USA & beyond: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

In one year, three times as much rubbish is dumped into the world's oceans as the weight of fish caught.

A single quart of motor oil can contaminate up to 2 million gallons of drinking water.

Balloons, warfare, people overpopulating themselves, sewage, noise, sonar, airplane contrails are all examples of pollution and contamination.

One of the many, many species that is suffering greatly is the Manatee. Join the PEER campaign to help protect the Manatees! PEER stands for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility http://www.peer.org/campaigns/wildlife/manatees/index.php

Whether you're a public employee, an activist or a person interested in these issues, please sound the horn! Notifying your friends of the PEER's work is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, please contact them.

Plastic

Ever since at least the time of "Goodbye, Columbus" with Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, we have been fouling our own home like this. It does not seem very sensible.

Capt. Charles Moore is author of the book Plastic Ocean published October 27, 2011. Please share what he has to say. The video is from TED.com.

"Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he's drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris in our seas."

Link to article:
Capt. Charles Moore on the seas of plastic | Video on TED.com

Click to buy the book:

Belugas

Please donate or help in other ways if you can to preserve the dwindling beluga population of Cook Inlet.

From: NRDC - Frances Beinecke <biogemsdefenders@savebiogems.org>

Date: Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 11:49 AM

Subject: The last 340 belugas are counting on us.

To: lizardmarsh@gmail.com

Dear Liz, We've rushed to court to save the last remnant of Cook Inlet's beluga population, but we need your immediate support to wage and win this fight for their survival. I hope you'll take a few seconds to watch this amazing footage of belugas and then help NRDC come to their rescue. Thank you. The last 340 belugas of Cook Inlet are fighting for their lives. Once you see and hear these musical creatures, we hope you'll help us rush to their defense. Please watch the 30-second video and donate today. Dear Liz, I urge you to watch this wonderful footage of the highly social and musical belugas -- because they desperately need our help. View the video. Three years after we won endangered species protection for the very last 340 belugas of Cook Inlet, Sarah Palin's successor in Alaska has stepped up his state's attack on these embattled creatures. He has filed a lawsuit that would strip away the belugas' life-saving protection. NRDC has raced to court and is defending these last belugas from the disastrous plans of corporations and politicians, but we urgently need your support. Please make an online donation so that NRDC can save the last Cook Inlet belugas from extinction and continue protecting our environment in the most effective way possible. Your contribution can make a big difference in this courtroom battle. Over recent years, the genetically unique beluga population in Cook Inlet, Alaska, has plummeted -- from more than 1,300 to the 340 survivors that remain today. They are truly the last of their kind. And their habitat is under siege. The latest threat comes from the proposed Pebble Mine, which would require a deepwater port in a part of Cook Inlet where the whales feed. The new port would increase shipping traffic, noise, pollution and other industrial activity -- all to service the monumentally destructive mega-mine. You and I didn't fight to save these last 340 belugas, only to see them wiped out by the Pebble Mine. That's why it's critical that we stave off the state's outrageous attack on their endangered species status. Please view the beluga video and donate now. Your gift will help us wage and win this fight for beluga survival. Thank you for helping at this critical time. Sincerely, Frances Beinecke President Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC takes pride in our careful stewardship of your contributions. Donations to this campaign will be used to help NRDC go to court to protect beluga whales and other wildlife or for other campaigns that enable NRDC to defend the environment in the most effective way possible.

We appreciate the opportunity to communicate with you and other NRDC BioGems Defenders. We are committed to protecting your privacy and will never sell, exchange or rent your email address.

Oceans

World Oceans Day is June 8th.

Wearing blue is the symbol to show your interest in conservation and protection of oceans worldwide. See:

http://worldoceansday.org/
Here is an article from The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article2073770.ece

Photo: Paul Noronha. What kind of a world are we leaving behind?  

There are events worldwide to celebrate oceans June 8th Wear Blue Tell Two

 

Duwamish

Pacific NW | Reclaiming the Duwamish River | Seattle Times Newspaper

Cleanup

Sign up to Cleanup on September 25th.
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=19841.0&dlv_id=21441

Chernobyl

Radioactive boar exist twenty years after Chernobyl. Bluefin tuna breeding areas have been impacted by the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster (see post by Carl Safina). Twenty years from now, tuna will show signs of damage from the oil disaster. Effects will be long-term and dire for many species.

Radioactive Boar on the rise in Germany
Germany is struggling to manage a rapidly growing population of wild boar that contains many animals exhibiting high levels of radioactive contamination left over from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Wild boar, eaten widely across Germany, have a fondness for mushrooms and truffles -- both of which are particularly adept at absorbing radioactive particles. The German government has been paying hunters compensation for meat unfit for consumption. Der Spiegel (Germany) (English online version) (7/30) Read more...

BP

Some people try to hide the facts, and some people try to hide from the facts.

• Researchers find underwater oil plume in Gulf Researchers say the presence of a mile-wide underwater oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico proves environmental dangers from the BP well leak remain, according to a study published in the journal Science. Scientists do not yet know the levels of toxicity present in the plume, but say degradation of the oil is occurring at one-tenth the rate it would if the oil was on the surface. National Public Radio (text and audio) (8/20)

Arsenic

There is naturally occurring arsenic and that resulting from mankind's pollution.

Ocean Arsenic: A ‘Ticking Time Bomb’ Oil Could Make Worse

July 2, 2010 article from The Gulf Oil Monitor

http://www.gulfoilmonitor.com/?p=189

Ponds 'caused Bangladesh arsenic'

November 15, 2009 article from the BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8361660.stm