Plastic Lives Forever
Wow. Watch this heartbreaking video about our plastic legacy, set to Queen’s Who Wants To Live Forever. Many of the images will be familiar, but it also contains haunting footage I’d never seen before. How does this make you feel?
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Watching a video like this makes me want to go back to bed and eat an entire Entenmann’s chocolate fudge cake under the covers, plastic window box and trans fats notwithstanding. Who cares when we are so screwed?
And then, once again, I realize that I am living in the future instead of the present moment. We’re not screwed, yet. We’re all still alive, and there is work to be done. We can stop when we’re dead. For now, let’s smell the flowers (because there’s still so much incredible beauty in the world) and get back to the task at hand: loving this planet and each other in the best ways we know how.
This movie is horrifying. I feel so bad for the birds and for our world. I have a blog about backpacking and I posted the movie there, even though it doesn’t quite fit in the space. I feel kind of powerless about plastic. I am the only flesh and blood person I know who cares one bit about it.
Thank you for posting this video. I am going to put it on my blog tomorrow, which was supposed to be about phthalates. This video made me feel so very sad. The image of the seagull chomping down the plastic bag …. oh! Really. I think bloggers like you Beth, and me, I hope, are going to have to make a difference. We are spreading the word and educating people.
I liked your reaction. We may be in a very bad way but we are not screwed yet. We need to support people like Lisa Jackson at the EPA who seeks to regulate toxic chemicals. We need to support the EWG and make people aware that the propaganda that comes from the mouths of representatives of the chemical industry is just that, propaganda. They are mouthing lies.
Oh boy. I was about to eat lunch and then I watched that video. I’ve totally lost my appetite. What an upsetting thing to see and to think about. Thank you for keeping this issue alive. We can all make a difference, one small step at a time.
very moving thank you for sharing
Still crying!
Everyone in the world should see this video maybe the insanity of destroying ourselves would abate. I believe the only way to end this plastic nightmare is through the legeslative process. Outlaw single use plastic containers, if it can’t break down don’t make it. But the lobbyists would fight it so many billions are made on plastic, it is in everything we purchase. Oh and I think this was made before the gulf oil spill.
I was in complete amazement that the gull ate the plastic garbage bag. Wow! I turned it off shortly after that because I couldn’t watch any more.
It only increases my dedication to reduce garbage.
Amazing. I posted this intensely disturbing video on my blog Monday, when I told my readers I was taking your challenge this week. We’re gathering our plastics, bit by bit. So far, at the close of day 3, we have very little in the collection bag. We’ve been cutting back for several weeks, so I’m a little concerned I won’t have that much to show, but we have four days to go. Who knows what will turn up? Goodness knows we have plenty of plastics still to shed from our daily habits.
Thank you, Beth, for your balanced approach and your voice. Because I often want to hide and eat the fudge cake. But that really does no one any good.
A good new, is that other biology students and I are going to give a workshop for children about garbage and its impact 🙂
Today I watched this video, then went to the class where we had to decide what our workshop would be about. So I was completely… desperate, somehow, to do it about plastic garbage. But it wasn’t that easy because you also have to keep in mind to whom the workshop will be given, their age and their economic situation. I mean, I was decided the workshop would be about consumerism, but then found out we were going to do it in a poor neighborhood, so we changed it. But it will still be about garbage. So I’m happy with this.
Hey don’t bogart that cake— pass it on.
This video made me wanna have a cigarette real bad. What? Plastic filter? Damn.
MAkes me wonder about people though.
That made me cry. I am more determined than ever. No plastic! I must stop using plastic and change the habits that I have that use plastic. I will keep a plastic tally the same as you Beth.
It makes me think of Prometheus, of Pandora, of Icarus, of the sorcerer’s apprentice, of Luke Skywalker. Why? Our technology gives us great power but it’s up to us to decide how to use it. Unfortunately, carelessness is the rule. With each new thing we are releasing power into the world, just as if we were handed a magic sword, or ring, or talisman…and then we use it to…carry groceries home for 5 minutes? Drive to the quickie-mart three blocks away? Power a 300 horsepower machine to travel no faster than one horse might run?
It would be one thing if things like petroleum and plastic were precious and used only for the most necessary things, but instead we use everything as if there were no cost and no consequences. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that everyone who drives shares some responsibility for what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico, just as before this spill we share responsibility for the dead zone that was there due to agricultural runoff into the Mississippi.
We’re simply too disconnected by technology. We don’t bathe in the Gulf, we don’t get our drinking water from there, we don’t make our living from the Gulf or see it every day or know the winds and the waves and the wildlife there. It might as well be on Mars. So it goes with the source regions for just about everything we use.
