I’m leaving tonight for a last minute trip to Los Angeles to participate in activities of the newly formed Plastic Pollution Coalition ^[1], of which I am privileged to be an advisor. Whether you live in the L.A. area or not, there are ways to participate.

• Is Plastic Washed Up?We think so. And it’s the title of a film series being screened at UCLA this Friday night, 7 pm -10 pm, James Bridges Theater, University of California, Los Angeles. Come out and see screenings of:
  • Tapped ^[2], a documentary about the bottled water industry from director Stephanie Soechtig, which I reviewed on Fake Plastic Fish a few days ago and which has generated much controversy in the comments.
  • Strange Days on Planet Earth ^[3]: Dirty Secrets. A National Geographic / PBS film with Edward Norton.
  • Preview: Bag It! ^[4], a film by Susan Beraza about the global production, use, and disposal of plastic bags and other plastics. The film crew spent the day with me learning how to live with less plastic
  • Preview: Midway Journey ^[5], sneak preview of footage just captured on Midway Atoll by Bill Weaver and Jan Vozenilek.

• The next day, Saturday, is Climate Action Day ^[6]. Since I’ll be in L.A., I hope to join Green LA Girl and a host of other bloggers at the Blogger Beach Cleanup on Santa Monica Beach. It’s not really just for bloggers! Sign up ^[7] on the 350.org site and come on down!

So what if you’re not in the L.A. area?

1) Find a Climate Action Day event ^[8] to participate in.

2) Check out the comments on my blog review of Tapped ^[9] and weigh in. A representative from the bottled water industry has been arguing the merits of bottled water, and several readers have jumped in to rebut his claims. What do you think?

3) Get motivated to protect the planet from plastic pollution by watching artist Chris Jordan’s newly released photos of plastic-filled albatrosses photographed during his recent trip to Midway Atoll ^[5]:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbqJ6FLfaJc ^[10]

Or see the full size images ^[11] on his web site.

I asked Chris to give me his emotional reaction to witnessing so many dead animals filled with plastic pieces. Here’s his unedited response:

I have tried several times to put words together to express what I experienced on Midway, and so far I can’t seem to do it. My mind simply does not want to accept what I saw there, and what the tragedy of the albatross means for the health of our oceans. The resulting feeling is one of rage and grief, mixed with shock, despair, and overwhelm. Since I returned home, I have suffered from anxiety, insomnia, mood swings, and a constant feeling of my mind racing. It is as if I have been given an impossibly difficult paradoxical puzzle to solve, like watching a movie that is hard to put together, and working mentally afterwards to try to make sense of it. My mind is going as hard as it can to figure out an answer, and yet another part of me knows there is no answer; in fact I can’t even figure out what the question is supposed to be. And in the grand scheme, this wasn’t even that major of a tragedy. I can only imagine what it must be like to visit the site of a mass human killing.

~cj

These birds are just some of the first victims in what will surely be tragic consequences for all life, including humans, if we don’t end our mass consumption and destruction of this planet. Depressing? Sure. But in the words of Colin Beavan, we just have to keep putting one step in front of the other and do the work that must be done.

What do you have planned for this weekend?