Greenpeace

It's been a long while since the last posting, so big apologies to all of you die-hard readers out there (whoever you are...).  It's been a whirlwind summer here at the 'peace, and lucky for me I've been able to move my attention to the voyage of a lifetime: the Defending our Oceans expedition.  Greenpeace is sailing its newest and largest ship, the Esperanza (Spanish for hope) around the world for 16 months to discover what hidden mysteries lie beneath our seas.  The truth is, we don't know too much about what's lying beneath those seas.  In fact, there are more maps of the moon than there are of our deep seas.  So, being the newshounds that we are, Greenpeace is out there getting a good picture of the threats facing our oceans.  As you can imagine, those threats are many, and they're pretty damn serious.  From over-fishing to the dumping of hazardous wastes to whaling to bottom-trawling to drift-nets to pollution to coastal over-development, we humans have proven to be pretty good at making a huge mess of our oceans.  And, we're doing it even though our oceans are what give us life: every second breath we take comes from the oceans, and I'll skip the lesson in evolution from sea-based creatures, since we sound-minded people know that evolution is based on solid theories and scientific data.  Hopefully, you've had a chance this summer to enjoy our world's oceans and beaches.  And if you have, you just may have seen some of the junk that's washing up everywhere. 

Don't take my word for it.  Take the Los Angeles Times' word for it.  They ran a really fantastic series called "Altered Oceans" not too long ago that really is fantastic: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-oceans-series,0,7842752.special

Anyway, think twice before you eat shrimp.  Ask your grocer and waiter where the fish they're selling and serving is coming from.  Use environmentally friendly cleaning products, because what goes down your drain has to end up somewhere.  And start using canvas or cloth bags instead of plastic bags: those things are just terrible (and the paper ones made from ancient forests aren't any good either, just so you know).  There are loads of things you can do to help defend our oceans-- and one of the most immediate is to log on to http://oceans.greenpeace.org and get educated and most importantly sign up to become an ocean defender and stand with us at the forefront of the movement to keep our oceans alive and well.