DON QUIXOTE DE LA PLAYA!

DON QUIXOTE DE LA PLAYA !

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Rachel Gray

3

Don Quijote en la playa de Barcino, de Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau

In the nine and a half years that I have been picking up the trash on Ipanema beach, I have been called many things but perhaps the most amusing epithet is Don Quixote. 

One day, as I was picking up the plastic cups, plastic supermarket bags, plastic bottles, hundreds of plastic straws, glass beer-bottles, remains of food, dirty nappies, used sanitary towels, and other unmentionable ugly waste left on or near the waterline by beach-goers, a casual observer shouted, “ Hey, Don Quixote, how is it going?” I was not offended by the allusion. I replied, “ I could do with some Sancho Panzas to give me a hand!”

I am sure there are many who think my single-handed beach cleaning is a quixotic idea. However, there is an important difference between Don Quixote and myself. The intrepid but delusional errant knight created by Cervantes fought imaginary enemies, tilting at windmills because he thought they were giants. 

In contrast, there is nothing imaginary about the threat posed by plastic trash left on the beach and swept into the sea. It is a real enemy of the marine and human environment and represents a giant problem, as evidenced by the immense gyres of plastic waste in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. 

See the following photo and chart. Click on the links to read the articles.

 (Photo – AFP/Getty/The Guardian)

https://blueocean.net/great-pacific-garbage-patch-taking-trash/

Sources: 5Gyres Institute, CBC, news wires, Ocean Conservancy

https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/ocean-garbage/

Even in the off-season or winter months, beachgoers leave an incredible amount of trash and garbage along the waterline of Ipanema beach. This is waterline trash that I collected on 01.09.2019 and would otherwise have ended up in the ocean. (Photos taken by me).

By 18:00, I must have collected about 50 kilos of plastic trash, garbage and glass bottles just on the short stretch of the waterline of the beach shown in the above photos. It is back-breaking work and is not helped by the removal of many of the municipal trash wheelie bins from the beach.

I give thanks for windy, overcast days in Rio de Janeiro because at least the beaches and marine environment will get some temporary respite from the onslaught of trash and garbage caused by the ignorance, sheer laziness and deliberate, negligent littering by beachgoers.

On stormy days, the sea may well give up its dead but it also gives up the trash and plastic jetsam thrown away by beachgoers. The idiotic habit that humans have of taking the tops off plastic water bottles and throwing them away separately on the beach results in the jetsam in my photo of one small corner of the beach at Arpoador in Ipanema.

Count the number of bottle tops and bits of plastic that you can see in this photo and then multiply it several thousand times in order to get an idea of the volume swept into the sea from Rio’s beaches.  

We need to wake up before it is too late! People seem to be wilfully blind to the damage they cause to the environment.

All the signs are here that Mother Nature has had enough of our selfish behaviour. If we do not change and we give up on protecting the natural environment, one day soon Mother Nature may well give up on us!

NEW YEAR'S EVE IN RIO DE JANEIRO 31/12/2017
Resolutions for the New Year


Whatever resolutions people made on Copacabana Beach on New Year’s Eve 31/12/2017, they evidently did not include taking their trash home with them or throwing it in litter bins or trash cans. The ugly truth is that revellers left 285.65 tons of trash on the sands. This volume does not include the trash that the waves and tide swept into the depths. 

OFFERINGS TO IEMANJÁ


 

OR PROVOCATION TO OLOKUN?

On New Year’s Eve in Brazil, many people leave offerings of flowers and gifts at the sea’s edge for Iemanjá, the Goddess of the Sea, an important deity in the Afro-Brazilian religions of Candomblé and Umbanda. The offerings are made in the belief that Iemanjá will grant good luck and good health in the coming year. However, the tons of ordinary trash and garbage left by revellers at the water’s edge are also swept into the sea, causing disastrous consequences for the marine environment.

By any standard adopted, trash and garbage cannot represent a fitting offering to the deity. In fact, most people are unaware that, according to Yoruban tradition, Olokun is revered as the Goddess of the dark, mysterious depths of the ocean. Olokun also represents the sea in its stormy, frighteningly violent aspect. Moved to wrath, Olokun can present the sea’s most terrible, destructive propensity. 

I do not condemn the practice of making genuine offerings to Afro-Brazilian deities. However, the ordinary trash and garbage carelessly left by revellers at the water’s edge serve no religious purpose and do nothing but harm to the environment.

One might ask those who believe in Olokun whether such abject disrespect in treating the ocean as a gigantic trash can does not incur the deity’s wrath and provoke the said destructive propensity.

HERE COMES THE SUN and consequently the garbage and rubbish!

HERE COMES THE SUN and consequently the garbage and rubbish!

Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro is blessed with one of the most beautiful beaches to be found in any urban setting in the world. Yet, all it takes to turn this idyllic beach into something resembling a dumpsite of garbage and rubbish is a hot sunny day attracting hundreds of beachgoers who leave their garbage and rubbish all over the sands. 

There are large plastic garbage and rubbish bins on the sands near the promenade. Although the bins are no more than 50 paces from the waterline, beachgoers are apparently too lazy to carry their trash to them. Instead, they leave their plastic waste and garbage on the sands in complete disregard for the ugly spectacle it creates, the inconvenience to other beachgoers and, worst of all, the harm to the environment. 

In a blatant demonstration of abject ignorance, selfishness, social irresponsibility and a complete lack of environmental awareness, people regularly litter the sands with hundreds of kilos of plastic drinking cups, plastic mineral water bottles, plastic straws, biscuit wrappers, plastic supermarket bags, polystyrene food trays with remains of food, used female sanitary towels, dirty nappies/diapers, beverage cans, glass beer bottles, open sardine cans with cutting edges, old flip-flops and even sometimes used syringes with needles. 

In a world threatened by global warming, rising sea levels, toxic pollution and the man-made degradation and possible imminent destruction of the natural environment, this behaviour by beachgoers beggars belief.

The greatest threat to the environment comes from the hundreds of kilos of garbage and rubbish that people leave on or near the waterline. The waves and tide sweep such waste into the sea, causing harm to the marine environment and marine organisms. The tide and waves claim the tidal zone trash before the municipal garbage collectors have a chance to get it when they arrive at the end of the afternoon or early evening.  

On Sunday 02/11/2014, I collected about 90 kilos of plastic trash and garbage left by beachgoers on the waterline and within the tidal zone on the sands between Rua Farme de Amoedo and Arpoador Rocks.  This stretch represents about a third of the beach.   Multiply that figure by 3 and that will give you an idea of the total volume on the waterline and within the tidal zone of Ipanema beach that day, i.e. 270 kilos.

At sunset, beachgoers gather at Arpoador to applaud the sun as it sets over the horizon. It is a nice poetic gesture but, if they really loved this beautiful beach, a better gesture would be to use their hands to pick up the garbage. If humanity carries on laying waste to the Earth, we may not have many more sunsets to delight us.   

The photos below show the ugly scene that met my eyes when I went down to collect the tidal zone garbage and rubbish at the end of the day on Sunday the 2^nd of November 2014.

The next photos show the following:

(i)            the type of food waste and trash that is regularly left in the tidal zone;

(ii)          the plastic ice cube bags left on the sand by beach goers and used by me to fill with rubbish and garbage.  (The black backpack is mine)

Each bag weighs about 10 kilos when full and I throw the contents into the municipal garbage bins. On Sunday November 2^nd, I collected about 9 full bags of trash just from the tidal zone.

I pray that people come to their senses and start doing what they can to save the environment before it is too late. To quote the immortal Joni Mitchell in Big Yellow Taxi: “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?”

WARNING: HELPING TO CLEAN UP IPANEMA BEACH CAN EXPOSE YOU TO DERISION, HOSTILITY AND AGGRESSION. 

Sunbathing on Ipanema beach on a Saturday and Sunday is no longer a pleasure unless your idea of pleasure is competing for a patch of sand with thousands of others and then lying surrounded by countless plastic cups, plastic bags, biscuit wrappers, beverage cans, plastic straws and even dirty nappies and sanitary towels while your ears are assaulted by the hubbub of beach vendors' cries, other beach-goers' raucous laughter and shouting and blaring music from sound systems.  How people can enjoy sitting on the beach in such conditions, surrounded by garbage and even decorate the sand with their own trash because they are too lazy to throw it in the garbage bins provided is beyond my understanding. 

Perhaps the above is to be expected in this Brave New World of complete environmental blindness and lack of personal and civic responsibility.
However, what you do not expect is to become the object of derision, hostility and aggression if you decide to try and clean up some of the trash yourself. 

Some three weeks ago, I went to the beach on a Saturday with my wife. Just before we left the beach, I decide to remove some of the nearby trash from the sand and waterline. I got an empty plastic ice bag and stuffed trash into it. As I approached the waterline, a group of some 6 or 7 drunken young men demanded insolently and belligerently that I remove their own plastic trash lying at their feet. Realising that they were deliberately provoking me, I responded politely that they could throw their trash in the garbage bins themselves. They insisted and when I refused, I became the target of verbal insults, derision, scorn and hostility. They kicked sand in my eyes and became threatening. I was reluctant to back down but since they were clearly bent on beating me up and I stood little chance of defending myself against a group of drunken yobs, I left the beach quickly with my wife. Needless to say, my wife and I found the whole experience traumatic and have not returned to the beach on a weekend. 
The moral of the story is that some people take pleasure in littering the beach with their muck and trash and resent anyone who tries to clean it up. 

