Green Parent Chicago

EarthTalk: What is Environmental Justice?

Dear EarthTalk: What is meant by “environmental justice” and how is it under assault in the new Trump administration? -- Mike Garner, New Orleans, LA

Environmental justice is defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin or income, with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.” In layperson’s terms, it means making sure specific groups of people don’t bear a disproportionate burden from potential and existing environmental threats.

Traditionally, we think of situations like the siting and construction of a pollution-spewing factory in or near a low-income minority community as an example of an environmental injustice. Some recent examples ripped from the headlines include the lead contamination of the water supply of predominantly African-American Flint, Michigan, and the siting of the potentially hazardous Dakota Access Pipeline adjacent to sacred and ecologically sensitive Standing Rock Sioux tribal land.

“The federal government has recognized for decades that air and water quality are especially poor in low-income areas and communities of color, and some of that imbalance stems directly from government permitting decisions, such as where to allow the dumping of toxic materials,” reports the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a leading environmental advocacy non-profit.

Environmental justice has been a hot topic lately as it relates to who bears the brunt of climate change impacts. According to EPA research, city dwellers and the poor are among the Americans most likely to suffer from climate change. NRDC points out that 24 to 27 percent of urban African-Americans, Latinos and indigenous people in the U.S. are now living below the poverty line, compared with only 13 percent of urban whites—meaning that minority groups are at the greatest risk from the heat waves, bad air, stronger storms and other negative consequences of a warming climate.

The federal government has been working on environmental justice issues since at least 1992 when then-President George H.W. Bush created a White House office dedicated to “environmental equity.” Bill Clinton took up the mantle when he assumed the presidency in 1994 and issued Executive Order #12898 calling for the federal government to identify and address “disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies and activities on minority populations and low-income populations.” Clinton’s order created the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice to coordinate and oversee implementation of the rule across different federal agencies, and spawned the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program, which has awarded upwards of $24 million since then in funding to more than 1,400 community-based and tribal organizations working in communities facing environmental justice problems.

But that all is likely to change now that Donald Trump has proposed slashing the EPA’s overall budget by $2 billion and cutting funding for environmental justice programs specifically by 78 percent, from $6.7 million to just $1.5 million. “These cuts are a direct attack on low-income communities and communities of color everywhere who are on the front lines of toxic pollution,” says NRDC’s environmental justice head Al Huang.

CONTACTS: EPA Environmental Justice, www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice; NRDC, www.nrdc.org.

EarthTalk® is produced by Roddy Scheer & Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of the nonprofit Earth Action Network. To donate, visit www.earthtalk.org. Send questions to: [email protected].

Disaffected Voters: It's Your Actions, Not Your Feelings

I appreciate the anger over this year’s presidential election. I’m just as despondent that Trump will be our next president. But to those whose protests blew up my Twitter feed: I have to ask the question: Where were you when the Democrats nominated the wrong candidate this past July? Where were you when the AP called the primary in June before California had even voted? Where were you when your fellow Americans were getting abused and shot to death on Facebook live? Where was your anger when your fellow Americans were getting sprayed with rubber bullets and tear gassed to protect our water?

I am happy that you are taking action in the streets over an issue, but doesn’t it seem a little too late? To get the candidate you want elected it takes legwork, educating fellow voters, phone-banking, donations and much, much more. Did you do any of these for Hillary Clinton? I think it’s looking pretty obvious that it wasn’t enough to simply announce #ImWithHer and mark your ballot on election day.

The race to the presidency started back in 2015, when did you get involved? I’m seeing a lot of self-examination, lots of Democratic voters in shock and saying they didn’t do enough to help her win. After all of the polls and warnings, the consistently pathetic turnout at Clinton events, the extremely close primary with Bernie Sanders, the coverage of the Wikileaks revelations, did you really think she would win this thing as a shoe-in? Forget what the mainstream media kept yapping about, it's clear now that there was much collusion and coordination between Clinton’s campaign and major news outlets in her favor.

