Boyan Slat, founder and young CEO of The Ocean Cleanup Foundation can be proud of his excellent work. Cleaning and respect for the oceans is fundamental for global health. The Coca Cola Company recently became a partner of Ocean Cleanup operations.
I would love it if his team could also develop a system to capture the small harmful particles that pollute the water in an even more efficient way because it is such an insidious problem.
Here is the link for those who want to support the Foundation :
Nature is our only source of life and balance and we must stop weakening it.
When approaching ecology, understanding the different parameters is essential to avoid drifting into greenwashing or greenbashing.
Let’s take an example: in Switzerland, some glaciers are shrinking, revealing fossilized tree trunks. This therefore proves unequivocally possible that there was indeed the presence of trees at these high altitudes at a certain period, and that the climate change that we are seeing is indeed part of natural cycles that have already taken place, in particular with each disappearance of civilizations.
On the other hand, the various pollutions generated by human beings worsen the situation by deteriorating the quality of the air, the soil and the water, and these are so many time bombs.
However, things will not work out on their own if we do nothing: minimizing the deterioration of our planet is everyone’s business, on a daily basis, knowing that today’s efforts will only bear fruit in several years. But this “delay effect” should not discourage us.
These are small efforts for everyone and, even if many of us are not used to them, we will all live better with the changes to come.
So, what to do ?
Criticizing “others”, trying to blame them or attacking them is totally counterproductive. To last over time, it is best to make it a game or a challenge. For example, meeting regularly with friends or family to talk, compare and decide on the actions you will try to reduce your consumption at all levels.
Some ideas:
1. First, the basics: never use disposable plastic bags again. It really is something easy that makes a huge difference every day.
2. Take care of things to make them last, and repair them as much as possible before recycling them.
3. Reuse what already exists.
4. Buy as locally as possible and avoid what comes from afar, even if we miss it a little at the beginning.
5. Consume products that require the lowest possible water consumption.
6. Install anti-limescale magnet systems which consume nothing, but which prolong the life of household appliances, clothes, and make it possible to reduce the consumption of detergent (use detergents with the fewest possible components even if they are a little less efficient: there will be a few small stains, but the fish you eat will be less toxic)
7. Buy a thermos bottle for our drinks of the day (this is the most difficult thing I think, as plastic bottles are so practical, but you have to force yourself).
8. Favor organic products (according to recent studies, current fruits and vegetables are 10 to 15 x less concentrated in nutritional elements than 20 years ago because the land is depleted). There will be fewer chemicals in the soil and in your organs.
9. Give preference to farmed fish: if the farms are well kept, the water is filtered and the preparation of the fish requires less energy and contains fewer harmful particles.
10. Do not throw medicine into water.
11. Wash your cars less often or go to places with pumps that recycle the wash water (the water-holding power is enormous: throwing 200 liters of water for 1 vehicle is terrifying because they could easily wash dozens vehicles!).
And finally, let’s talk about the oceans and their acidification.
The situation is very critical even if we do not yet see all the effects. We must, of course, stop throwing objects into the water (for the record, the city of New York has thrown millions of garbage bags into the ocean since its creation and is surprised today that the quality of its water is bad…).
However, “visible” objects that are in the water are not the most dangerous. In reality, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I had met with leading researchers for the Genesis Protocol novel and we had talked about this disturbing and growing problem, even though it was not the subject of our meetings.
Let’s not hide the truth, the situation is serious: between the tons of unrefined fuel (which almost looks like liquid tar), dumped by container ships for decades, chemicals, heavy metals, discharges of medicinal substances, and the small molecules of so-called “degradable” plastics, but which are full of chemical molecules, the quality of the water is becoming more and more toxic: we therefore find all these products in the flesh of the fish we eat.
However, all these compounds combined more or less seriously disrupt our endocrine systems, disrupting the proper functioning of our body. Slowly but surely, silently, they make us sicker and sicker over time. Even small amounts are dangerous because they act as terrain modifiers (the principle of action of trace elements).
Some fish can be real mercury thermometers (which is only one of the harmful elements ingested) and the researchers I mentioned above are very strict in the selection of the fish they eat. (I let you see the harms of ingesting mercury on the internet).
Either way, let’s support Ocean Clean-up. Even if they only remove solid objects, that’s a good beginning! They dedicate their lives to taking care of our oceans, therefore, of the quality of our well-being, in silence, almost in secret… So, if you can help them financially, don’t hesitate!