Anyone who knows me knows that I faithfully watch MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” news program every weekday morning. The show’s guest list frequently includes people making a difference in the fight to save our oceans, a cause dear to my heart. It was a pleasure, then, to watch Kyra Sedwick’s Morning Joe segment on March 27. Until then, I was completely unaware of her involvement in the crusade against plastic pollution in our waterways.
Ms. Sedgwick is concerned about the chemicals that leach into our water supply from discarded single-use plastic bottles, bags, utensils and what-have-you that end up in the trash or in our water sources. Did you know that this plastic will outlast our grandchildren’s lifetimes? And that plastic waste is the main component in the trash soup that swirls in the middle of our oceans?
It not hard to see that this pollution threatens wildlife (e.g., those plastic soda can carriers) and enters our food chain through the fish that inhabit affected waters. For more detail, please check out this recent Huffington Post blog entry written by environmental lawyer Lisa Kaas Boyle. Frightening stuff.
It is more than frightening. I think we are seeing results of the toxins in the ‘unusual’ sealife now being discovered. Too many just don’t care and never will.