Skip to main content

Some info, resources & solutions to the plastic crisis

Image
By
Hello Everyone,

Plastic was once a miracle material but now it is the enemy. And we are the last generations who can do anything about it. If we want future generations to experience the world in all its amazing beauty like we have: we have to make a difference. We have the power to change the world for the better or for the worst. There will always be people who don't care about the environment but we do and so we need to do what we think is right. So join the campaign and fight for a better future. For our planet to return to its natural way with incredible biodiversity and amazing ecosystems. We have to make a difference now because all around the world animals are suffocating, drowning, and dying because of humans. You may think it isn't your problem but ultimately you are human and humans make plastic.

Honestly, I can't believe that it has gotten to this point. We just have to change something because there is obviously something we aren't doing right.

You may or may not have heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And I guess you don't want to know because to be honest, it is pretty depressing. The simple fact that it is made up of purely plastic and is 3 times the size of France is a shocking discovery. It's estimated (meaning it could be much more) size is about 1.6 million square kilometres. There are 5 other garbage patches, across the world. Although the Great Pacific garbage patch is the largest of them all. It does contain 46% fishing net and has a lot of fishing gear in it but also has consumer plastics mainly in the form of micro-plastics. It is estimated to contain 200 pieces of plastic per person. That is a lot because there are a lot of people in the world! Especially when that is just in that patch let alone the other patches and the rest of the ocean!

The patch is so big it is called Trash Island with its own currency and flag!

This is appalling and I really believe we can do something about it.
A scheme I really like is Refill. Why do you need a plastic bottle of water? It is much more expensive than simple tap water and if you think it is better for you then you have another thought coming because a recent study shows that it may contain plastic fibres from the bottle. If you are worried about the quality of your tap water you can cheaply buy a water purifier but you probably don't need one as the UK's tap water is one of the cleanest in the world. If you need to travel, buy a reusable metal bottle and download the refill app. it tells you where nearby places you can refill your bottle for free! It's a no-brainer! Surely no one needs a plastic bottle now. And if everyone in the UK did it, it would be 7.7 billion plastic bottles a year no longer thrown out!


An experiment was carried out as part of the program War On Plastic, which is available on BBC IPlayer. In the experiment, Hugh pulled a trolley of bottles of tap water around a town and when people bought it they said it was really nice and were shocked to find out it wasn't industrially processed water but water straight out the tap!

This proves that there really is no need for plastic bottles and that we can find alternatives.


I am going to tell you about an amazing book that might help you get to grips with going as plastic-free as you can. It emphasizes how small gestures can build up to something bigger than just you picking up a plastic bottle from outside your house and putting it in the bin, it focuses on the fact that that plastic bottle won't become poisonous micro-plastic in a Garbage Patch or the stomach of a seabird or even a not so good new home for a fish who then becomes trapped. I like to think about this idea in the form of a tree - the actions start small like a seed but grow big and the branches reach out to more and more people, and the tree grows taller and taller, each leaf an action.

The book is, of course, No. More. Plastic. by Martin Dorey: the founder of the #2minutesolution. I think his principle is great: if everyone spent 2 minutes picking up litter it would add up to make a huge difference. This book is really handy: it covers everything you need to know from different types of plastic to easy changes you can make in your home.  He talks about how important it is to protect the environment and what the worst offenders are as well as facts and statistics. This is a must-have book for every budding environmentalist who is determined to find a plastic-free path in life.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Unknown05/08/2020, 20:50

    Hello Elsie, Zoe and Freya. Thank you for your note about your blog. There are so many interesting ideas here. We would love to encourage hedgehogs into our garden. Sometimes a barn owl flies around near our house; it's lovely to watch as it criss-crosses the field looking for food. Good luck with your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zoë07/08/2020, 10:00

    Thank you! I hope you can get some hedgehog visitors! The barn owl sounds amazing. Thanks again, we really appreciate it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deforestation and why it’s a problem

