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?

polar realities

It is true that if an Inuit hunter were to see two polar bears, instead of hunting just one which could be shared among a small community, most hunters will shoot them both. Because of the strict quotas in place that limit the number of animals to be hunted each year, sharing the kill with between different families has become a way of the past. Now, everything is purchased with money, even between close friends. There is an immense pressure to make the income required to buy the necessary imported food, and as the cost of living in Greenland is extraordinarily high, most feel as if there is no other choice. They must hunt more than was needed in the past, enough to sell the skins, meat and ivory for how else could they meet the demands of their modern lifestyles? And I know what you may be thinking, but there is no returning from this dependency on the contemporary way of life. The past is lost in translation as there is no written history, the current reality is tangled between excessive hunting versus the necessity to support a family in the twenty-first century and as a result, the future of Greenland is changed permanently.