Huakailani School for Girls Blog: Green Wave 2010

19.5.10

Green Wave 2010

On 21 May, the youth of Huakailani School will join thousands of young people in creating a global "green wave" to celebrate both the International Day for Biodiversity and the International Year of Biodiversity. All around the world, students, teachers and youth organizations will host and participate in special tree planting celebrations to increase awareness about biodiversity.

The Green Wave is a project designed to support the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the world's international treaty that promotes the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits derived from genetic resources. The project aims to help raise awareness and educate young people on the loss of biodiversity that is taking place and the need to take action.

The "wave" occurs on the International Day for Biodiversity which, this year, focuses on the importance of biodiversity for development and poverty reduction. Each year on 22 May, children and youth in participating schools around the world plant a tree at 10:00am local time, creating a "green wave" across time zones. Participants upload photos and text about their celebration to The Green Wave website to share their stories with others. An interactive map goes live in the evening at 20:10 local time, creating a second virtual "green wave."

"The Green Wave represents a fantastic chain of human solidarity around the epitome of life - trees - between the children of today and the responsible citizens of tomorrow" say Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the CBD. "This year's Green Wave events will be especially memorable because the United Nations designated 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity."

The Convention on Biological Diversity is one of the most broadly subscribed international environmental treaties in the world. Opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, it currently has 193 contracting Parties - 192 States and the European Community - who have committed themselves to its three main goals: the conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components and the equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. The Secretariat of the Convention is located in Montreal, Canada.

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The Real Cost of Plastic Bags

The Real Cost of "Free"
Well over a billion single-use plastic bags are given out for free each day. But as the old adage says, nothing comes for free. Here are some facts to illustrate the actual costs paid by our environment and society for the fleeting convenience of unlimited, free, single-use plastic bags. To see the real costs, we must look at the "cradle to grave" multiple impacts and the effects of each phase of a bag's life.

Phase 1: Production Costs
The production of plastic bags requires petroleum and often natural gas, both non-renewable resources that increase our dependency on foreign suppliers. Additionally, prospecting and drilling for these resources contributes to the destruction of fragile habitats and ecosystems around the world.

The toxic chemical ingredients needed to make plastic produces pollution during the manufacturing process.

The energy needed to manufacture and transport disposable bags eats up more resources and creates global warming emissions.

Phase 2: Consumption Costs
Annual cost to US retailers alone is estimated at $4 billion.

When retailers give away free bags, their costs are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Phase 3: Disposal and Litter Costs
Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food. Turtles think the bags are jellyfish, their primary food source. Once swallowed, plastic bags choke animals or block their intestines, leading to an agonizing death.

On land, many cows, goats and other animals suffer a similar fate to marine life when they accidentally ingest plastic bags while foraging for food.

In a landfill, plastic bags take up to 1,000 years to degrade. As litter, they breakdown into tiny bits, contaminating our soil and water.

When plastic bags breakdown, small plastic particles can pose threats to marine life and contaminate the food web. A 2001 paper by Japanese researchers reported that plastic debris acts like a sponge for toxic chemicals, soaking up a million fold greater concentration of such deadly compounds as PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of the notorious insecticide DDT), than the surrounding seawater. These turn into toxic gut bombs for marine animals which frequently mistake these bits for food.

Collection, hauling and disposal of plastic bag waste create an additional environmental impact. An estimated 8 billion pounds of plastic bags, wraps and sacks enter the waste stream every year in the US alone, putting an unnecessary burden on our diminishing landfill space and causing air pollution if incinerated.

From www.reuseblebags.com