Blog Action Day follow-up

Some quick numbers from the Blog Action Day for the Environment:

20,603 registered blogs and bloggers
23,327 blog posts
14,631,038 RSS readers

We're proud to be part of the Blog Action Day. The source for the numbers is the Blog Action Day web site. Check out the site if you want to read more about it.

Closer to home, last Saturday Elaine and I helped with a beach clean up. It was an interesting learning experience. First of all, when you get out of the car and start actively looking for trash, you find out there is a whole lot more trash than you expected. Turning over a pile of leaves reveals layers of trash underneath. To be honest, that's pretty much what we expected.

The thing we didn't expect was the condition of the trash. Styrofoam food boxes start to break apart into ever smaller and smaller (and therefore harder to pick up) pieces. Plastic grocery bags shred. They get stuck on and under limbs, branches, leaves, rocks. They work their way into the dirt. The little pieces are almost impossible to pick up. If you try to pull a bag out of the ground, it tears like wet paper. We (mistakenly) assumed this stuff was indestructible.

The biggest thing we don't know is what this crap is leaving behind in the soil as it deteriorates. Anybody out there know? Anybody know if anybody's ever studied this? My chemistry is a little rusty (as I in I haven't had any chemistry since high school and I didn't do too well then) or I test the soil.

We'll be part of future beach clean-ups as well. We're in the very early stages of creating a kite festival on the beach. We plan to partner with the Department of Natural Resources, Restcate Playas Isabela and others to raise the awareness of the value of the beaches, reefs and the ocean as resources to be protected, not abused. Stay tuned.