The Majestic Plastic Bag - Support the AB 1998!

I posted a short film, "Plastic Bag" by Ramin Bahrani a while ago. It was an excellent documentary (sort of) film of "Life of a Plastic Bag".
Heal the Bay has just released a shorter version of "Mockumentary" video to show more people how plastic bags end up in the ocean.

AB 1998 is now in the Senate for a floor vote, which is the last critical step before it becomes law, as the Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has already committed to signing it once it passes the Senate, making these next two weeks in the Senate critical to making this landmark bill law.

Please pick up the phone or send a letter via this link, A CALL TO ACTION. It takes only a minute or two! Be a part of the change!!!

A CALL TO ACTION!

Saving the Planet with George Carlin

Yes, I worry about everything. I worry about our oceans, rain-forests, endangered species, animals rights, foods and water, our future, our children's future, and our green planet Earth. I believe that we can make a change little by little to correct ourselves if we realize and act now. It's not too late. Let's be optimistic.

However, I can have a break from the worries for a little while with the late genius comedian, George Carlin. His wisdom and irony are outstanding and incomparable.

His rant was celebrated by many conservatives. But don't get him wrong. Listen carefully. He was not a global-warming denier. He was not conservative on the environmental issues. He was overly disappointed and a little more pessimistic about what human beings have done to this planet than us. In fact, he was a very much naturalist and almost suggesting Gaia thesis. He clearly saw the problem is humanity not a planet. He was criticizing those Hippocrates who have no learning curve.

He said, “People are selfish,” during the interview in the TV show "The View". “These people with the fires and the floods and everything, they overbuild and they put nature to the test, and they get what’s coming to them, that’s what I say. People think nature is outside of them. They don’t take into them the idea that nature is a part of them. Nature is in here (pointing his chest), and if you’re in tune with it, like the Indians, the balance of life, the harmony of nature, if you understand that, you don’t overbuild. You don’t do all this moron stuff.” He continued, "They want toys. Everybody wants the newest gizmo. We are slaves to gizmo and toys."

I see this all around me. You know, those who want to be in the safe natural environment while cutting trees and building homes in the nature and driving SUVs to get a pack of cigarettes or those who tell their kids to love animals and eat right while filling their refrigerators with hormone-loaded frozen dead animals.

Anyway, I just want to enjoy this legendary routine for a little while and go back to worry about everything to save the planet.

Fight plastic pollution by supporting AB 1998!

Heal the Bay is sponsoring legislation this year that would significantly reduce plastic bag litter in our communities, on our beaches and in our oceans. With your help, California could be the first state in the country to adopt an aggressive policy to ban plastic carryout bags an large grocery stores, pharmacies and conveniences stores. Your immediate support is needed in helping to pass Assembly Bill 1998. Plastic pollution costs California taxpayers millions of dollars to clean-up, blights communities and threatens wildlife.

Your voice can make an incredible impact. Please help Heal the Bay by making a quick phone call to your District’s Assemblymember with the following message: “I am a member of your district and urge you to support AB 1998, the plastic bag ban bill.”

To find your Assemblymember, click here on the following link and enter your 5 digit zip code: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

The 2 minutes you take to call could help protect our environment for generations to come!

You can also send a letter to Assemblymember Brownley expressing your support for AB 1998 by clicking here:
http://www.healthebay.org/actionalerts/ab1998/sendletter.asp

San Francisco, Malibu, Fairfax, and Palo Alto have banned plastic bags and at least 20 more cities in California are considering bans. AB 1998 will create one uniform policy for addressing all types of single-use bags to encourage consumers to use reusable bags, the most sustainable alternative.

If passed, AB 1998 would:

Ban single-use plastic bags at supermarkets, convenience stores and large retail establishments with pharmacies. The ban would not apply to bags used to carry bulk items, produce or raw meat to the checkout.
Limit the distribution of paper bags at these stores to encourage consumers to use reusable bags.
Require reusable bags to be available for purchase at these stores instead of using single-use carryout bags.

A short video of the facts of Plastic in the Ocean

When I talk about plastic trash in the ocean, the most common questions that I receive is "How does it get to the ocean?" I understand that people have a hard time to imagine that 75 to 80 % of plastic trash in the ocean is originated from the land instead of from the ships on the sea.
But when you watch this video, you can see that your everyday plastic trash is floating towards the ocean through the rivers. Los Angeles river that flows into the Long Beach Port is only 51 miles long. However, there are numerous creeks and storm drains are feeding into the river. If you see a plastic cup on the street in front of your house today, the chances of finding the same cup somewhere in the LA river in the future are extremely high.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W1LMH7HGvs

Synthetics Sea - Plastic in the Ocean

I posted this last year. But this is a brand new version with more updated information.
Since the first version was made in 2001, many people started to realize the huge problem of plastic pollution in the oceans. So, things must have been improved, right? Surprisingly, the answer is NO. The situation got a lot worse. I mean, "A Lot".

It would take only 10 minutes of your time to find out what is really going on.