The video is a weapon against out of sight/out of mind. We need to act as if we lived right in the midst of where the problems are occurring instead of living large while other creatures suffer the consequences.
I felt sick. I started to cry. I felt completely nauseated when the seagull eat the plastic bag whole. Then I started to cry again when I read you say “…get back to the task at hand: loving this planet and each other in the best ways we know how.” And dang… that song! Geez, Queen, hit me right in the heart why don’t yah?!
I wonder what we can learn from cancer patients or other people who are ill with some disease that can kill you pretty easily and fairly quickly. I feel like we are all morning a future that we know now we will never see. A future free of pollution and plastic. Even if everyone in the world had a paradigm shift about pollution and stopped all activities that contribute to it, those of us alive right now will live out our lives in this filth that we created. That is a loss. Not the same loss as someone who has cancer experiences but kind of similar. I wonder what I, or anyone else, can learn from someone who got cancer, decided to live a positive and productive life, and then either went into remission or died and early death. The mental gymnastics of it all seem very similar to me. And I am looking for a way to not be completely and utterly in despair. I figure if I can truly morn the loss of the future I thought I had, then I can get on with living the life that is actually a reality.
Beth, this video upset me and I am battling whether or not to show my children, who are sensitive to images like these. It made me so ill. What an appropriate song, too – who wants to live forever in this world we have created?
ugh.
Heartbreaking is the best word to describe this, really…
It’s good that it can be forwarded to the whole world because language is not aproblem to understand most images.
I reposted this to my FB page, Beth. Thank you for reminding me of the impact of our disposable society. I have hope that eventually plastic bags will be outlawed. My grocery store has a ‘brought my own bag’ option on the self-serve checkout machines, so I know there’s hope!
Meanwhile we all need to become garbage picker-uppers, to clean our waterways and streets, and teach our children to respect our planet and care for the animals. I saw a man pick up a water bottle that was in the parking lot next to his car….made me feel so good to know that someone else cares, too. We all impact each other, and eventually everyone will be conscious of the plastics they throw away. Keep up the good work, Beth!
I almost started yelling to the seagull to stop eating the bag. The helpless animals and the mounds of trash in the ocean and off shore are both sad and frightening at the same time. Even if we all stopped right now, what chances do we have of cleaning up the existing mess? Oh geez, it’s so overwhelming. Time to post it to my FB profile. Thanks for sharing the video and all that you do.
This is a great video and very moving. I have posted many pictures on plastic pollution and am keen on how should tackling this growing problem.
This video made me semi-hysterical. Thank god I don’t wear mascara anymore… I feel the same way – get me a cake and let me go to bed! Especially lately – I can’t even begin to describe my frustrations with plastic right now. I feel like I’m losing the battle. But I’ll keep going.
I only watched to where the seagull eats the plastic bag and I shut it off. I will forward it though. I had a very bad day in my personal life yesterday and I am just starting out my morning and I am not feeling very good about the world right now. Seeing this turned my stomach and brought a flow of tears. How can we hurt innocent beings? All the beauty of nature is a gift, it’s life force, and we wantonly abuse it and destroy and take it for granted, with selfishness and ignorance. So many changes are easy to make. Like giving up even most of the plastic we use. Like cleaning with natural products instead of chemicals. There are so many small changes we can make that will result in a huge benefit collectively for the world. I haven’t purged all plastic out of my life, I have made changes and I continue to make changes with each new day~ This is the kind of video people need to see so they can ask themselves what they feel and what they want, just as you have proposed. Thanks again for sharing~
This does make me want to cry and then crawl back in bed, too. I’m glad you don’t get back in bed and are passionate about bringing these things to our attention. Of course, I also keep thinking about the oil spill (and our insatiable quest for things encased in plastic, which is made from oil) and the effect it will have on sea life. I’ll probably repost this video as well. Thanks for sharing.
The video made me cry, too. This is so disgusting. I only made my convictions stronger. I must reduce my plastic consumption and if I have to use plastic, I must make sure I will use it for as long as I can find a use for it; which should be until I die.
It upsets me to think that it will take ages before the mainstream is up to the challenge. For example, people use less plastic bags nowadays, but they collection the reusable bags, because they keep forgetting them. What’s the point?
In tears, and I am going to repost this onto my blog too. Thank you Beth for all you do!
I had the same reaction when I was watching the news about the gulf oil spill the other day. Made me feel so helpless, but it’s blogs like yours that keeps reminding me that there’s still things that can be done!
I just burst into tears as I started to watch this. This video made me so nauseated, and I hope it has that effect on everyone I’m forwarding it to.