Food Chain

Sei Whale

No doubt about it, we are on the top of the food chain – unless we happen to be caught on the African Savannah in the jaws of a hungry lion.

We have commanded this position for such a long time, and in most cases, have been unconscious of the affects of our activities.  Not to go on a tirade about knowing where one’s food comes from, but how many of us would actually bite down into that steak or burger if we had to kill the cow or steer that is it’s source?  Not many.  I think the world would be more vegan if the real connection between what we eat and how it gets to us were more visceral.

When the story broke this morning, linking Typhoon Restaurant in Los Angeles with serving sei whale meat, bits of my heart broke – and I could hear the marble sobbing.  This particular whale is an endangered species, aside from all other issues surrounding the killing of whales, it shocked me that a restaurant so close to home was serving up one of my treasured friends.

How many marine mammals did your plastic bag kill today?

How many marine mammals did your plastic grocery bag kill today?

http://www.care2.com

Did you know that 500 billion plastic bags are consumed on this planet every year? The sobering statistic: “more than a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals die every year from ingestion of or entanglement in plastics” is the subject of a new ad by the Surfrider Foundation.

Dance of the Heron

Marble Marvels at Heron Prints

The heron forages at the edge of San Ignacio Lagoon.  His feathered topknot unfurls up the back of his neck in a lacy pattern of reddish hues.  A ruddy heron, his buddies the night heron, great heron, yellow-crested night heron, blue heron, etc … all have passed through in my days by the water.

Dance of the Heron

I marvel at their beauty, their grace, their tenacity, and the extent of their habitat.  Herons can be found spread across the globe with slight shifts in speciation and coloring.

Fish foragers, the herons depend on clean waters and a bountiful supply of small fish that makes up their diet.  Like all seabirds, their health, and the health of their segment of the avian chain of life, depend on us – humans – to stop the degradation of the waters that has been our past, and turn clean water and conservation into items that are not merely spoken about, but acted upon.

Water Protection and Reinvestment Act of 2009

From Surfrider Foundation:

Tell Congress to protect clean water!

Have sewage or stormwater recently polluted the water at your favorite beach?  Did you know that many of the 2 million miles of pipes in our drinking and wastewater infrastructure are now operating 50 – 100+ years beyond their predicted lifespan?  In addition to their age, these systems were originally designed for populations half their current size.  While these pipes might be out of sight and out of mind, the dirty, polluted water that can end up on our beaches is often hard to miss.

Over the next two decades we would have to spend $500 billion more than we are currently spending to fix all of the problems with the water infrastructure in the US.   Our state and local governments are not going to be able to afford these costs unless we find a new source of revenue.

The  Water Protection and Reinvestment Act of 2009 would establish a trust fund dedicated to fixing our clean water infrastructure and supporting other clean water initiatives.  Ask your Representative to support this bill.  Just click here.

To learn more about this bill and America’s water infrastructure crisis, visit the Know Your H2O Blog.