa Lisa E. Davis's book Undercover Girl: amzn.to/2tkQHP0

Yosemite Valley [OC][4708 × 3006] - -Marcel-

Check out our nature blog - https://ift.tt/2x0nwBr Twin Falls - North Bend, WA, USA. via /r/hiking https://ift.tt/332GclV

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeE5WnTUsF8)

Lula da Silva: “Brazil is Undergoing a Right-Wing Coup”

Oeschinensee Kandersteg, Switzerland [OC] 3072x4608 - Author: the_gautschi on reddit