Bottomfeeder (I)

"The Sea, Changed.
A permanent feature of the world's largest ocean is now a swirling sargasso of floating debris. This gyre of detritus includes Nike basketball shoes spilled from a conatiner ship, Logo blocks, highlighter pens, yellow rubber ducks, six-pack rings, hockey gloves... The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as it is known, is now almost the size of Africa." - Bottomfeeder by Taras Grescoe

Which reminds me.. I had wanted to post this photo quite some time ago. All this trash would prolly be out floating at sea somewhere if not for our humble Singapore mangroves...

Bottomfeeder

REVIEW- "When Taras Grescoe declares he will try anything on his voyage around the world in search of ethical seafood, he means it. He eats poisonous pufferfish, morally questionable shark fin soup, and potentially dangerous oysters during months without r's. He even samples fishmeal (yuck). After 18 months of eating his way up and down the marine food chain, Grescoe exits a bottom-feeder -- committed to consuming fish lower on the marine food web, with the exception of farmed shrimp (too toxic) and wild abalone (too rare)..." Read more here.

See also the Bottomfeeder website.

I need to read more.

Food for thought

IYOR 2008 - Prof Chou Loke Ming - Keynote Address from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Coral paradise in Singapore by 2018?
What will it be like if our very own Southern Islands were a diver's haven.. *dream*
And on the other hand,
What will it be like if development takes everything away from us.
Singapore - the island with no reefs.

Which brings me to think of Wall-E (don't ask how I watched it before opening :P)
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Imagine if Earth degraded to the state in the movie... trash-filled with no signs of life, with humans wandering about in space waiting for Earth to be able to sustain life again. AND i love the humans potrayed in the movie - sitting around floating mobile chairs conversing with each other through virtual screens, even though they are like floating right next to each other. All humans in the show are like fat with stubby legs and stubby hands, and they can't even walk when they fall off their chair! - I definitely had a conversation with my brother about him ending up like that if he continues to do nothing but play computer games. See.. you never know..

"As humanity became more technologically sophisticated, the film argues, they became ever more divorced from nature, and their own nature. They developed a culture and society that was mechanistic and artificial, as opposed to organic and natural." - Full review here


So stop playing your Wii and get out and literally smell the roses! (or bougainvilleas for tt matter)

Random Wish list

If only fishermen had the means to fish for only half the fishing season...

and let stocks replenish the other half the season

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If only Dove had refill packs available in supermarkets or even better, set up refill stations.- saw refills only once at some dodgy neighbourhood store. (And notice how I couldn't even find a dove refill image to post.)

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If only styrofoams were banned in Singapore. It has already happened in 100 cities in USA.

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If only Green roofs were made compulsory in cities all over the world
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If only MOE made green education and field trips (like that organised by ecofieldtrips or nature groups) part of school curriculum. Always wondered why I never had the chance to go to Southern Islands when I was young. Didn't even know about it then. Read about Earth schools in Canada here.
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If only green media became the norm.
I would love to see a 'love nature' section in the Straits Times some day.
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If only humans could live with 'just enough'.
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"People can cry much easier than they can change"
-James Baldwin via Change Everything