Fake plastic beach

Today we were off-roading to the beach in my hubby's truck. It was a nice time, feeling the bumps in the sand, breathing in the salty sea air and feeling the cool breeze through the windows. We were excitedly pointing out little sand crabs and watching them hide, by the hundreds, back into their little sand holes.
Then we started to notice a very sad sight as we looked to our far right, in the direction of the water. Our joy quickly turned to silence as we observed soooooo much human garbage tangled in the seaweed and sand. Nearly every few inches there was trash, as far as the eye could see...99% of what we saw was plastic. Cracked, broken, faded, large pieces of plastic. Most were completely recognizable: milk jugs, shoe soles, hard hats, soda bottles (seemed to be the most popular), butter containers, plastic fishing buckets. We could see very vintage looking 7up and Dr Pepper blttles almlpt chlpletehy hhta`p, mijps smhd dadihg hd th` prhnp* Qmh`$qk`qp``!uiec`w%repa'po$l`a&d`d%cfvtroyed they just stuck out of the sand like big brightly colored jagged teeth. What a sick, sad sight.
All of this, done by humans.
Just think, just a little over 100 yrs ago, people would go to that beach and only see beach.. I tried to imagine this, as I watched the seagulls playing in the wind, the crabs scurrying about, and the cranes stretching their graceful necks in our direction through the reeds, how beautiful and simple it must have been before people found ways to pollute the world with no regard for other forms of life or the planet.
Human beings are the only species on Earth that are literally destroying our own planet. While the gulls, the fish, the flies and the many other marvelous creatures on land and sea are working overtime trying to clean up our mess, we are finding that we're killing them in the process. We find fish bodies with plastic IN them, buried between their bones. Birds with stomachs full of plastic washing up on shore.
What is wrong with us as a species that we are so adamant to ignore the distress we are causing our own environment?? Why are those who care labeled as extremists and radicals??
Wouldn't it be common sense to look out for one another? To protect our one and only planet? The damage that has been done to our environment and our collective health since the dawning of the industrial revolution is undeniable.
We can choose to do something about it, or we can continue to be lied to by television, distracted with petty entertainment, while throwing our money away (literally) on plastic products which will continue to unendingly pile up in our oceans, roads, and landfills.

In the Boheme household we do the best we can to avoid plastic. Not only for environmental reasons, but mainly to avoid the toxic chemicals found in common household plastic. However, today's beach trip gave us much more incentive to continue to do the best we can to be a plastic-free household.

Love,
Boheme Mom


Picture Courtesy of Forbes, I did not take the above picture, I do not own it.