Blue Planet Journey

"This juvenile Laysan Albatross from the Kure Atoll never reached the sea, dying from what a necropsy would reveal as a stomach bulging with 12 ounces of indigestible items, mostly plastic debris, scooped up from the ocean’s surface by the chick’s parents and regurgitated into its gaping beak along with squid and other edibles." Two events happened this week that will probably be overlooked by most people. First, Governor David Ige of Hawaii signed into law Senate Bill 2571 , prohibiting the sale and distribution of many sunscreens containing the ingredients oxybenzone and octinoxate. The bill stated that "The legislature finds that two chemicals contained in many sunscreens, oxybenzone and octinoxate, have significant harmful impacts on Hawaii's marine environment and residing e cosystems, including coral reefs that protect Hawaii's shoreline." At the signing, Gov. Ige said , “We are blessed in Hawaii to be home of some of the most beautiful natural ...

Caroline displaying a vegetarian dish on the Solstice . For this episode of my discussion of " greenwashing " on the Celebrity Solstice , I want to mention 3 issues: straws, refillable bottles, and vegetarian meals. As far as I can tell, there is not a single water bottle-filling station on this ship.  The water dispensers in the dining areas all have signs that state, no reusing of containers.  There's not even a bottle-filling fountain in the gym!  I guess when your business model involves selling beverages in bottles and cans, there's no room for reusable containers.  All day long, guests are carrying around drinks, the vast majority of which appear to be beer, sodas, and bottled water, in one-time-use containers. Two staff members mentioned that the reason for no refillable containers is to prevent "contamination."  This is patently absurd, given that 3000+ counties with local health departments in the US allow bottle-refilling station...

A 7-11 coffee cup tossed aside. Why don't you pick up trash?   You are walking down the sidewalk, and there is a used 7-11 coffee cup on the ground, finished with its life as a one-time use receptacle.  It seems to have been stepped on, or driven over, and it has been there for awhile. Or you see a yellow sandwich wrapper in the gutter as you cross the street, sans sandwich or with a bit of that sandwich still inside.  It's been crumbled into a ball, the color striking against the gray of the concrete. Perhaps you notice the  ubiquitous soda bottle on the grass, either forgotten, lost, or intentionally deposited for somebody else to deal with, ants scavenging for the remaining sugar molecules and oblivious to the PETE-1 recycling impression on the bottle. Or you look down, and there is just a mix of something... undefinable, but it is clearly garbage. Look, trash happens.  There is "unintentional" trash, when you lose something, or when ...

What, we don't want our upper lip to get wet? The straws come so quickly and naturally that I often don't get the chance to ask them to be left out of my drink.  Then there are those single-use drink packages that come with their own little straw , wrapped in plastic sheathing (I don't buy these).  It is my goal to use zero straws this year, but when the server brings water to your table with the straw already in the glass, to refuse it still means it is going into the trash. A bill ( S.B. 2285 ) currently being considered in Hawaii would ban the use of disposable plastic straws.  The proposed ban reads: No individual or business shall distribute, sell, or otherwise provide a straw comprised in full or part of plastic.  The penalty?   Any individual or business violating subsection (a) shall be fined not less than $100, and not more than $500 for each offense. In addition to any fine imposed, an individual who violates subsec...