Let’s look at the facts: the American people, as Bernie Sanders once again just reiterated, were more concerned about the issues of wages, jobs, and the economy. This was frankly more important to them than getting the first woman president elected. You may not agree with how many Trump supporters are channeling their anger inappropriately by targeting other races and other cultures, but you cannot deny that their anger and frustration has legitimate causes. It is extremely misguided, yes, but the root causes still need to be addressed.

As many have been pointing out over the past several months and once again this week: the Democratic Party must suffer the blame for their part in the failure to elect a strong challenger to Donald Trump.

And today I am hearing lots of folks talking about remaking the Democratic Party and frankly, I’m not in that camp, unless it includes the ideals of the progressive Green Party platform and the Democratic Socialists of America. Both groups who continue to be the “party of the people”.

As it stands right now, the Democratic Party has rubber stamped neoliberalism, corporate welfare and incremental progress on clean energy and climate justice when bold action is required. They continue to lead us into conflict in the Middle East and turn a blind eye to drone strikes on innocent civilians in foreign countries, a blind eye to police brutality and racial justice, a blind eye to the escalation at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, and a blind eye to standing up against trade deals like the TPP that will continue to gut our economy.

The Democratic Party showed their cards when they nominated Hillary Clinton: a candidate who did the absolute bare minimum to address the needs of the working class and the hurting country, a candidate so completely entrenched in service to her corporate donors and political insiders that even as the story broke about the misdeeds of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she invited Wasserman Schultz back into her campaign circle as a slap in the face to the millions of voters who chose Clinton’s primary challenger. The arrogance of this action alone should speak volumes about the “hard work” that was done by Clinton to campaign for the vote of the American people.

When Bernie Sanders was talking about the issues that affect the poor, the working class, healthcare, college, climate change, racial and social justice issues, his ideas were marked as “pie in the sky”, unrealistic, and a fairytale. Supporters of these issues and of the candidate himself were labeled as ridiculous whiners who did not really understand the way politics works in this country. They were seen as unrealistic and expecting something that would never come to pass.

What of the tens of thousands of voters who showed up to support these same ideas and this platform in consistently red states like Oklahoma, Montana, Wyoming, and other parts of the West? (Not to mention the tens of thousands who showed up at other rallies for Sanders all over the nation.) Any wonder how they voted on election day?

Let’s not chalk it up to sexism. Let’s not cheapen the reality like this. Yes sexism is real and a major problem in the United States to this day. These voters were not voting for the male challenger simply because they did not want a woman president. Did some voters not trust a female president to do the job? I think so. But can the 13 million votes that Bernie Sanders won in the primary be attributed to sexism? Can the numbers and the data that back up the failing economic prospects of millions of Americans who voted for Donald Trump be attributed to sexism? Of course not. If you believe this, well therein lies the fairytale.

So now that you are charged up and ready to fight, now that you’ve been awakened, stay consistent. Channel your anger, your energy into showing up for the small fights, the boring stuff, learn as much as you can about the political process and who does what and who doesn’t do what. Don’t listen to the media. Use your own judgment.

There isn’t a guru or an expert who can tell you how to proceed. Don’t make a big show of it on social media, just do it. Call attention to it, but take your personal story out of it unless it’s remarkable. Follow the numbers, the data, and the facts (not Nate Silver). Do your own research. Do your homework. Find independent sources, not tied to corporate media conglomerates. Stand up for your neighbor even if you don’t know them personally, even if you think it won’t impact you. Stand up just because. Get to work. This affects you, but it’s not all about you. It’s about your actions, not your feelings.

Letter Shows Sanders Led Early Warning to Clinton on Keystone Pipeline XL

Nearly five years ago, a letter from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Patrick Leahy, and Sen. Ron Wyden, to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned the State Department of a conflict of interest in the selection of Cardno Entrix, a private consulting firm, in conducting an environmental review of the safety of the controversial Keystone Pipeline XL project.

