While eating dinner with Natalie the other night, I was asked the all too classic question when it came time to leave, “Would you like a plastic bag?”. An innocent enough question, but one that has dire consequences for our planet and future. Let’s start at the beginning shall we? A plastic bag is made of Polyethylene, derived from fossil fuels. Each year over 60 million tons are produced. Every day Americans use 270 million plastic bags, leading to over 100 billion a year. Though incredibly convenient, they are only made to be used a few times at most. After carrying your item home, you simply toss the bag. The trash man picks it up on Tuesday morning, and all is good. Right?…. Very wrong, Polyethylene is not biodegradable. Meaning it takes several hundred years to compost. Several hundred years… Each time you buy something trivial and toss the bag once home, that very bag will be around longer than your children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children. That is highly immoral and should be illegal. Fossil fuels are made up of FOSSILS. Fossils are made up of carbon that was once a living creature. Fossil fuels are made up of the bodies and spirits of creatures who lived long long ago. We are in effect offering the essence of our ancestors on the alter of commercialism. Our black ceremony is changing the environment. Warming it up and altering the chemical structure through pollutants. Life will be forced to adapt to this new environment in unthinkable ways. It appears we are setting the stage for a second Age of the Lizards, whether homegrown or extra terrestrial. So what do we do? Our culture is so dependent on fossil fuels that it is a neurotic addiction. One great step would be a bacteria or nanotech that turns waste plastic into energy. It is still carbon, on a molecular level it should be able to be converted back to its original state. Daniel Burd, a 16 year old Canadian recently discovered that Sphingomonas, a type of bacteria, can degrade over 40% of the weight of plastic bags in less than three months. Another great step would be to follow the lead of South Africa and totally ban them with a large fine or jail time. San Fransisco has recently done this, but with a paltry $200 fine. Another step would be to consume less store bought junk. A great way to tell what to buy is ask “How close does this item look to the way it was grown?”. If it has been super processed and no longer looks anything like what it is made from, chances are it took a lot of fuel to produce and is wrapped in plastic. Ultimately, doing without plastic bags is a change that would be noticeable at first, but manageable. It would clean up our oceans and rivers, and free up crucial fuel resources that will help in the coming “Great Change”. But most importantly, it would prevent future generations from having to deal with massive environmental devastation and looking back on us like barbarians. So next time someone asks just say “No, I would not like a plastic bag….”
I want to start off by saying thank you to all of the loyal readers who have stuck with me through this hiatus. “Work” has taken up most of my time lately, leaving me a cindered husk when I return home each evening. Although my mind continues to note each and every absurdity and marvel at the fact that our world and culture have not imploded dramatically, my pen (keyboard) hasn’t been scribbling. I fully intend to continue with THE 507 EFFECT, and look forward to starting a new chapter in my “blogging career”. Please forgive me if the entries begin to sound a little “stinging”, the time for sugar coated words passed with George Carlin. (RIP)
Much love to Jeanette and Malone’s for allowing The Omega Project an opportunity and a venue to grow our live show. These pictures were taken Sat. 6/21/08 by Corey. We will be playing each Saturday throughout June and July. Thanks to all of our family and friends who have been supporting us! Big things are on the horizon!
I Dissolve in order to Create Releasing Mind I seal the Output of Vision With the Spectral tone of Liberation I am guided by my own power doubled I am a galactic activation portal enter me. I am a polar kin I transport the Blue galactic spectrum.
These are pictures of the fire in Bonny Doon about 12 miles from where Natalie and I live. These are Redwoods burning. It is a bad sign that this part of the state is burning for 2 reasons:
This forest has a thick marine layer that keeps it especially moist and damp year round. So it should be too wet to burn.
It’s still early in the season, and the temperatures aren’t yet at their highest. If the wetter spots of California are already burning, how bad are the blazes in the drier parts going to be?
Thanks to Alekz Londos for these amazing pictures!
“Zimbabwe’s currency plunged to a new record low on Thursday, trading at an average 1 billion to the U.S. dollar on a recently introduced interbank market and triggering massive price increases. Traders were quoting the Zimbabwean dollar <ZWD=> at between 995 million and 1.45 billion against the greenback in Thursday morning trade, up from an average 700 million at the beginning of the week. The currency has depreciated by about 84 percent since the central bank effectively floated it in early May after years of an official peg.”
Are you Fuc*ing serious?! Its crunch time for the world’s resources and the poorest people are being abandoned at best, killed off at worst. This is another great success by the I.M.F., whose real goal is to subvert independent rulers who emerged after the fall of British Colonialism. What happens to the poor and oppressed anywhere affects all of us. Like a pebble dashed into still waters, we are all disturbed. We as Americans are not immune to this effect. Our dollar is currently declining. Jobs are being outsourced, resource prices skyrocketing, it is obvious that if the current generation of Americans do not change our trip, then we will soon be facing serious cultural hurdles. And I don’t mean some Barack Obama media created “Change”, I mean real change. The kind that involves seriously evaluating and adjusting our farming, medicine, food, religion, schools, laws, stereotypes, sexualities, and relationships. So much oppression worldwide has left the world with a bad taste for America. It is up to us as young Americans to erase this view by rising up and leading a “Green” Revolution. One based on humane principles, finding Unity in the Honor of the Divine and the Quest for Knowledge and Science. Ending this destructive and parasitic relationship between politicians and the Death and War Industry. Redirecting America’s enormous resources to the poor and hungry. Fostering intelligence and creativity. And becoming a leading light again, in a way that would honor our ancestor’s while also providing for our descendants. I send out a prayer for The Great Grandmother and Grandfather to help us during these times of tribulation. They that endure to the end, the same shall be saved….
“This Old House” was recorded by the Omega Project during the summer of 2005 leading up to Hurricane Katrina in sultry New Orleans. Big ups to Tim Stanbaw at Word of Mouth Studio’s for helping us to bring this one out.
I Define in order to Beautify Measuring Art I seal the Store of Elegance With the Self-Existing tone of Form I am guided by the power of Flowering I am a galactic activation portal enter me.
