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Excess plastic may become world’s albatross

Take a look around your home. How many pieces of plastic can you find? Of them, how long will they actually be in your possession before they are disposed of? Water and soda bottles, shampoo and detergent, food containers and toys; these are just a few of the thousands of plastic items that flow through our lives.

When we’re done with them, often in less time than it will take for you to read this article, that’s the end of it right? Most will be tossed into the trash with nary a thought. Some will be recycled into other forms of plastic. None of it will go away. There is no way. How does that make you feel? If you are like most people and are honest about it, you feel nothing.

I’d like to tell you about an amazing artist who, through his work, helps us face the invisible truths of our time. His name is Chris Jordan. He uses small, everyday items and photos of those items to form large wall-sized images of great beauty and even greater significance.

For example, imagine a painting of a Tyrannosaurus rex, the dinosaur that once roamed the Earth, a symbol of havoc and destruction. As you walk up to the piece, you begin to see that the image consists of thousands of plastic bags of various colors. In fact, this particular work of Jordan’s displays 240,000 plastic bags, the number used on Earth every 10 seconds. Oil is a by product of the dinosaur era. The artist’s message: They are back, and wreaking more havoc than ever.

One image emulates the famous Vincent van Gogh painting “Starry Night” and consists of 50,000 cigarette lighters, the average number of pieces of plastic estimated to be floating in every square mile of the world’s oceans. The swirls of van Gogh’s famous painting emulate the swirl of the Pacific Gyre, often referred to as the “Garbage Patch,” a vast area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where millions of tons of (mostly plastic) debris has gathered over time. Jordan’s work reminds us that our consumption has unintended consequences.

Jordan learned that the effects of the gyre were dramatically evident on Midway Island, home of one of the largest and most remote marine sanctuaries on the planet. It is home to a once-thriving albatross community, large seabirds with an immense wingspan, known for their graceful ability to glide effortlessly just above the wave s. For countless generations, they have hatched their chicks on Midway. They take to the sea in search of food, returning to feed their young. And now their young are dying.

Midway Island is covered with the carcasses of young birds. As they decay, their remains reveal a startling truth. Their stomachs are full of plastic. Among the items Jordan photographed were bottle caps, plastic forks, toothbrushes, shotgun shells and even parts of a toy robot. All of it fed to them by their parents who thought they were gathering food rather than the floating remnants of a faraway, wasteful culture.

Jordan’s poignant images allow us to face the reality of our consumption, if we are willing to look (see Midway: Message from the Gyre at www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway). On one of the most remote places on Earth, our unconscious behavior brings death to these magnificent creatures. Can their extinction be far behind? What about our own?

In a TEDxRainier talk “Midway Journey” (www.bit.ly/z1TAn9), Jordan eloquently explains his motivation. “It is not an exercise in pain or horror,” he said. Rather, it’s about the deep power of witnessing as a means to realize not only the effects of our choices but how much we really do care. It is difficult to make sense of large numbers or abstract information. His images create a window with a different, more accessible view, but it is up to us to look and allow ourselves to feel.

So take another look at all the plastic around your home, hopefully with a new perspective. I don’t know about you, but I feel a responsibility to the albatross, and to the billions of other creatures, human and nonhuman alike, who are affected by my everyday decisions. I feel, and I will change.

Links to Jordan’s work, several videos and ideas for reducing our use of plastic are posted at www.greendream.biz.

Steve Rypka is a green living consultant and president of GreenDream Enterprises, a company committed to helping people live lighter on the planet. For more information and links to additional resources relating to this column, or to reach Rypka, visit www.greendream.biz.

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