Danielle Droitsch, Canada Project Director with the National Resources Defense Council, was first to report on the letter in her policy blog.

However, mainstream news coverage of the initial contact between the 3 senators and Sec. Clinton was limited. The firm was permitted by the State Department, under Sec. Hillary Clinton, to conduct an environmental impact review (EIS) of the tar sands pipeline, although they had previously listed TransCanada Corp., the owner of the Keystone Pipeline as a "major client."

Obama rejected the Keystone XL expansion project this past November, citing environmental concerns. The White House worried the project would have a significant impact on the supply of clean water in the U.S. across the Great Plains States. According to a Washington Post story from November 2011:

"White House officials became concerned about the political repercussions of approving the pipeline, and in November 2011 the administration said it would review alternatives to the proposed route, which crossed the Ogallala Aquifer that stretches across Nebraska and other Great Plains states. The aquifer is one of the world's largest underground sources of fresh water and supplies drinking water to millions of people in the Plains. That review effectively delayed the decision until after Obama's reelection."

In a letter to the State Department in August 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency was also concerned "about the risk of oil spills that could affect drinking water and sensitive ecosystems, as well as the effect of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline."

But just recently at Sunday's debate in Flint, MI, Clinton, touted her commitment to clean water availability and the environment.

Joe Romm, reporting for ClimateProgress in 2011, declared that the environmental review process by Cardno Entrix should have been invalidated, once the conflict of interest was plainly made known. The Los Angeles Times broke the story in the mainstream press in July of 2011 about the flawed environmental review:

"The State Department has completed two environmental impact statements on the pipeline with the help of Cardno Entrix, a private environmental consulting firm that has said its biggest clients include TransCanada Corp., the owner of the Keystone pipeline system, whose current routes extend from Hardisty, Alberta, to Oklahoma and Illinois. Cardno Entrix gained national attention last year as the environmental consultant for BP after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The Environmental Protection Agency has criticized the resulting assessments as fundamentally flawed. "What we've seen from the State Department recently are sloppy reports, inadequate investigations and a total disregard for the dozen accidents that occurred" in the existing Keystone I pipeline, said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. "If the president doesn't stand up, all signs point to an agency that is simply going through the motions before giving its approval."

Sanders' letter from October 4, 2011 to Sec. Clinton at the State Department reads:

"We write to express our serious concern with recent reports that the Department of State allowed a contractor with a financial relationship with TransCanada, which seeks to build the Keystone XL pipeline, to conduct the Department's environmental review mandated under federal law as pan of its consideration of TransCanada's proposed pipeline. " "We find it inappropriate that a contractor with financial ties to TransCanada, which publicly promotes itself by identifying TransCanada as a "major client", was selected to conduct what is intended to be an objective government review." "This is a critically important issue for our environment and the energy future of our county. At a time when all credible scientific evidence and opinion indicate that we are losing the battle against global warming, it is imperative that we have objective environmental assessments of major carbon-dependent energy projects. An entity with a financial stake in the success or failure of a developer's project proposal is not in a position to provide such an assessment. It is our strong opinion that the only satisfactory remedy is for the Department to conduct a new, objective, and comprehensive environmental review, either directly or through a contractor with no financial ties to TransCanada."

A Mother Jones exclusive by Andy Kroll from March 21, 2013, notes that beyond ignoring the conflict of interest inherent in the environmental impact study, the State Department further attempted to minimize the risks of the controversial Keystone Pipeline XL project:

"State released documents in conjunction with the Keystone report in which these experts' work histories were redacted so that anyone reading the documents wouldn't know who'd previously hired them. Yet unredacted versions of these documents obtained by Mother Jones confirm that three experts working for an outside contractor had done consulting work for TransCanada and other oil companies with a stake in the Keystone's approval." "The State Department has faced heaps of criticism for potential conflicts of interests involving TransCanada and Keystone XL. ...Emails obtained by Friends of the Earth, an environmental group that opposes the Keystone pipeline, revealed a cozy relationship between TransCanada lobbyist Paul Elliott and Marja Verloop, an official at the US Embassy in Canada whose portfolio covers the Keystone project. Before he lobbied for TransCanada, Elliott worked as deputy campaign manager on Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid. Clinton served as secretary of state until recently."

