Earth Day Preview

Activist and Documentary Filmmaker Veronica Grey, AKA, the Surf Lady,   joined us live with details about how 25 percent of the world’s land and ocean area are dedicated to landfills and ocean trash dumps. This segment aired on the KTLA 5 Morning News on April 21, 2014.

Her film Aqua Seafoam Shame is a critically acclaimed documentary with multiple wins which explores the horrific diagnosis that 25% of our planet’s surface is now diagnosed as garbage landfill, due to the pacific garbage patch and plastics. In 20 years our world could end up with no coral reefs –  which means our oceans will revert back to the primordial sludge it was before creatures walked on land. What, if anything, can be done to backpedal the Earth from this cataclysmic trajectory? Film is viewable for FREE in its entirety at our website below.

How to salvage the Earth:                                            

1. Get a reverse osmosis water filtration system for your home. Did you know the fluoride in all public tap water systems in America is actually a poison? No over-the-counter water filter filters out fluoride. In fact if you read the box labels it will literally say “does not filter out fluoride.” Fluoride is slowly killing Americans in so many ways because to avoid it, we buy bottled drinks: about 4,000,000 plastic bottles every 5 minutes. The truth is only less than 30% of these bottles ever make it to recycling centers so stop buying drinks in plastic bottles. Drink from your tap through a reverse osmosis water filter system that you can buy online. The one time fee you pay to get it installed will save you money over the long run as well.

2. Carry your own Canvas bag.   Thank heavens LA recently instated a plastic bag ban because as a society, we use 10 BILLION plastic bags EVERY week. Again the majority of it is never recycled and when it winds up in the ocean, lots of marine life, specifically over 189 different species, mistake it for food because plastic bags floating look like jellyfish. When they eat the plastic it kills them and often if you eat seafood, you just may be eating plastic yourself nowadays.

3. Don’t flush ANYTHING in the toilet: if it doesn’t come from your body it doesn’t belong in the potty. Keep a trash bin right next to the toilet just for toilet paper and EVERYTHING else.
People don’t realize what you flush, even simple toilet paper, winds up in the ocean which makes our rain which grows our food. Remember that each time you flush!!!!!!!!

4. Support artists who “Strip” down their work.   Plastic cd cases and all the styrofoam popcorn in merchandise shipping is atrocious. Research your favorite artists and put your money where your mouth is – support artists with sustainable marketing models like Daniel Ash. He founded the iconic supergroups Bauhaus and Love & Rockets and his current work in progress “Stripped” is community based where fans can go online and actually help him consciously create his new album.

5. Stop using straws!!! These seemingly innocuous “tools” significantly contribute to the 5 giant trash vortexes in the oceans around the world (google “5 gyres”) which are now bigger than the continental United States. People don’t notice straws ’cause they are so small and everywhere – which is exactly the problem. Americans use 50,000,000 straws each and every day JUST ONCE and toss them out. Drink directly from the glass. It’s simply THAT easy. Or buy paper straws.
Veronica Grey
Steward of the Environment
Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker 


SOURCE: http://ktla.com/2014/04/21/earth-day-preview/#ixzz2zmGYqC2S

Veronica Grey talks to Duke Fightmaster about Plastic Pollution

Easy ways to go Green in 2014

Veronica Gray, the Co-Director of Aqua Seafoam Shame, shares easy ways to go green in 2014.

Veronica Grey talks about "Ocean Plastics' in Green Living Magazine

Plastics Invading Our Oceans

BY CHERYL HURD
Surfing conjures up images of free spirits, at one with the ocean, without a care in the world. But for Surf Lady Veronica Grey, it is the world she so desperately cares about.

About a year ago, the waves called to Grey. Although the California actress and filmmaker did not know at the time, the message they carried for her, that day would change her life. She lay belly down on her surfboard and paddled her way to depths beyond the breaking waves, where she would wait for the perfect ride. On this day, the rhythm of stroke meeting ocean was interrupted. She plunged her hand into the water, and then recoiled. Between her fingers dripped a slimy substance.