By
Hi everyone, Welcome back to another post. Today we’ll be talking about deforestation and its impacts on our earth. Deforestation, the widespread clearance of natural forests, has been happening for thousands of years. One example is Western Europe, where, two millennia ago, 80% of the land was cloaked in dense forest cover. However, over time, a significant portion of this green expanse was sacrificed to create room for crops, livestock grazing, and as a source of fuel and building materials. Presently, a mere 34% of Western Europe retains its woodland. Today, the tropics deal with the brunt of deforestation. Activities such as mining, agriculture, road construction, and the establishment of vast cattle ranches drive the mass clearance of tropical rainforests. This results in the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, exacerbating the global climate crisis. The consequences come in two waves: first, the reduced number of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Climate change: what is it and what's the problem

By
Hello, I've noticed that we are always mentioning climate change. Not only us blog editors but also politicians, activists and so on. The words climate change are bounced around in the media and probably in your households, but do you actually know what it is or how it works? I know that for a long time, I didn't know what it really meant. I hope that this post changes that. What is climate change and how does it work? The words climate change describe a slow shift in the earth's temperature and changes in the weather patterns. Having a single warm winter does not instantly mean climate change. Climate change happens over a long period of time. If you look at a temperature graph over the years, it doesn't go up in one day and then stay the same for another hundred years. It curves up slowly but steadily. This is a average temperature graph from 1880 to just after 2000. You can see how the temperature gradually gets warmer....
Post a Comment
Read more

The Responsible Traveller by Karen Edwards || a practical guide to reducing your environmental and social impact // BOOK REVIEW

By
HI Everyone! Our January monthly post was a zero-waste challenge, but as we explained in our  2023 wrap up , this year we will be alternating a monthly challenge with a book review, of course related to the environment. This week, I'm going to share a recommendation for a fantastic book, all about how you can travel more sustainably and responsibly. I absolutely love travelling, but I'm also very aware of the impact it has on the world, and I am very keen to learn more about how I can further reduce my impact. That's why I bought this book around a year ago, and I've really enjoyed reading it and learning from it.  This is a practical, small-format guide, sharing both basic information about the climate crisis and the impact of various travel activities, and how you can do your bit. It shares specific journeys that are more environmentally friendly options, for example long distance train journeys such as The Alaskan Railroad with its stunning alpine forests and wide ar...
Post a Comment
Read more

April Top Tips: ten tips for environmentally friendly travel

By
Hi Everyone! We haven't been very present on the blog again recently but we are back today with ten top tips for environmentally friendly travel. Most forms of travel over long distances (unless you are willing to put in a lot of physical effort) use fossil fuels and are generally not good for our planet. So today we will be giving you a few tips which although won't mean that your travel is 100% planet friendly, will be a good start to doing as much as you can.  Your Green World Blog Team💚 1. Use trains and boats rather than planes where possible Planes are awful for the environment. They are, however, extremely practical and so easy to use, cheap...It's hard to avoid them! They are so quick too so you don't have to spend as much time travelling. However, they are really bad for the environment. For example, you could fly once to Edinburgh from Heathrow for the same carbon dioxide levels as driving to Edinburgh 336 times! 2. Fly...
Post a Comment
Read more

10 Animals on the edge of extinction, You did not know about no.1 - Yangtze Finless Porpoise

By Anonymous
The first animal of this series is the Yangtze finless porpoise, a dolphin living in fresh water in southern China in the Yangtze river. It is one of the very few dolphins living in fresh water and the only species left in the Yangtze river. Unfortunately, the porpoise is facing extinction. What is it? The Yangtze finless porpoise is a dolphin species living in the Yangtze River in southern China. It is one of the very few dolphin species that live in freshwater, and the only one that survived in the Yangtze river after the Baiji Dolphin was declared functionally extinct in 2006. It characteristically is about 2 meters long, has no fins -as the name suggests- and no beak. Its mouth however is curved upwards like a smile, giving the Porpoise and cute and friendly face. It feeds on small fish, crustaceans and molluscs. Sadly, the Yangtze finless Porpoise is considered "critically endangered" as there are only about 1000 of them left.  Why i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Linking climate change and inequality - 'The Great Carbon Divide'