Brendan DeMelle at Desmogblog has detailed the extensive relationship between Clinton and and the State Department and lobbyists for TransCanada. Sanders continued the pressure on the Keystone Pipeline XL issue later on in 2011 with an editorial in The Guardian:

"Picture this: a large, multibillion dollar Canadian corporation comes to the president of the United States and wants to build a 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. After reviewing the project, it becomes clear that instead of reducing America's reliance on oil from overseas, this pipeline would carry oil across America, risking spills on our land and waters, just to export the oil to other countries. In addition, the pipeline would increase gasoline prices in America, add to our air pollution, and most importantly, be a major setback in the fight to reverse global warming."

-Christine S. Escobar

Bernie Sanders for President

Aled Lewis (aledlewis)

 

Hillary Clinton is banking on the hope that you are stupid. Bernie Sanders knows you aren’t. So ask yourself:

Who would speak for you?

Have you ever had to juggle expenses to pay down your medical bills? Did you have to walk away from your family home during the foreclosure crisis? Do you have enough money saved up to pay for your child’s college tuition? Are you still repaying student loans while trying to save for retirement, but getting nowhere?

Who would speak for you?

Do you wonder if you’ll have enough money for groceries until the next payday, even though you work full time? Do you worry that your teenage son or daughter will be a victim of police brutality or racial profiling? Are you a long time environmental activist hoping to see your country finally make a major investment in clean energy and break from outdated technologies that destroy our waterways and mountaintops?

Who would speak for you?

Are you chronically ill or self-employed and unable to manage the cost of healthcare premiums, prescription drugs, co-pays and annual deductibles that increasingly eat away at your income? Has the cost of healthcare ever kept you from seeing a doctor or specialist? Mandatory health insurance coverage is not the same as equal healthcare benefits for all.

Who would speak for you?

Are you a young college grad unable to find a decent paying job that values your education and intelligence? Are you struggling to pay down your massive student debt balance? Are you a two income family working harder and longer only to realize less and less financial stability as each year passes? Do you wonder how you will ever be able to afford to send your children to college?

Who would speak for you?

You’ve heard the claim that Clinton is a champion of women and all Americans. But how could her fighting spirit not push for a $15 minimum wage for all American workers, including the millions of hardworking American women, many of whom are not being paid what men in the same positions doing the same jobs are? As Julie Kashen, senior policy advisor of the Make it Work campaign fighting for working women's rights, recently wrote:

“...since two-thirds of the people who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage are women, higher minimum wages would help close the gender gap in pay.”

Who would speak for you?

The cold hard reality is nowhere more plain to see than in the numbers: Sanders has a personal net worth of $330,506. Clinton’s is ‍‍‍$21.5 million. To take a page from Bill Clinton, that looks like good old “arithmetic” to me. Clinton is the candidate of the privileged class and a type of feminism that isn’t concerned with poor women.

Who would speak for you?

Clinton’s message has reinvented itself time and again to fit the seemingly most advantageous political path. Sanders has been saying the same goddamn thing for the past 30 plus years and has the voting record and career campaign finance record to prove it. With the sales and royalties of her multiple published books alone, Clinton could still currently earn a handsome salary. Instead, she chose to accept enormous sums of money from the very corporations she claims she will rail against if elected. Clinton Foundation donors include those who have specifically benefited from offshore tax havens. It takes a special kind of delusion to turn a blind eye to this duality.