RIO + 20  AND ARPOADOR + 20 

Rio + 20

Back in 1992, when I was called on to narrate the official video of the Eco-92 Global Forum in English, I believe that most people had high hopes that some definite effective measures would be taken  by government and industry to halt or at least seriously diminish the man-made pollution and consequent devastation of our natural environment. Twenty years have passed during which we have seen little more than posturing by governments and world leaders, who are evidently more concerned with preserving their own power structures and pandering to industrial lobby bodies than they are with taking any real stand in favour of the planet.

Arpoador + 20 


Yesterday, while world leaders tried to reach agreement on what to do about the devastation of the environment, beach-goers left 20 kilos of plastic garbage and assorted trash just on the water line of  Ipanema beach at Arpoador. It seems that the message is not getting through to those who carelessly leave their trash on the beach where the waves sweep it into the sea. I have a message for such people: Congratulations! You are contributing to the devastation of marine ecosystems! 

THE CONSEQUENCES OF LEAVING PLASTIC TRASH ON THE BEACH. 


"SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?", YOU MAY WELL ASK.  SOME SAY:  "I DO NOT LEAVE SO MUCH TRASH AND THE MUNICIPAL GARBAGE COLLECTORS ARE PAID TO PICK IT UP!"


WELL, IF YOU LEAVE YOUR BUNDLE OF TRASH NEAR OR ON THE WATERLINE, THE SEA WILL WASH IT AWAY INTO THE OPEN OCEAN BEFORE THE GARBAGE COLLECTORS CAN PICK IT UP AND THESE ARE THE CONSEQUENCES:


1). THE PLASTIC IS CARRIED AWAY BY OCEAN CURRENTS AND FORMS ENORMOUS PATCHES OF PLASTIC GARBAGE IN OCEAN GYRES.  Plastic leaches toxic chemicals such as Bisphenol A into the oceans. Fish eat minute pieces of plastic, mistaking them for plankton and sea birds swallow plastic. Thus, plastic enters the marine food chain.  Ultimately, this has a devastating effect not only on marine ecosystems but also on the health of humans who eat fish. See this:http://www.oceanfootage.com/stockfootage/Plastic


and also https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=mw#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=PHOTOS+OF+PLASTIC+TRASH+IN+THE+ATLANTIC&oq=PHOTOS+OF+PLASTIC+TRASH+IN+THE+ATLANTIC&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=hp.3...1791.13161.0.13552.39.37.0.2.2.0.341.9192.2-35j2.37.0...0.0.rn3IKKvNtkc&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=60909d0e42a1fcbc&biw=1634&bih=884

2). THE SOUTH ATLANTIC HAS A LARGE PLASTIC GARBAGE PATCH. SEE: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1629861724/another-garbage-patch-exploration-across-the-south

3). THE GARBAGE WE LEAVE ON OR NEAR THE WATERLINE ON THE BEACH LIKE THIS

IS TAKEN BY THE WAVES AND RISING TIDE AND ENDS UP IN THE OCEANS LIKE THIS.
 NEED I SAY MORE?

LET'S CLEAN UP BRAZIL

The  Projeto Limpeza na Praia do Instituto Ecológico Aqualung  (the Beach Clean-up Project of the Aqualung Ecological Institute) organised an event called "Vamos Limpar Brasil” (Let's Clean Up Brazil) for Saturday June the 2nd, 2012.

The clean-up was set to take place between 10:00 and 13:00 on the beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, São Conrado, Barra da Tijuca, Sepetiba, Ilha de Paquetá, Maricá and Saquarema in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Such an event is laudable. Periodical clean-ups are good but what is really needed is a Brazilian national effort to build public awareness about the consequences of leaving trash on the beach. We need the promotion of government campaigns on TV, in schools and in universities. 

I do my own single-handed clean-up 2 or 3 times a week on half of Ipanema beach, along the waterline. However, I fear that the effect on the mass of the general public is practically nil. In fact, you can collect the trash along the waterline and people see you doing it but continue to leave their trash as soon as you have passed by. The fact is that they are completely insensitive about the damage caused by trash on the beach. In some cases, it is pure selfishness. In other cases, it is pure ignorance. 

Although I usually do my clean-up on Ipanema beach at the end of the afternoon, I decided to do it earlier on Saturday and see how the organised clean-up was coming on.  I got to the beach about 11:00  but must confess that I personally did not see anyone collecting trash on the beach. 

I jogged down the waterline from a point opposite Rua Teixeira de Melo to Jardim De Allah. Although there were not many people on the beach, about 15 kilos of plastic and other trash had been left along the stretch between the low and high tide marks. The waves were already sweeping the trash into the sea.  You can reckon that the volume would have been 10 times that at the end of the day. 

This is a photo of the plastic bag I used, my gloves and the trash collected: