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Tar sands are far too easy a target

Over the summer we dabbled our toes in many waters. The Mediterranean, Sea of Galilee, Dead Sea and the Atlantic.

Over the summer we dabbled our toes in many waters. The Mediterranean, Sea of Galilee, Dead Sea and the Atlantic.

While in Maine we met with a friend who’s been involved with marine research for decades. He commented on how efforts to manage environmental impacts have born results. He noted that nature is surprisingly resilient if given a reasonable chance to recover.

But it saddened him that what he was micro managing along the coast of the Atlantic was nothing compared to the tragedy out on the high seas in international waters.

If you’ve seen the documentary Addicted to Plastic http://www.documentary-log.com/d402-addicted-to-plastic/ or read of the various ‘gyres’ in the ocean, you will know that much of the ocean is coated with tiny bits of human created waste in the form of disintegrated plastic.

In addition, the massive gyres are like large whirlpools that have sucked in volumes of plastic waste — ranging from ubiquitous plastic bags, to computer terminals, children’s toys, containers of all description, plastic netting and more. We’re talking tons of plastic garbage, which breaks down into confetti-like pieces and over time releases lovely toxic chemicals like bisphenol A and PCB that go right into the food chain.

These whirlpools have charming names like “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch” See the Wikiedia entry on this.

But all this occurs out in international waters, where no one is in charge, no one is watching and no one is cleaning up. No one is responsible for this mess. No one cares. No one wants to pay the tab for the clean up and no one is taking action except a handful of people. They have no power.

Consequently, while Alberta’s oil sands are getting front page coverage around the world these days, the greater tragedy of our oceans goes unnoticed. It’s a convenient diversion for those who want to avoid the truth.

The oceans cover about 70 per cent of the earth. Ocean currents affect climate; ocean temperatures affect marine life and human life. In a recent CBC documentary on Quirks and Quarks an interviewee indicated that there had been a decrease of some 40 per cent in the volume of phytoplankton in most of the oceans. An excerpt from the transcript of that interview reads:

“We should be very concerned … it’s extremely disturbing,” said Daniel Boyce, lead author of the study published Wednesday in Nature.

“Phytoplankton are the base of the marine ecosystem. It’s the fuel on which it runs .… Changes in phytoplankton abundance will ultimately affect everything higher in the food chain from tiny little zooplankton all the way up to large whales, valuable fisheries and humans at the top.”

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/07/28/phytoplankton-vanishing.html#ixzz0znbclUwp

He is right. We should be very concerned, but we are not.

Phytoplankton produces half the world’s oxygen. Oxygen. We need that in order to survive. Phytoplankton also removes carbon dioxide from the air. Automatically. Easier and cheaper than carbon capture and proven to be effective over thousands of years.

But nope, it is much so easier for the paparazzi to fly over Fort Mac and point at the nasty destruction the oil sands create, while ignoring the global disaster at sea.

There are many issues to be dealt with in mining the oil sands — and we have people working on it all the time — in research labs, corporations, government agencies and environmental groups. On balance, the oil sands emissions are miniscule compared to the highly polluted volumes of unrestricted industrial pollution in India and China; they are nothing compared to the e-waste dump sites that litter Asia.

But nobody’s collecting the plastic at sea. No one is responsible. No one is in charge.

To me it is evident that the most inconvenient truth is not global warming through GHG’s, but rather global warming through coating the oceans with a plastic film of human-made junk that doesn’t allow those massive earth-bound ‘lungs’ to breathe for us.

Let’s not let the media circus of self-righteous oil sands activists, Pelosi, US Senators and Hollywood environmentalists distract us from a looming death sentence at sea.

Ask the Harper government to jumpstart a global initiative to clean up the oceans in international waters. And clean up your own backyard. Maybe boycott cruise ships instead of stringing up anti-oil sands banners, remembering of course that an estimated 80 per cent of the ocean waste comes from land.

Give our oceans — that resilient source of life — a chance to recover.

Clean up the oceans first. All life — including yours — depends on it.

Michelle Stirling-Anosh is a Ponoka-based freelance writer.