Junk raft journey

Homemade garbage barge about to make landfall in Hawaii 6

Three humans, 15,000 soda bottles, and a Cessna plane body are about to make landfall in Hawaii after an epic 2,000-mile, three-month journey from the west coast to raise awareness about the mind-numbing amount of plastic fouling the world's oceans and wildlife alike. Aching for cold beer and something other than sushi for lunch, these folks have made some pretty interesting observations (including lots of plastic) from their junk-derived craft, and it's all here in their blog.

Erik Hoffner is the coordinator of the Orion Grassroots Network which supports the work of hundreds of grassroots groups and which connects the green leaders of tomorrow with good work today via the Grassroots Jobsource. Based in Massachusetts, he is also a freelance photographer.

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  1. stevenearlsalmony Posted 4:37 am
    25 Aug 2008

    Another example of the global economy........threatening Earth's ecology.
    Is the global economy a primary precipitant of worldwide ecological degradation because the distinctly human-driven construction's gigantic size and rampant growth could soon become patently unsustainable in a relatively small, evidently finite and noticeably frangible planetary home such as Earth provides to the family of humanity?
    That is to say, could at least one of the causes of life and the Earth, as we know them, "going to hell in a handbasket" be that the global political economy is a human construction that takes its shape as a perpetual motion machine and is operated as a colossal pyramid scheme?  Unfortunately, both the 'machine' and the scheme are unsustainable.
    Steven Earl Salmony

    AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population, est. 2001

    http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php

  2. Wolverine Posted 5:42 am
    25 Aug 2008

    And An Example Of Our Destructive SocietyThe fact that there is a garbage patch that is 700,000 km to more than 15 million km in size shows that the entire basis of humans' consumptive/throw away manner of living is dead wrong and must be changed.  Plastic is one of the most evil things ever invented and should be abolished.
  3. BlackBear Posted 9:16 am
    25 Aug 2008

    DramaI can't tell whether I want to laugh or cry about this story.
    I am apalled at the amount of trash humans produce and the thought of Mtn. Dew bottles being my legacy on earth brings me almost to tears.
    At the same time, I am chuckling at the audacity of building a successfully seafaring craft out of actual junk lashed together. "It ain't pretty, it's my boat."
  4. ourearthmusic Posted 6:56 pm
    26 Aug 2008

    Good job, Junk! Meetup with Roz Savage-ocean rowerKudos to The Junk for their difficult sail to Hawaii in order to bring attention to the problem of plastic pollution in the ocean.
    Also interesting is their meetup mid-sea with Roz Savage, who is currently rowing from San Francisco to Hawaii (raising awareness of marine eco-systems). Roz is nearly to Hawaii after leaving SF in May. They had dinner and exchanged supplies that they were low on. You can read about this historic meetup . IF YOU CAN, PLEASE VOTE FOR ROZ FOR A GRANT FOR HER NON-PROFIT DOCUMENTARY BY 9/1/08 ON THE AMERICAN EXPRESS MEMBER'S PROJECT (http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/GUMBK6). YOU DON'T NEED TO BE AN AMEX CARDHOLDER. THANKS VERY MUCH!
    Roz's current row is part one of a three part row to Australia. http://www.rozsavage.com .
  5. stevenearlsalmony Posted 12:36 am
    28 Aug 2008

    It's the ecology (not the economy), stupid!The time is coming when many people will follow the exemplary behavior of Gristmill Bloggers by speaking out loudly and clearly for something, for anything at all to do with the preservation of life as know it and Earth, even though it is not politically convenient and economically expedient to do so, even though thousands of greedy kings and self-proclaimed masters of the universe eschew such open expressions as well as maintain that "silence is golden."
    Soon people will be heard speaking out often in many places for something, for anything at all that does not have to do with the unbridled and soon to become unsustainable growth of the global political economy.
    The mass media's silence regarding the threat of rampant economic globalization is deafening. How much longer will it continue?
    Steven Earl Salmony

    AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,

    established 2001

    http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php

  6. ourearthmusic Posted 11:01 am
    28 Aug 2008

    ETA for Roz Savage to Hawaii looks like 9/2 or 9/3Roz will meet up with the "Junk Males" in Honolulu. See

    http://www.rozsavage.com/tracking/weather.php

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