Plastic bags are a danger for the environment:

- The news National Geographic 2 of September, 2003

Less than 1% of the bags are recycled. It is more expensive to recycle a plastic bag than to produce a new one.

- The Christian Science Monitoring Journal

- Jared Blumenfeld (Director of the Department of the Environment in San Francisco)

A 1975 study demonstrated that transoceanic ships throw 8 million pounds of plastic into the sea every year. The reason why our garbage disposals werent flooded by plastic is because its majority finished in the ocean.

- National Academy of Sciences of the United States (NAS)

Puis
The bags are dragged away

towards different places of our earth

and towards our seas, lakes and rivers

The bags find their route towards the sea in the water-drainages and the gutter pipes

-CNN.com/technology Nov. 16th, 2007

Plastic bags have been found floating north of the Arctic Circle near Spitzbergen and even much more to the south, in the Falklands Islands region.

- British Antarctica Survey

The plastic bags represent more than 10% of the trash that arrive at the coasts of the United States Coasts.

- Program of Monitoring of Remainders of the Navy

The plastic bags are photodegradable: with the passing of time they are decomposed into small and toxic petrol-polymers

- CNN.com/technology Nov. 16th, 2007

which will finally contaminate grounds and the waterways

- CNN.com/technology Nov. 16th, 2007

Consequently, microscopic particles can enter the nutritional chain and comprise it.

- CNN.com/technology Nov. 16th, 2007

The effect on Wildlife could be catastrophic

- WWF report 2005

Birds get trapped without hope to free themselves

- WWF report 2005

Nearly 200 different marine life species, including whales, dolphins, seals and turtles die because of the plastic bags

- WWF report 2005

They die after ingesting the plastic bags which they accidentally identify as food

- WWF report 2005

So
What will we do?

If we used a fabric stock market reusable shopping bag, we could save 6 plastic bags per week

That means 24 plastic bags saved per month

Or, 288 plastic bags saved per year

Or, 22176 plastic bags saved during an average human live

If only one out of every five persons in our country would do this, we could save

Spain =1.330.560.000.000
Germany=1.995.840.000.000
France=1.330.560.000.000
United States=6.209.280.000.000

plastic bags during our lives.

Bangladesh prohibited plastic bags

- MSNBC.com on March 8th, 2007

China prohibited free plastic bags

- CNN.com/asia January, 9th 2008

Ireland was first in Europe to apply a tax on plastic bags in the year 2002. Doing this they have been able to reduce the consumption by 90%.

- BBC News, August 20th 2002

In 2005 Rwanda prohibited the use of plastic bags

- Associated Press

Israel, Canada, East India, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan and Singapore prohibited or are in the process of prohibition of the use of plastic bags

- PlanetSave.com February 16th, 2008

On March 27th 2007 San Francisco converted into the first United States City to prohibit the use of plastic bags

- NPR.org (National Public Radio)

Oakland and Boston are considering the prohibition of plastic bags

- The Boston Globe, May 20th, 2007

Plastic bags are made of polyethylene: a thermoplastic obtained by the distillation of crude oil

- CNN.com/technology, November 16th, 2007

Reducing the use of plastic bags reduces our dependency of crude oil from abroad

China saves 37 million barrels of crude each year thanks to the prohibition of plastic bags

- CNN.com/asia, January 9th, 2008

It is possible

From here on down a recopilation of the text of the “letter”:

A letter written in the year 2070

We are in the Year 2070
I’ve just turned 50 but my appearance is of an 85 year old person. I have serious kidney problems because I drink to little water. I believe that I’ve little time left.
Today I’m one of the oldest persons in our society!!

I remember when I was 5 years old.
Everything was different.
There were many trees in the parks, the houses had nice gardens and I was able to enjoy a bath or take a long shower.
Today we use hygienic tissues humidified in mineral oil to clean our skin!

In the past women showed their beautiful hair.
Today we have to shave our heads to keep them clean without the use of water.
Back then my father washed his car with the water which came out of the water house.
Today the children cant believe that water ever was used in such a way.

I remember that there were many Announcements that said:
DONT WASTE WATER,
Only that nobody cared; everybody thought that water would never finish.
Today all the rivers, dams, lakes and other water sources are irreversibly contaminated or used up.

Huge deserts replace the landscape which is all around of us.
Gastrointestinal infections, skin diseases and diseases of the urinary evacuation system are the main causes of death.

The industry is paralyzed and unemployment is dramatic. The desalination factories are the main source of employment and they pay you with potable water instead of wage.

The assaults for a can of water are common in the deserted streets. The food is 80% synthetic.

In the past the ideal amount of water as indicated to drink was eight glasses per day for an adult person. Today I only can drink half a glass.

The clothes are wear and tear, which increases the amount of trash; we had to return to old fashioned wells and septic tanks like in the last century because the networks of sewers cannot be used due to the lack of water.

The appearance of the population is horrible; bodies become weak, wrinkled by the dehydration, plenty of sores in the skin by the ultra-violet rays that do not have the ozone layer that filtered them in the atmosphere.

Because of the dryness of the skin a young person of 20 years appears to be 40.
The scientists investigate, but there is no possible solution.
Water cannot be made; oxygen also is degraded by lack of trees. This degradation of oxygen has diminished the intellectual coefficient of the new generations.

The morphology of sperm of many individuals was altered. As a consequence many children are born with insufficiencies, mutations and deformations.

The government even makes us pay for the air we breathe, 137 m3 per day by adult inhabitant.
The people who cannot pay are excluded from the “ventilated zones”, that are equipped with gigantic mechanical lungs that work with solar energy. They are not of good quality, but it is possible to breathe.
The average age of humans is 35 years.

In some countries some vegetation spots with their respective river are left and are strongly watched over by the army.
The water became a very coveted treasure, more than gold or diamonds.

Here however, there are no trees because it almost never rains, and when a precipitation gets registered, it is of acid rain.
The years seasons severely are transformed by atomic testing and from the polluting industries of the 20th century.
It was strongly advised then to watch the environment but nobody followed that advice.

When my daughter asks me to tell her how it was when I was young, I describe the beauty of the forests.
I speak to her of rain, the flowers, of how pleasant it was to take a bath and be able to fish in the rivers and the lakes, to drink all the water that you wanted.
And about how healthy people were then.

She asks me:
- Dad! Why isnt there any more water?
Thats when I feel this node in my throat grow

I cannot but feel guilty, because I belong to the generation that ended up destroying the environment or simply did not take into account all those many warnings.

Now our children are paying a very high price

Sincerely I believe that life on Earth within very little will no longer be possible because the destruction of the environment arrived at an irreversible point.

Oh, how much I would like to return back and to make that all the humanity had understood that…
… when still we could have done something to save our planet Earth!
With this post I want to wake up YOUR consciousness about the situation of our worlds resources.
This is not a game! Today this is our reality. So, do something for your children, if you dont have any children jet, maybe some day you will. Dont leave them to disaster Inherit life.

Slide Author: Ria Ellwanger in collaboration with: Lopez Chavez Ariel Alahin
riaellw@globo.com, alainlopez909@hotmail.com
Text: Magazine “Crnica de los Tiempos, April 2002.
Music: An Inconvenient Truth Images: Getty Images