Tag Archive for river

This Saturday, Clean Up!

Next Saturday (4/20) is National River Cleanup Day. Do your part locally. For details, go to

http://www.cleanacreek.org/volunteerinformation.asp.

 

Flip Your Lid

Or at least your cap…bottle cap, that is.  That innocent-looking bit of plastic has become a big problem for seabirds (choking them), whales (clogging their bellies), and other animals, plus adding to the Great Plastic Garbage Patch in the ocean.  There are so many of them–they’re the third most common piece of trash people find when cleaning up rivers  and beaches and cost taxpayers millions of dollars to clean up.

There’s a bill in California–AB319–aimed at solving much of the cap problem.  It would require that all single-use plastic bottles have their caps tethered to the bottle rather than being removable.  Experts say it won’t be costly for manufacturers and means that more of those caps will be recycled along with their bottles.

See more details at http://abc30.com/society/proposal-to-ban-plastic-bottle-caps-in-california/2869849.

You can help by doing two things:

1) If you live in CA, ask your assemblymember to vote “yes” on AB319.  If you live in another state, ask your representative to introduce a similar bill.

2) No matter where you live, screw those caps back on those bottles before you toss them into the recycle bin.

Daily Calling?

21-year-old pre-med student Alton Brieske denied being a hero after he saw a car going into the river and he jumped in, broke into the car, pulled a non-breathing elderly man to shore, then gave him CPR.  For today’s Thoughtful Thursday, let’s consider how he described the situation: “That was my calling for the day.”

Makes me think that we may all have a “calling” for each day; we just need to recognize and act on it.

For people who don’t swim or know CPR, how about the man who was wandering by and heard Alton’s cry for a hammer to smash the car window.  He just happened to have one with him.  Maybe that was his calling for the day.