What’s wrong with being rich, some ask? Everything, if it keeps you from understanding the anger of the very people whose lives are being destroyed by the greed of a few. The top richest possess a gilded future and the laws and rules of taxation governing this future look extremely different those than those that apply to the ordinary American, whose wealth lies not in trusts and shadow companies and capital gains or offshore, but instead in ordinary checking and savings accounts.

Lobbyists who have pushed for the Keystone Pipeline, and accepted money from Lehman Brothers, are, as you read this, currently heading Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Her top campaign finance bundlers have worked for the fossil fuel industry. By saying she is going after the same lobbyists who run her campaign, the moneyed elite that donate to both her campaign and her family’s Clinton Foundation, it's clear Clinton’s recent adoption of populist language on the eve of the Iowa caucuses amounts to nothing more than posturing for votes.

Last week as voters in Iowa listened to Sanders explain his proposals, Clinton was scheduled to fly to the East Coast to attend a finance industry fundraiser for her campaign. It has now been postponed until mid February. But for the few privileged enough to drop anywhere from $2,700 individually or raise $27,000 for the one dinner, my guess is that the subject matter of these two events will be drastically different. She is banking on this, and hoping you won’t notice at all.

Who would speak for you?

Pundits wonder why Clinton’s brand of politics is no longer resonating with younger voters? Here's my guess: They’re hungry for more and will no longer be satisfied with mere crumbs tossed their way. As Gen X parents screwed by the system installed in large part by Clinton’s husband now raise their own children and young adults, they have instilled much of their anti-establishment skepticism upon them.

Not content to be merely placated by brand loyalty and reality television, a massive number of younger voters are looking for the alternative to a status quo that has left them and their parents future out to dry.

It’s time to end legalized tax evasion in America. If hoarding extreme wealth could be defined as a mental disorder, isn’t it time that we wrest control of this country from the grip of the unhinged 1 percent?

In early 1972, a book called “A Populist Manifesto” The Making of A New Majority was published. Authored by Jack Newfield and Jeff Greenfield, this book outlined a progressive populist “political alignment” among the many political interests of the day (civil rights, the ecology movement, women’s rights, low and moderate income citizens being short-changed by the mutating liberal agenda of the day moving away from the social democrat ideals of Roosevelt and Johnson). The book’s preface begins with 3 facts, the first of which states:

“Wealth and power are unequally and unfairly distributed in America today.”

That was 44 years ago. Enough is enough. Our time is now. Our candidate is Bernie Sanders. Intersectionality is at the heart of the Sanders campaign and the reason his campaign messages resonate with such a wide cross section of Americans. We see through Clinton, the candidate who fiercely opposed gay marriage, supported the Iraq War, called the TPP the “gold standard”, received funds from the private prison industry, opposes the Glass-Steagall act, advocated for fracking, and profited from promoting the Keystone Pipeline.

We the people of the United States of America deserve more and we are not stupid.

Who would speak for you?

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World's Largest Rooftop Farm Opens in Pullman neighborhood of Chicago

Brooklyn-based Gotham Greens has announced the opening of their fourth greenhouse, a new facility located on Chicago's South Side in the historic Pullman neighborhood.

 

The rooftop of the Method Products manufacturing facility is the site of the new 75,000 square foot Chicago greenhouse, powered by 100% renewable energy. The greenhouse employs over 50 workers, including many from the Pullman community.

 

Gotham Greens, is a producer of pesticide-free produce grown through urban agriculture. The company's growing method is said to yield up to 30 times more crop per acre than field production, enabling the Pullman greenhouse to produce yields equivalent to over 50 acres of conventional field production.

 

The company also recycles 100% of its irrigation water, and aims for a lighter environmental footprint by growing locally.

 

-Christine

 

 

Morton Arboretum's Children's Garden Celebrates 10 years

It's hard to believe that 10 years have gone by since the opening of the Children's Garden at Morton Arboretum.

