In Fort Bragg, CA mushrooms are being discussed beyond the scope of pizza toppings. Turkey tail and oyster mushrooms (pictured above) have been used in the cleaning up of oil spills, through a process called bioremediation. Bragg locals are proposing their town be the pilot study to see if these mushrooms can treat the dioxin that infests the site of a former lumber mill.

read (nytimes.com)

46,000 Estimated number of floating plastic pieces per square mile (2.6 sq km) of ocean, according to a 2006 U.N. study

source (time.com)

ALERT GET RID OF THOSE PLASTIC BABY BOTTLES, is what I hear when NPR opens an interview with the following quote “Water bottles, baby bottles, and food cans, might cause cancer, early puberty, and neural and behavorial changes.” A new study and draft report by a Federal Health Agency, The National Toxicology Program, claims that a common chemical found in many plastics called B.P.A. may be altering human development, and the findings are serious and should not be dismissed. The really scary thing is when I did a search on toxicology and plastic on NPR this report was not the only one that came up. In fact there is also a link to obesity. Is it possible that while plastic has facilitated the great leap forward with medicine, it’s flip side is that the by-products are destroying our health? Touché! http://www.npr.org/search.php?text=toxicology+report+on+plasti

This is what one amazon reviewer astutely pointed out:

1.0 out of 5 stars
yum, delicious plastic, December 15, 2006
By Steve Patsy (Phoenix, AZ United States) -
Prior to buying this product from Amazon I called Braun’s customer service to inquire about the interior of this kettle. I wanted to know if the interior was made of plastic or stainless steel and if the water ever came in contact with plastic. I was told by a Braun representative that the interior to all their kettles is stainless but when my kettle arrived today the interior is plastic. So if you like the idea of water being heated in leaching plastic, then this is the product for you. On the other hand if you do not want any harmful plastic chemicals being leached into your hot water, then this is not the kettle for you.

First San Francisco banned it. Then Chicago started taxing it. Now, the city of Seattle is taking action against bottled water; last week, Mayor Greg Nickels signed an executive order to stop the city from buying bottled water. That means no more bottled water at city facilities and events, which may sound like a small step, but it’ll make a big difference; last year, the city spent $58,000 on the stuff (and that’s not including the true cost and carbon footprint of bottled water). We’re willing to bet that the city’s taxpayers can probably think of about 58,000 ways to better spend that money.

via (treehugger.com)

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I just read that if everyone in LA county gave up bottled water for one year it would save 1.7 billion bottles, enough to wrap around the earth more than 1.5 times. Enough!

Oh, but how would I keep my bread fresh or brush my teeth without it? It’s all so confusing. I dream of a world where everything is decomposable and biodegradable and seeps back into the earth in a dark and creamy mulch. And yet how much shorter would our life-spans be were it not for those tubes sticking out of our limbs during surgery? Plastic is everywhere. It’s too many places!

by SUSAN CASEY

A vast swath of the Pacific, twice the size of Texas, is full of a plastic stew that is entering the food chain. Scientists say these toxins are causing obesity, infertility…and worse…

LONG BEACH, California (4 Nov 2007) — Fate can take strange forms, and so perhaps it does not seem unusual that Captain Charles Moore found his life’s purpose in a nightmare. Unfortunately, he was awake at the time, and 800 miles north of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.It happened on August 3, 1997, a lovely day, at least in the beginning: Sunny. Little wind. Water the color of sapphires. Moore and the crew of Alguita, his 50-foot aluminum-hulled catamaran, sliced through the sea.

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CHARLES MOORE Santa Barbara News - Press 27 oct 02

An albatross carcass shows how much plastic the great birds can ingest from the Pacific Ocean.

There is a large part of the central Pacific Ocean that no one ever visits and only a few ever pass through. Sailors avoid it like the plague for it lacks the wind they need to sail Fishermen leave it alone because its lack of nutrients makes it an oceanic desert.

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In the broad expanse of the northern Pacific Ocean, there exists the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high-pressure system of air currents. The area is an oceanic desert, filled with tiny phytoplankton but few big fish or mammals. Due to its lack of large fish and gentle breezes, fishermen and sailors rarely travel through the gyre. But the area is filled with something besides plankton: trash, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. It’s the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean.

Image court­esy Algalita Marine Research Foundation In the vast area of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, jellyfish and other filter feeders frequently consume or become tangled in floating trash.

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