plastic & water pollution

To fully see the reality of plastic pollution in our oceans, it may help to recap how it all begins. Plastic is made from crude oil using a procedure that affects the carbon in the oil, creating long chains of carbon atoms called polymers. It is defined by the organic chemistry of the polymer chain, which contains carbon, oxygen, sulfur or nitrogen, and has different molecular structures which influence the property of the plastic. Plastic also contains other additives, mostly plasticizers, which allows the plastic to be flexible like a food wrapper, or become stronger for electronic products. Fillers are also used to improve the product and reduce production costs. The result, pliable or sturdy plastic, ready for a vast array of uses.

a plastic ocean

Plastic is a seemingly innocuous substance that has woven it’s way across the globe and into every phase of our lives. From birth onward, we depend on plastic as a vehicle or component for a variety of products – baby bottles, polyester apparel, food packaging,  canned goods, lotions, chewing gum, facial scrubs, and the list appears to be nauseatingly endless. So if plastics are a part of daily life, it can’t be bad for us or the planet, can it?

earth’s natural resources

* Measuring 73 feet high and spanning the 695 foot wide gorge, the Ripogenous Dam was built in 1920 and initially constructed to control flow in the river for the movement of pulp. In the 1950‘s, a tunnel was drilled in the rock from the dam to McKay Station where driving turbines began providing hydroelectric power. The dam and power station are currently in use.

nature: the greatest escape

*Chimney Pond, Baxter State Park, Maine

the penobscot river, maine

“Not very many people take their families camping anymore,” she sighted. “People just don’t spend as much time out in nature on the rivers as they used to.” Susan Adams is the property manager at Big Eddy campground, a pristine camp nestled long the west branch of the Penobscot River in Maine. A warm breeze carries the misty rush of a nearby rapid, and is you pause just long enough, you can almost hear nature smiling.

crossing the northern ice cap

Aquingwak was born and raised in Thule, a thriving settlement of Inuits until 1953. When the United States came to build a remote army base on Greenland’s shores, they choose Thule as the most strategic position. Instead of building elsewhere, they preceded to relocate the population of Thule dwellers in order to construct the base. Thule became Qaanaaq, sixty miles north, and the northern most municipality on the planet continued on. Aquingwak remembers pieces of the great move from his fading childhood memories.