Since then, countless children have meandered the paths, climbed the mazes, slid down the slides, splashed in the fountains and ponds, and learned about their connection to nature from a visit to the garden.

On Sunday, Sept. 13, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. the Children's Garden will celebrate its 10th birthday with a day of fun activities for kids and their families.

Here are some of the activities planned for the celebration:

LEGOLAND's Master Builder David Bray will demonstrate how a master builder creates amazing LEGO sculptures in celebration of our current exhibit, Nature Connects®: Art with LEGO® bricks by Sean Kenney.

Dance to the music of Earthsinger. Singer songwriter Dave Orleans will perform his nature-inspired songs for kids throughout the day.  

Make birthday treats for the birds.  

Blow colored bubbles onto a big birthday paper mural. This sensory-based art project will combine fun colors and fruity fragrances along with a favorite childhood pastime. 

Search for 10 unique trees throughout the garden. Celebrate 10 years with a scavenger hunt that takes visitors from clue to clue to find those trees that have had a big impact in the garden’s history.  

Try some goodies from the garden. Sample fruits and veggies as well as the less traditional edible flowers and insects.

Get your face painted. Pick from one of four fun nature designs.

Make a wish. Help the Arboretum celebrate by writing a wish for the garden onto a ribbon and decorating the trees with it.  

Children's Garden Admission is free with Arboretum admission.

-Christine

 

 

The 606 to Open in Early June With 2 Days of Festivities

One of Chicago's newest parks is set to open on the city's northside June 6 with 2 days of free events.

The schedule of events planned for June 6 and 7 at The 606 will include a procession/parade, music and dancing, a pancake breakfast, restaurant vendors and hands-on activities for all ages.

Located at the site of the abandoned Bloomingdale railway line, the elevated "urban oasis" runs along Bloomingdale Ave. (1800 N), from Ridgeway Ave. (3750 W) on the west to Ashland Ave (1600 W) on the east, through the Bucktown, Wicker Park, Humboldt Park, and Logan Square neighborhoods.

The new park will be linked to 5 existing parks at street level. It was conceived by an alliance between The Friends of The Bloomingdale Trail, the City of Chicago, Chicago Park District, The Trust for Public Land, and dozens of other community groups. Construction took 2 years to complete.

The final design of the park space is credited to Collins Engineers, Lead Artist Frances Whitehead, and landscape designers Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.

For a complete schedule of opening day events, visit: http://the606.org/events/openingday/

-Christine

 

Chicago Farmers Markets Open For The Season

Kick-off will take place at the Daley Plaza Farmers Market Thursday May 14 at 11:30 a.m. The Daley Plaza market is the longest running Farmers Market in Chicago.

See the complete schedule of Chicago Farmers Markets in neighborhoods all over the city with details on which markets accept the LINK card here.

photo credit: flickr, Cindy Kurman, Kurman Communications, Inc

"Class Dismissed" documentary back in Chicago this Sunday by popular demand

As parent backlash grows in response to unnecessary standardized testing and excessive homework, more and more families in the U.S. are turning to alternative methods of instruction to ensure that their children receive a well rounded education, free of a high stakes, pressurized environment focused on test scores over individual achievement.

One of these growing alternative educational movements is homeschooling, often still seen as controversial to some, and the even more poorly misunderstood related method known as unschooling. 

No formal numbers exist to illustrate the number of families homeschooling or unschooling in Illinois, but a quick glance at the growing number of offerings and partnerships that Chicago area arts organizations and cultural institutions continue to make available to homeschoolers speaks volumes.

Wisely, these organizations and many private businesses are realizing the advantage of working with a growing population of eager learners whose schedule may make them available at off hours of the day, while school children may be unavailable. 

