Plastic Waste (8130)

For the first time ever in the Summer of 2019, the U of W’s Rachel Carson reported finding small plastic “microbeads” at all 53 monitoring sites within Puget Sound.  Mass use of plastics in the world began after 1950.  Look in any grocery store.  Plastic’s chemical structure makes degrading slow with some bottles lasting a million years;  9% are recycled and 12% incinerated.  Much of the rest finds its way into rivers and is taken down to the sea where it breaks down into small microbeads. These beads trap toxins.  Small sea life eats these structures as food; the bottom of the food chain starves to death.   Ninety percent of sea life today contains plastic debris. Water evaporating from the ocean returns to Cascade and Rocky Mountain lakes as rainfall.  “Fresh water” in Nature is becoming unfit to drink.  Humankind has a decision: to continue … or to stop dumping … plastics into the oceans.

 

Victoria Heights … The Living History Farm’s area (Freeborn and Victoria Heights, the latter named because with the trees cut down, one could see Victoria, BC) was centered around a Church that existed to modify behaviors.  Historically, that’s what religions do: set a model for behavior. The Living History Farm celebrates a record of peoples of all colors, races, and cultures immigrating to northern Snohomish County, melding (and changing) their behaviors, giving evidence to what makes America so unique. The Gardens, named to honor both Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Sophia Scholls honoring

 

To borrow from Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for those who care for the Earth, and we did not speak out

 

To survive on this planet, humankind needs to change its behaviors. Everyone needs to speak out.

and minimize the damage each of us does daily to the Earth. We cannot forgo speaking out, nor acting to conserve, nor fear the changing behaviors. It is not for our children and their children to do. We need to change our behaviors today and tomorrow.  Change is best done 1 step at a time. There is an easy 1st step that all Americans could focus on as an example to the World:

Stop dumping plastics into the oceans.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvzqMRJr25c/
https://e360.yale.edu/features/plastic-waste-imports-recycling-indonesia

 

 

History Farm Prose & Primary Level Question
Best answer:

H8131
H8133
H8135

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