One Life, One Planet
Life Vibrant Everywhere
One Life, One Planet
Light Shining in Every Creature
One Life, One Planet
Love Embracing All in Oneness
One Life, One Planet
Planet Home for Us All
One Life, One Planet
---by Manize Sait, founder of School of Ancient Wisdom
Wise and wonderful teacher Manize Sait prays for us all in this New Year’s psalm.
As the creature with the most potential to serve others, our duty to uphold and protect life is an awesome honor. We are the ones who litter. We are the ones who waste. We are the ones who consider everything else our resources, not fellow guests of Mother Earth.
An article in the Feb. 5, 2008 Bangalore Times spoke to our careless “fowling of our own nest:”
Garbage tip in Pacific Ocean 'growing at alarming rate'
London (PTI): A drifting "plastic soup" of wastes, stretching from Hawaii to as far as Japan, is growing at an alarming rate in the Pacific Ocean, American scientists have warned. The garbage tip -- "the world's largest rubbish dump" -- was discovered by the US oceanographer Charles Moore while taking a short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race in 1997.
"… It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that's may be twice the size as the United States," 'The Independent' quoted Marcus Eriksen as saying. Eriksen is a Research Director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation which Moore founded.
Life Vibrant Everywhere
One Life, One Planet
Light Shining in Every Creature
One Life, One Planet
Love Embracing All in Oneness
One Life, One Planet
Planet Home for Us All
One Life, One Planet
---by Manize Sait, founder of School of Ancient Wisdom
Wise and wonderful teacher Manize Sait prays for us all in this New Year’s psalm.
As the creature with the most potential to serve others, our duty to uphold and protect life is an awesome honor. We are the ones who litter. We are the ones who waste. We are the ones who consider everything else our resources, not fellow guests of Mother Earth.
An article in the Feb. 5, 2008 Bangalore Times spoke to our careless “fowling of our own nest:”
Garbage tip in Pacific Ocean 'growing at alarming rate'
London (PTI): A drifting "plastic soup" of wastes, stretching from Hawaii to as far as Japan, is growing at an alarming rate in the Pacific Ocean, American scientists have warned. The garbage tip -- "the world's largest rubbish dump" -- was discovered by the US oceanographer Charles Moore while taking a short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race in 1997.
"… It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that's may be twice the size as the United States," 'The Independent' quoted Marcus Eriksen as saying. Eriksen is a Research Director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation which Moore founded.
"It moves around like a big animal without a leash. The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic," said Curtis Ebbesmeyer who has tracked the build-up of plastics in the seas for over 15 years. The "soup" is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk -- which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags -- is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from land.
Our Love Affair with Plastic
When I was a young girl, the first Macdonald’s opened in my hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan. How well I remember the excitement of the 15 cent hamburgers, French fries and milk shakes! And even more tantalizing for me was the abundance of free colorful plastic straws…swirled white, yellow and red. We could pump the dispenser forever, and take all we wanted home. One straw would surely have been enough…they never wore out….but I was gaga over plastic, caught in an American epidemic.
Learning that, in the America of my childhood (1960s) we produced about 2.7 pounds of trash daily per person….compared to more than 4.5 pounds today.... is no leap in logic for me. Whether we want it or not, consumers are swimming in excessive plastic packaging.
The turtles, birds and fish of our oceans are also swimming in this nonbiodegradable, nonrecyclable soup…and faring much worse. Mistaking floating litter for food, marine families are suffocating and starving. Natural immunity and rates of reproduction have dropped, too.
Watch this 6 minute video on the Plastic Soup Sea to learn more.
Deadly Love Affair Must End
Taking notes while watching this video in my Bangalore bedroom, my fountain pen ran out of ink. I was so happy to realize that I simply refilled the ink, rather than tossing a plastic ball point pen in the garbage, that would end up where? India is nearly an island itself: only on the north is she bordered by land.
Making simple choices in our daily living might appear small, but when we all become conscious of our plastic consumption, we will save lives around the planet.
Friends in the US tell me of campaigns to reduce the use of plastic bags, items that live longer than we do. I have struggled with what to do with mine, opting to use them as packing materials. Our dear late Aunt Lulie DePamphilis used to crochet handbags and doormats!
