Last September, more than 600,000 volunteers from all over the world participated in International Coastal Cleanup Day. According to a report released recently, they removed more than 3.5 million kilos of trash from ocean beaches, rivers and other waterways worldwide, enough to cover 170 football fields. They collected enough tires to outfit almost 6,000 cars, and enough cigarette butts to fill nearly 95,000 packs.
Talking trash
The report is called Tracking Trash: 25 Years of Action for the Ocean. It contains data and stories about the trash that volunteers collected during last years International Coastal Cleanup Day.
The annual event is organized by the advocacy group, Ocean Conservancy. Plastic bottles, bags, cigarette butts and other trash are clogging the oceans and killing marine mammals and sea turtles every year, according to Vikki Spruill, the groups president.
Earth, as we know it, is a water planet, says Spruill. If you look from outer space, you see blue before you see the land. Its all connected. The ocean is the system that actually provides the rain water that we all depend on in our life. Half of the oxygen in the next breath youre going to take comes from the oceans.
Luckily, she says, thousands of people from more than 120 countries and all 50 U.S. states care enough to volunteer every year for clean ups of the planets waterways, beaches and ocean fronts.
We have students, school kids, scout troops, stay-at-home mothers. We have military leaders, every imaginable walk of life, participating in these cleanups.
International effort
One of those volunteers is Oscar Oviedo, a banker from the Dominican Republic. A couple of friends and myself, we practice scuba diving and we began to see the situation of the ocean from underneath and said we had to do something, he says. So we established our own foundation, Vida Azul, which means Blue Life, four years ago. We gathered about 1,800 volunteers.
Theyve been cleaning waterways in the Santo Domingo area.
What were doing is we organize speeches and reunions where we talk about the importance of water and try to get people involved, mostly children under 12, Oviedo says. I think were pretty effective. A lot of people know about our efforts and they know the importance of not throwing trash in rivers and lakes and the ocean as well.
When Blue Life volunteers reach out to school children, he says, they raise other issues as well.
For example, we ask them if theyve seen their fathers while they shave. We say if you close the water every time you shave, then you open the tap again to wash the razor, youre saving so much amount of water.
Spreading the word
Judy Bolin, an American from the east coast state of North Carolina is also concerned about the oceans. She runs NC Big Sweep, a group which conducts year-round education to cut down on littering.
The great thing about people participating in the clean ups is that after theyre finished with their cleanup, well hear them say, I didnt know there was so much litter out there. Im never going to litter again, says Bolin. Its an eye-opening experience for everyone as it was for me. I remember one time we released a green heron from a fishing line out there in the river, and it was just wonderful to see it fly away and recover from what someone had done, [leaving] a fishing line in the river, which is not a good thing to do.
Now, Bolin says, volunteers from all over the world can communicate and exchange experiences.
Weve got social media. Weve just started getting into Facebook and Twitter last year and a couple of our counties were successful recruiting volunteers this way. So weve got connections all over the world.
Judy Bolin and Oscar Oviedo say they hope more volunteers will join their effort to clean up the oceans. To those who cannot join, they say, please stop littering our waterways.
英语短文:拥抱生态旅游
英语散文:Love Your Life
英语诗歌:沁园春 雪
英语散文:A Forever Friend(永远的朋友)
英语散文:美不胜收的哥本哈根
英语演讲:在七十寿辰宴会上的讲话
英语小说:爱要怎么说出口 7
英语演讲:热血、汗水和眼泪-丘吉尔
英语短文:道德与投资 2
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英语诗歌:The Star
英语诗歌:When We Two Parted
英语小说:爱要怎么说出口 11
英语小说:爱要怎么说出口 10
英语散文:彼岸无尽头,知足才常乐
Handsome boy
英语小说:爱要怎么说出口 6
英语小说:爱要怎么说出口 5
英语短文:受伤保缥对戴安娜作结语 1
英语诗歌:Teachers Prayer(教师的心愿)
英语散文:一位值得纪念的希腊人
英语小说:迟到的情书 8
英语诗歌:Rush(匆匆)
英语散文:假如我又回到了童年
英语短文:道德与投资 3
My favorite cartoon character
英语诗歌:Understanding Women
英语短文:道德与投资 4
英语诗歌:A Grain of Sand(一粒沙子)
英语短文:非得喜欢自己吗?
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