making the river answer

Plastic in the water

As I've been reading Alan Weisman's book The World Without Us I've stopped several times to sit and wonder just what it is we think we're doing to the planet - most of what we're doing doesn't seem to be keeping within any kind of previously existing ecological balance. I stopped to question our behavior once again when I read about exfoliants.

"Can you believe it?" Richard Thompson demands of no one in particular, loud enough that faces bent over microscopes rise to look at him. "They're selling plastic meant to go right down the drain, into the sewers, into the rivers, right into the ocean. Bite-sized pieces of plastic to be swallowed by sea creatures."

Weisman certainly plays on the theatricality of this experience, but I have to say that the issue might merit some dramatic emphasis. For the past year and a half I've been using and enjoying a particular body wash. Today I checked the ingredients and found near the top of the list "polyethylene." I don't know where that plastic is going now that I'm in the eastern United States, but I have to believe that when I was in Southeast Asia I was contributing to the island of plastic floating around in the North Pacific Gyre.



The question for me becomes "what do we now do with all this plastic that we have and how do we live without it?"

SEND BOOKS TO KIDS IN INDIA (please)

This morning my friend Taty in Sicily asked me if I wanted to help collect books to send to a children's school in India where a friend of hers is trying to assemble a library. I'm in the humanities and consequentially am really into books, so I emailed Fr. Sibi to get some more information about what he's after. This was his response

"I would like books on subjects like science, geography, history, stories, events, encyclopedias etc. Books that is meant for children and their mental growth."

If you can think of a book you read as a child or young adult that stimulated your mental growth, or a book that would have stimulated it, I think you should do what you can to get a copy to the school. Here are a couple of options

1. Find a copy of the book(s) you want to send, write a little message on the inside cover, go to the post office and send it. Just be aware that sending heavy things to India might be pricey so

2. I recommend buying your book(s) through an online bookstore that will ship it(them) for free. The best ones that I've seen so far are Rediff Books and flipcart. The prices are in rupee but you can check the dollar amount here, just select "Indian Ruppe" and you can figure out the rest. As for the message on the inside cover, you could simply email it either to me or directly to Sibi.

I'm waiting to here back from Sibi about where exactly we'll need to send the books.

My hope is that we can add at least 100 books to their library. Help me keep track of what gets sent (also so Sibi knows what to wait for in the mail) by sending me an email or even commenting here on the blog. Thanks for reading.