A new film highlighting this growing trend of education is Class  Dismissed, a documentary directed by Jeremy Stuart and co-produced by Stuart and Dustin Woodard. Having made its debut in October of this past year, the film has screened in theaters to several sold out audiences in over 20 cities in the U.S. and internationally, most recently coming off a 3 screening run in New Zealand. A large number of private screenings have also taken place throughout the nation. 

The film had its first showing in the Chicago area in January of this year. It returns to Chicago with a single screening this Sunday at noon at the historic Patio Theater.

Tickets must be purchased in advance. Adults are $10. Kids 17 and under are $5

For more information or to purchase tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1273824

View a trailer of the film here:

 

 

 

 

 

EarthTalk: Microbeads and Marine Pollution

Products like facial scrubs, soaps and toothpaste contain thousands of polyethylene and polypropylene microbeads, ranging from 50-500 microns (or ½ mm) in diameter. Credit: 5 Gyres Institute.

Dear EarthTalk: What on Earth are plastic “microbeads” and how are they threatening the Great Lakes? -- Billy Alexander, Macon, GA

Can brushing your teeth or using an exfoliating face or body wash be an act of pollution? Perhaps so, because over 1,000 personal care products contain tiny plastic “microbeads,” each about a half millimeter in diameter. The Los Angeles-based 5 Gyres Institute, which works to end plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, found about 360,000 of these plastic beads in one tube of Neutrogena Deep Clean face wash. Hardly visible to the naked eye, these tiny objects flow straight from bathroom drains into sewer systems.

In July 2012, 5 Gyres went on an expedition with researchers from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia to determine the micro-plastic pollution of the Great Lakes Region. Data from this study, which was published in the December 2013 edition of the peer-reviewed Marine Pollution Bulletin, revealed an average of 43,000 plastic microparticles per square kilometer in the Great Lakes. The highest concentrations were observed in Lake Erie, and accounted for about 90 percent of the total plastics found.

“We found high concentrations of micro-plastics, more than most ocean samples collected worldwide,” said Marcus Eriksen, the study’s lead author and co-director of the 5 Gyres Institute. “These were of similar size, shape, texture and composition to plastic microbeads found in many consumer products used as exfoliants, giving us circumstantial evidence that these products, designed to be washed down the drain, are not adequately being captured by sewage treatment.”

Sewage treatment facilities are not designed to capture tiny microbeads, and during rainy days sewage can overflow into waterways. Once they enter waterways, they move into fish, which confuse them for food, then into those who eat the fish, including wildlife and humans.

“People simply don’t like washing their face with plastic, and the fact that it’s designed to go straight into the environment makes microbeads a particularly egregious source of plastic pollution,” says Stiv Wilson, Policy Director at 5 Gyres. “These beads are similar in size to fish eggs and can absorb and concentrate toxins found in the aquatic environment, making them an ecosystem wide threat to the food chain.”

Once they determined the scale of plastic microbead pollution in the Great Lakes region, the 5 Gyres Institute launched a campaign asking personal care product manufacturers to remove plastic microbeads from their products. The response has been very positive: Unilever said that it would complete a global phase out of plastic scrub beads from personal care products in 2015; Procter & Gamble said that all of its products will be free of microplastics in 2017; Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Neutrogena facial products, has already begun the phase out of polyethylene microbeads in its personal care products and has stopped developing new
products containing plastic microbeads; and L’Oreal has decided not to develop any new products with microplastic-pearls and is also working on a substitute for these exfoliating agents in existing product formulas.

You can determine if there are microbeads in your personal care products by checking the ingredients for polyethylene or polypropylene, or by using the 5 Gyres Institute app, Beat the Microbead, which scans the barcode of products and informs you whether or not they contain plastic microbeads and if the manufacturer has agreed to remove them.

CONTACTS: 5 Gyres Institute, www.5gyres.org

EarthTalk® is produced by Doug Moss and Roddy Scheer and is a registered trademark of Earth Action Network Inc. View past columns at: www.earthtalk.org. Or e-mail us your question: [email protected].