Monthly Archives: February 2010

Aoede Creates Beautiful New Song About Plastic Pollution

Aoede Blue Gold song about plastic pollutionBlue Gold

Listen to Blue Gold

Written by: Lisa Sniderman/Aoede

It starts with a flick
flick a lit stick
stick is thrown down
down to the ground
washed away, washed away
Out of sight, out of mind

It starts with a bag
Un-degradable bag
Bag is blown down
down to the ground
washed away, washed away
Out of sight, out of mind

So tell me, does it all come down to you
And tell me, tell me,
What can we do
to keep you free to be

Blue gold it’s your time to shi-ine
Blue gold nature’s swell design
Blue gold it’s your time to rise-
And high time we realize

Soiled six-pack rings
rings bob and sink
some seagull’s caught
caught like some drink
Far away, far away
Out of sight, out of mind

Red, orange and blue
Blue plastic stew
Birds bite and chew
Chew this strange brew
Far away, far away
Out of sight, out of mind

So tell me, does it all come down to you
And tell me, tell me
What can we do
Are we too blind to see

Blue gold it’s your time to shi-ine
Blue gold nature’s swell design
Blue gold it’s your time

You ebb and you flow
You’re high then you’re low
You crash and you curl
You’re an ever-changing world

You ebb and you flow
You’re high then you’re low
You gleam and you glide
Take me for a ride-on your

Blue gold it’s your time to shi-ine
Blue gold nature’s swell design
Blue gold till the end of time
Blue gold nothing more divine
Blue gold it’s your time to rise…
and high time we realize…

It starts with a wave-
A new wave of change

Press release

Blue Gold is currently being featured at :
Oikonos:  and Oikonos Education

Coastal Commission Coastal Cleanup Day: (to add this song to your myspace page, click the +)

Aoede/Lisa Sniderman June 2009
Vocals, Backing Vocals,
Acoustic Guitar: Lisa Sniderman
Electric Guitar: Peter Dominguez
Bass: David Sands
Drums, Percussion: Randy Burk

How much trash do you make?

This morning I got an e-mail from Dan Jacobson, Legislative Director of Environment California.  Dan’s group helped raise a public outcry when the Governor wanted to close all our State parks for budgetary purposes.  His group also published an important report on Toxic Baby Bottles, showing that five major brands of plastic baby bottle leached the neurotoxin BPA into infants’ milk.   

Dr. Mercola shares this picture of a baby with a polycarbonate bottle. The WHO recommends breastfeeding of babies for the first two years of life. Do we need to be using so many bottles?

 So, when Dan asked for my input on a survey, how could I refuse?  My response is below.  You can respond, too:  http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/action/oceans/member-survey?id4=ES

 
One of the real heroes of waste reduction these days is Beth Terry (www.fakeplasticfish.com).   You can see what Beth  is doing every day to reduce her trash footprint by watching her 5-minute video on her 2009 plastic trash (total under 4 pounds). 

Beth says, "my new collected plastic for the year comes in at 3.7 pounds," about 2% of the average American's trash.

 Here’s the survey from Environment California, and my replies:

 

What are some everyday things you do to cut your use of plastic and other trash that might end up in the Pacific?   

I eschew plastic at every opportunity!  I never buy any beverage, oil, cosmetic, or herbal product in a plastic container.  (Plastic lids, however, have become impossible to avoid, even on some glass jars.)    

My friends at Marin Farmers' Markets are really into reusable container of all sorts!

 I buy milk in glass bottles, bread in paper bags (yummy artisan bread), grains in bulk.  I make my own yogurt, too — much easier than I ever imagined.    

 I never use bottles like these! 

What are the most interesting and creative things you do to cut waste? 

 I tally the number of times that we take the trash bin to the curb for pick-up each month.  On a good month, we’re at one pick-up or less.

Today I’m starting Beth Terry’s plastic challenge — capturing every piece of plastic that I am about to throw away or recycle, and keeping it in a bin (I’ll wash food-stained pieces before storing!).  At the end of 12 months, I’ll make a tally and weigh it all.

 What are some common barriers you’ve experienced to maintaining a small trash footprint? 

Packaging is the number one item:  styrofoam cushioning in boxes, hard plastic casing around small office purchases, plastic bags around newspapers even when it’s not raining; non-recyclable, non-compostable milk cartons. 

All this junk. Ugh!

 

The second issue is the difficulty in repairing or recycling items that break or malfunction.  For example:  flashlights, mugs, school binders, tools. 

What are some ways you help reduce trash at your work, school, church or community center? I have always tried to leave little trash behind.  After a month taking care of a friend’s house in 1996, I had only one small paper bag of garbage to put on the curb (I put it in my neighbor’s garbage can instead).  In 2004 I joined Green Sangha, a group dedicated to helping individuals live more consciously and harmoniously.  The next year, I co-founded Green Sangha’s Rethinking Plastics campaign.  We have given over 200 talks in the community, educated business owners and employees, consulted with schools on waste reduction, and advocated for civic change.  We helped pass the plastic bag ban in Fairfax, and are collaborating with EcoMom Alliance, iReuse.com, Teens Turning Green, and the County of Marin on the BYOBag Marin campaign. I’m also working with our local middle school, Davidson in San Rafael, on an End to Litter.  Too often, we see things like this bag lying on the ground:   

 What information would make it easier for you and the groups you are part of to cut waste? An itemized list or chart of the costs of throw-away items, in terms of energy expenditure, materials wasted, extraction (mining, logging, drilling), and toxicity, along with the less measurable dimension of non-biodegradability.  Then, a comparison to reusable items of various sorts (sustainable vs. synthetic, for example).