By
Hey everyone, Have you heard of 'The great carbon divide‘? It is often referred to as the 'carbon footprint gap' or the 'emissions imbalance‘, and produces frightening numbers. The great carbon divide describes the huge gap between the amount of carbon dioxide the rich versus the poor emit, and these numbers shocked even us.  What does this mean?  There have been many different studies, and all of them show terrifying results. One study from the Guardian and Oxfam, reports that the richest 1% of the world's population emit more carbon than the poorest 66%. The richest 1% consist of 77 million people, which may seem like a lot at first, but the poorest 66% refers to over 5 billion people! Africa, which is home to 17% of the world's population, only causes 4% of the world's emissions. This top 1% emitted 16% of global CO2 emissions in 2019, that's 5.9 billion tonnes of CO2. Modelling suggests that it would take someone who isn't in the top 1% about 150...
Post a Comment
Read more

Animals 11-15 in our '50 incredible animals' series

By
Hello, We have another five amazing animals for you today. Enjoy! 11. Dhole This is a dog species which looks rather like a red fox . They are difficult to put into any of the dog subfamilies. They aren't foxes, nor wolves, nor domestic dogs. Dholes are fast runners and live in packs of 5-12 individuals. Although sometimes, different packs will join forces to become a pack of 30 or more individuals! However, these super packs are broken up after a successful hunt. The different packs rarely attack each other as neighbouring packs are often closely related. Dhole packs live in burrows with multiple entrances. They can be found in eastern and southern Asia. They eat wild berries, insects and lizards and as a pack hunt deer, rodents and other wild mammals. Interestingly, unlike other dogs, they rarely kill by biting at the throat. They are also good swimmers! 12. Irrawaddy dolphin The Irrawaddy dolphin can be found in coastal areas of south a...
Post a Comment
Read more

The life of ... Atlantic salmon

By
Hello everyone, Today we're talking about Atlantic salmon. Atlantic salmon are found in the north Atlantic and the rivers that flow into it. They can grow up to a meter long and are classified as Least Concern by the IUCN . Atlantic salmon start their lives in rivers. The pea-sized eggs are laid in autumn and hatch in April or May. The tiny salmon are called alevins. They feed on aquatic invertabrates and eventually devolop into parr. Parr are easily recognised by destinictive patterns and markings on their flanks. After up to several years, the parr develop a silvery sheen. These replace those characteristic parr markings. Their bodies change in preparation for the salt water and they are now called smolts. They swim downstream with the current all the way to the ocean. In the deep sea waters, the smolts feed on crustaceans and small fish for 15-50 months. However they are hunted by a number of predators including, sharks, seals and of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

10 animals on the edge of extinction you didn't know about no. 9 - South Island takahē

By
Hello Today we’re talking about the South Island takahē, porphyrio hochstetteri . They are flightless birds, endemic to New Zealand. Takahē are brightly coloured and weigh 2.3-3.8 kg. They have red legs and a large red beak. Their feathers are coloured blue and green. They have wings, but these are only used during courtship or rivalry displays. They are territorial, with one family’s territory reaching anywhere from 4 ha to 100 ha (0,04-1km^2). Pairs will live in the same territory each year. They breed once a year and will raise 1-3 chicks (normally 2) each year.  Both parents raise the chicks together.  In the wild, takahē live in native grasslands and have a lifespan of 16-18 years. If snow covers the ground then they will move into nearby forests. They eat tussock grasses, sedges and sometimes rushes. But they are opportunists, so they will occasionally go for insects or even ducklings and...
Post a Comment
Read more

Coral reefs

By
Hello! We would love to introduce you to the topic of coral reefs and especially coral reef bleaching, as it is a greatly ignored but certainly significant topic. Have fun! 5 coral reef facts 1. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on the planet and is 2300 km long! 2. Less than 0.1% of the world's ocean surface is covered in coral reefs. 3. At least 25% of all marine animals live there. 4. Coral reefs are often known as the rainforests of the ocean. 5. In 1 square kilometre of coral reef, up to 35 tons of fish can be 'produced'. The 5 biggest coral reefs in the world 1. Great Barrier Reef (near Australia) 2. Red Sea Coral Reef (near Egypt, Israel and Djibouti) 3. New Caledonia Reef (Pacific Ocean near New Caledonia) 4. The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef (near Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras) 5. Florida Reef (Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico near Florida) What is coral? Coral is actually made up of small anim...
Post a Comment
Read more