Nature Inside a Metropolis

Not far from my house is a creek that is being cleaned up by both the city and county where I live, and they have done a great job. This past week I had the opportunity to canoe along a portion of it with a group that was inspecting the cleanup progress. Looking at these photos, would you believe that I live in a very large metropolitan area? It just goes to show you that nature is still out there.

One should always expect the unexpected:

Nature is all around us. Try and take some time and look for the beauty of the natural world where you live. You'll feel better for getting out there. I know, I sure felt great when I got back from my afternoon on the creek.

Pictures from home

Every human, every plant, every animal, everything we have ever known has come from one place: Earth. We argue over borders, fight over territory, and pollute the land, soil, water, and air. It is our only home. We think of it as limitless, with endless resources available for us. It is not. Earth is a lovely planet, but it is finite and fragile. To help illustrate this I have collected a series of images of our home -- from near to far. Each image has a link back to its source if you want more information on the picture.

The first image was taken from orbit by a satellite. What you are looking at is the ocean in the vicinity of the Bahamas. The Web site is "Earth As Art".

This next picture was also taken from Earth orbit by the crew of the International Space Station. Here you can see some of the curve of the planet.
Now we've moved out of Earth orbit. This picture was taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts during one of their orbits of the moon. What a lovely, blue world.
We continue to move out in space away from Earth. This image was taken by the Mars Global Surveyor. For more information about this image you can also read this article from the National Geographic News. The image you see here has been greatly enlarged - go to the Mars Global Surveyor link to see the actual image.
This last picture is part of the first family photo ever taken of the planets of our solar system. You are looking at home from 6.4 billion kilometers away. Earth is a pale, blue dot less than the size of a pixel. Click on the image to view the whole family.

Hold the plastic

Go to the grocery store and you may hear “paper or plastic?”, but mostly the bagger just stuffs everything into lots and lots of plastic bags. Go to any store and purchase something, even if it is only one small item what do they do? They stuff it in a plastic bag. Do we really need all those bags? In one word, NO!

Here are some interesting facts for you from a company called ChicoBag, which sells a reusable alternative to the plastic bag:

• The average American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags per year.
• If everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together in a giant chain, the chain would reach around the Earth not once, but 760 times!
• Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photo-degrade—breaking down into small toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food-chain when mistaken for zooplankton or jellyfish.

Here are a couple of other things to think about before you grab that bag:

• Plastic bags are made from petroleum – something that has gotten VERY expensive lately. It is also a limited resource, one that we will run out of in the not too distant future (less than 30 years according to some sources).
• Because the bags are so light weight they wind-up all over the place. Many animals and endangered wildlife are killed or injured because they get tangled in the bags or ingest them.
• Check out this from the Earth Resource Foundation or this one from Californians Against Waste.
  

One easy alternative is to ask for paper bags in the grocery store. The bags are already made from recycled materials and many stores accept empty bags in recycle bins. My local Publix takes plastic bags, paper bags, and Styrofoam products. Another idea when shopping for just one or two items is to pass on the bag altogether. Most products are already in packaging, so just carry them without the bag. You might also consider a re-usable bag. There are many types and sizes available.

In January of this year, New York City passed a bill requiring large stores to collect and recycle their bags. China, India, and Australia are all considering bans on the bags. Clearly we need to change our habits. We need a new bag.