Captain Charles Moore on the seas of plastic

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7K-nq0xkWY
Who is he? http://www.algalita.org/charles_bio.html
In his words: “Hundreds of thousands of the goose-sized chicks are dying with stomachs full of bottle caps and other rubbish, like cigarette lighters. But mostly bottle caps. Sadly their parents mistake bottle caps for food tossing about in the ocean’s surface.”

In my words:
Americans have been battered, bludgeoned and bruised by the three R’s: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle. Honestly, I’m little sick of them. Everyone know that littering is technically a bad thing, but take a look at the shoulder of just about any highway and you’ll see how effective the three R’s have been (hint: not very). For many Americans, consumerism, and all the disposables that come with it, is a way of life.

Behold! Charles Moore to the rescue! Right off the bat, he challenges the sacred cow of American consumerism, saying “we had to be taught to renounce the powerful conservation ethic we had developed during the great depression and World War II.” Moore does not dispute that his and other conservation efforts are an attack on consumerism. He bypasses the whole conflict and suggests that consumerism has nothing to do with being American. Perhaps conservations is even the true American tradition.

The second part of Moore’s assault on litter apathy is a crystal-clear depiction of its environmental impact. There is no more powerful depiction of this than the images of rotting albatross carcasses full of plastic junk. He backs these images up with research demonstrating the far-reaching effects litter has on the ocean.

Moore communicates these weighty issues with a mix of humor and powerful wording and pronunciation. His first words, “let’s talk trash,” reflect this humor. His description of the destination of half of plastic pellets (at 1:27), as “fast. track. trash,” illustrates his use of inflection to drive home a critical point. This mix of humor and power is critical to prevent the talk from turning into yet another environmental lecture.

Furthermore, if you’ve ever wondered how to use PowerPoint effectively, Moore is simply a master. Each slide adds to what he is saying, be it the melting point of plastic or a photo of the two million plastic bottles America uses every five minutes.

Key quotes:
“Over a third had polluted plastic fragments in their stomachs. The record holder, only two-and a half inches long, and 84 pieces of plastic in its stomach. Now, you can buy certified organic produce, but no fishmonger on earth can sell you a certified organic wild-caught fish. This is the legacy we are leaving to future generations.”

“The market can do a lot for us, but it can’t fix the natural system in the ocean we’ve broken. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men will never gather up all the plastic, and put the ocean back together again.”

Noodle scratchers:
How persuasive did you find Moore? How will this talk change your litter behavior? What weaknesses did you see in his talk?