Our Love Affair with Plastic
When I was a young girl, the first Macdonald’s opened in my hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan. How well I remember the excitement of the 15 cent hamburgers, French fries and milk shakes! And even more tantalizing for me was the abundance of free colorful plastic straws…swirled white, yellow and red. We could pump the dispenser forever, and take all we wanted home. One straw would surely have been enough…they never wore out….but I was gaga over plastic, caught in an American epidemic.
Learning that, in the America of my childhood (1960s) we produced about 2.7 pounds of trash daily per person….compared to more than 4.5 pounds today.... is no leap in logic for me. Whether we want it or not, consumers are swimming in excessive plastic packaging.
The turtles, birds and fish of our oceans are also swimming in this nonbiodegradable, nonrecyclable soup…and faring much worse. Mistaking floating litter for food, marine families are suffocating and starving. Natural immunity and rates of reproduction have dropped, too.
Watch this 6 minute video on the Plastic Soup Sea to learn more.
Deadly Love Affair Must End
Taking notes while watching this video in my Bangalore bedroom, my fountain pen ran out of ink. I was so happy to realize that I simply refilled the ink, rather than tossing a plastic ball point pen in the garbage, that would end up where? India is nearly an island itself: only on the north is she bordered by land.
Making simple choices in our daily living might appear small, but when we all become conscious of our plastic consumption, we will save lives around the planet.
Friends in the US tell me of campaigns to reduce the use of plastic bags, items that live longer than we do. I have struggled with what to do with mine, opting to use them as packing materials. Our dear late Aunt Lulie DePamphilis used to crochet handbags and doormats!
I’ve often thought we should engage post offices in helping with recycling. These fellows are at our door daily, and leave empty handed. Why couldn’t they take back tightly rolled up plastic bags…lightweight and easy to stuff in their sacks? Recycling of such bags is a growing business, particularly in California. In parts of the European Union, consumers bring their own bags to the markets, and are charged more at checkout if plastic bags are used.
Down the Storm Drains, Out to Sea
That plastic spoon or top to a yogurt container left on the park bench gets blown to the ground. The rain eventually washes it to the storm drain. Soon, the remains of your lunch are journeying to the sea. Eighty percent of all the garbage floating in the sea came from land; and 80 percent of all that garbage is PLASTIC. After joining the plastic soup and harming so many see creatures, some of it is belched back up on our beaches. What a deadly, messy reminder of our carelessness.
Creating excessive, dangerous waste is a sure sign that we are living in an unconscious state. We are simply not awake or aware of the consequences of our choices and actions. We want to open our plastic wrapped batteries while downtown, and there is no trash receptacle in site. How easy it is to drop the rubbish on the ground?
Our great challenge and privilege as human beings is to see and make connections. To see the total interconnectedness and interdependency of this throbbing sphere we all call home.
Native American Nations Created No Waste
The great red skinned tribes of North America created no waste during their stay on Earth. Seeing an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute years ago, I was stunned by how the natives used Every Piece of the Animals they killed. Even the snake’s neck bones became a child’s rattle, the buffalo bladder a purse. When the tribe moved from one location to another, to follow the sun or source of food, they left no sign of their previous occupation. They kept America Beautiful.
Down the Storm Drains, Out to Sea
That plastic spoon or top to a yogurt container left on the park bench gets blown to the ground. The rain eventually washes it to the storm drain. Soon, the remains of your lunch are journeying to the sea. Eighty percent of all the garbage floating in the sea came from land; and 80 percent of all that garbage is PLASTIC. After joining the plastic soup and harming so many see creatures, some of it is belched back up on our beaches. What a deadly, messy reminder of our carelessness.
Creating excessive, dangerous waste is a sure sign that we are living in an unconscious state. We are simply not awake or aware of the consequences of our choices and actions. We want to open our plastic wrapped batteries while downtown, and there is no trash receptacle in site. How easy it is to drop the rubbish on the ground?
Our great challenge and privilege as human beings is to see and make connections. To see the total interconnectedness and interdependency of this throbbing sphere we all call home.
Native American Nations Created No Waste
The great red skinned tribes of North America created no waste during their stay on Earth. Seeing an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute years ago, I was stunned by how the natives used Every Piece of the Animals they killed. Even the snake’s neck bones became a child’s rattle, the buffalo bladder a purse. When the tribe moved from one location to another, to follow the sun or source of food, they left no sign of their previous occupation. They kept America Beautiful.
Awaken, O Human! Become conscious of your contributions. Awaken to the blessed kinship with land, sea, sky and all who dwell within. Awaken and use the power of love to share and care for the Garden of Eden.
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