“I remember the first time I felt it. I was paddling out on my board and noticed a mushy, plastic-like substance sliding through my fingers. It was gross,” she recalled, “and that’s what started my obsession with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

The patch is located between Hawaii and California in the northern Pacific Ocean, where millions of small bits of plastic have gathered in a vortex of ocean currents known as a gyre. There are five of these gyres in our oceans around the world. Grey said that 15 years ago the one in the Pacific was about the size of Texas, and now is estimated to be closer to the size of the United States.

“It’s sort of depressing facing what is really happening to our planet,” she said, explaining that an estimated 25 percent of our planet is now covered with trash.

Since the areas in the oceans where the trash collects are so remote, people tend to not think about it. “It’s a silent, deadly killer and the problem is very scary,” she continued.

Grey, who surfs about twice a week, said while currents and winds may collect the plastics in these gyres, the plastic has infiltrated every part of the ocean. She said scientists estimate there are 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of ocean. She finds plastic around her each time she enters the water.

READ FULL ARTICLE

Aqua Seafoam Shame - Feature Film

Aqua Seafoam Shame is a documentary which explores the horrific diagnosis that 25% of our planet's surface is now garbage landfill, due to the pacific garbage patch and plastics. According to a 2012 New York Times article, in 20 years our world may no longer have any coral reefs - which means our oceans will revert back to the primordial sludge it was before creatures walked on land. What, if anything, can be done to backpedal the Earth from this cataclysmic trajectory?

AQUA SEAFOAM SHAME ~ Director's Cut

Directed by: iPhone Filmmaker Veronica Grey

The filmmakers could have gone the route of releasing the documentary only through "prestigious film festivals" but this elitist route would have been exactly that. Instead it is decided the message is too important to cater only to red carpet champagne premiers, that as a gift to our Mother Earth, it is hereby released ONLINE in its entirety for FREE to the masses.

Co-directors Kim Chiasson and Veronica Grey have never met in person or even felt the need to speak on the phone - collaborating their labor of love exclusively via email. Kim wears two hats as the editor as well. Along with executive producer Joshua JD Lemmens of Hope Studios.

We humbly present "Aqua Seafoam Shame"

YES that is a Nirvana lyric.

BREAKING NEWS ~ LA just voted to ban the plastic bag!!

Ban on plastic bags at L.A. markets is approved

Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation Wednesday to approve a ban on plastic bags at supermarket checkout lines, handing a major victory to clean-water advocates who sought to reduce the amount of trash clogging landfills, the region’s waterways and the ocean.

Egged on by actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus and an array of environmental groups, the City Council voted 13 to 1 to phase out plastic bags over the next 12 months at an estimated 7,500 stores. Councilman Bernard Parks cast the lone no vote.

"Let’s get the message to Sacramento that it’s time to go statewide," said Councilman Ed Reyes, who has focused on efforts to revitalize the Los Angeles River.

READ FULL STORY

'Earth Day' Weekend - A Call to End Plastic Ocean Pollution

As the world prepares for the Earth Day celebrations we would like to draw your attention to the very important matters of plastic pollution in our oceans. Here at Pacific TV we are pleased to hear that ocean pollution will be on the table for discussions at the Rio+ 20 Earth Summit coming this June 20th 2012, but we as citizens need to do more. If we really love this planet Earth we call home than we need to get serious about plastic pollution and finding alternative solutions.

Some may believe that it's too late and that the damage is already done to the oceans and some may disagree. As citizens, we may not be able to solve all the problems of the oceans but we certainly don't need to be contributing to it any more, so that's where we believe our personal responsibilities are as a citizen living on this planet. We can stop ocean pollution. We are the problem and we are the solution. It may be easier for some of us to blame a company or point a finger at a government entity as the ones who should be responsible for cleaning it up. But that simply is not true.  We all bear a responsibility in the solution to ocean pollution. 

You may be asking yourself: How can I help? What can I do? The answer is very simple, but challenging. It requires you to make a noticeable change in your shopping habits. First you can start off by using reusable washable canvas bags instead of disposable plastic shopping bags. AND most importantly, reusing your plastic shopping bags as "garbage bags" only ensures that it ends up in a landfill, which eventually makes its  way to the beaches and oceans. We need to stop using plastic bags altogether. They do not biodegrade, they are not compostable, and they are not earth friendly.

The next thing you can do is to look for "compostable" packaging when buying your favorite products. Avoid any plastic containers if possible. For example: Laundry Soap, buy the cardboard packaging instead of the plastic container. Some may argue that it's more expensive to purchase eco-friendly products as opposed to the cheaper plastic packaging, and some may even be on a tight budget and can't afford it. But consider this: you WILL pay eventually. You'll pay for it now, or you'll pay for it later, in hospital bills for a lifetime of eating foods contaminated with plastic chemicals. Buying products with "compostable" packing is an investment in the future. It may seem more expensive to you, but we believe its a worthy investment to consider.

The next thing you can do is, especially if you have kids, encourage the schools to sponsor plastic litter cleanup programs around the rivers and beaches in your local area. If they can make it into a field trip while teaching the kids their responsibilities of being a pollution-free citizen on this very fragile planet Earth, the kids will love it! That's the generation we have to get too before it's too late. These young minds will eventually be inventing new products and paving new ways. So lets make sure they care about the environment and consequences of not taking care of such a fragile eco-system.

Earth, it's our only home. We should have earth day everyday. There is no other planet in this solar system that we can live on. So we must take care of this one. It's not too late, as this eco-system has remarkable healing and regeneration properites if we just give the planet earth a chance to replenish herself. We do not need to be contributing to the pollution problems anymore, we can change our ways and encourage a better quality of packaging from the companies who make the products we use everyday. 

Happy Earth Day ~ Love your Mother!

Upcoming Film about the Pacific Garbage Patch!

A sneak peek at the upcoming film by The Surf Lady called "Aqua Seafoam Shame" due to hit the film festivals for 2013. We'd really appreciate it if you could support our project by rating and sharing this video with all your friends on twitter and facebook! Thank you so much for your help in this important cause!!

A CALL TO END PLASTIC POLLUTION

Video by : http://HopeStudios.ca
Music by : http://seasunz-and-jbless.bandcamp.com/track/water-world-2

Kyra Sedgwick: Call to End Plastic Pollution!

From the NRDC Blog

As part of this week’s preparatory meetings for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development – known as the Rio+20 Earth Summit – to be held in Rio de Janeiro this summer, we are producing an exciting event at the UN tonight. We’re hosting a panel of leading international experts and U.N. officials on the urgent need to curb plastic pollution, which clutters our oceans and land, on a larger scale. We are calling for countries, businesses, and organizations to take immediate action to end their contribution to this plastic pollution.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Around the world, huge quantities of plastic trash – especially the packaging and to-go ware that we use in everyday life – makes its way into rivers, streams, lakes, and the ocean. For example, a recent study of the San Francisco Bay found that 100,000 trash bags-worth of litter ends up in the Bay every year – up to 80% of that is plastic.

Plastic pollution has serious consequences for the marine environment, for local economies, and potentially for human health. Many whales, seals, turtles, birds and fish are killed by eating or becoming entangled in plastic trash. Marine litter has a major cost to local coastal economies that must deal with cleaning it off of beaches and out of storm drains so that it doesn’t harm the tourism industry, or cause flooding. Plastic in the ocean doesn’t biodegrade, but it does break down into tiny particles that absorb toxins, such as persistant organic pollutants. We have documented that fish eat these toxin-soaked pellets. What is currently being studied, is whether the harmful pollutants are making their way from the pellets, into the fish tissue, where it may be eaten by humans or other predators.

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I would like to add that alot of times it seems like the public tends to focus on the specific problems with plastic water bottles when in actuality, it's all the disposable plastics at large. ~Kim