Butterfly Rewards - earn free credits and redeem for good causes -  learn more!
my care2
make a difference
healthy & green living: more than 5,000 ways to enhance your life

customize your free newsletter

Customize your Healthy & Green Living newsletter now


Visit the Beach this Saturday!

posted by Megan Zehnder Sep 18, 2009 5:17 pm
Visit the Beach this Saturday!
6 comments

What are you doing this Saturday? How about hitting the beach! (Or to the nearest river, lake, large body of water…)

Everyday thousands of beach-lounging guests enjoy the ocean, home to 20,000 known species–and so many more unknown. This Saturday, September 19, visit the beach, and rather than lounging under the sun, help clean-up from all the visitors, in honor of the annual International Beach Cleanup Day.

Why do we need a day to clean up the beach? Are we that dirty of house-guests? Last year at the clean-up, volunteers picked up 3,216,991 cigarette butts, and a whopping 6.8 million pounds of trash!

Thousands of ocean animals–like dolphin, birds, seals, and turtles–lose their lives due to trash we leave around when we visit their home. Bottle caps, tooth brushes and other foreign objects can get caught in their throat or digestive system, and cause fatal problems. Fishing lines and nets get left in the ocean and cause many entanglements. Last year, volunteers found 443 entangled animals–mostly due to our trash–and saved the lives of 288!

Help show some love for our marine mammal friends and clean up our dirty habits. If you don’t live near a coast, there is plenty of trash to pick up in and around rivers and streams. And these waters eventually all lead to the ocean.

For more information and to find a clean-up site near you, click here.

And always remember the words of Woodsy Owl, whenever you are outside: “Give a hoot. Don’t pollute!” Your animal friends will thank you!

More on Adoption & Services (19 articles available)
More from Megan Zehnder (8 articles available)

6 comments

6 comments

add your comment »
6 comments add your comment
Dmitry B.

I hope this helps stop pollution.

Brenda P.

Then there a bunch of brain damages peoples as you say"j.k. I smoke and don;t throw my cigs. out. I respect my town. I see plenty of trash along the highway and rural road where I live..beer cans, soda cans,Fast foods bags.Not everyone who smoke litters. I alway put my butts in a soda can while at the beach and put it in the trash can.

Mary B.
  • Mary B. says
  • Sep 20, 2009 3:38 PM

Not everyone has the same relationship to tobacco as the anti-smoking crowd. It is just another plant on the Earth, and many consider it sacred. Don't confuse your distain for the large tobacco industry with smokers.Or simply thoughtless, inattentive people who shed stuff at the beach.Plenty of non-smokers do that. Do you call them brain damaged too? I think we might do well to proclaim a week of re-learning what it means to feel respect for our world, the creatures who inhabit it, and each other. As our species becomes more telepathic we pick up the feelings of others more easily and think they are our own.

Randolph D.

Most of the fishing line and netting is washed up from commercial fishing. I don't think the commercial fisherman are interested in reading this or what anyone has to say about their activities. I've actually watched them scream into TV cameras like neandrathals.

Chris W.

My family participated in a clean-up this morning at New Smyrna Beach, Florida. We found a LOT of cigarette butts and pieces of plastic. It was a great experience for our 2 young ones and we got a nice day at the beach too!!

janine k.

I love the idea of a cigarette bud instead of a butt. Reminds me of flowers. Cigarettes are slimy. Ew. The type of people who smoke and throw their trash onto the earth are, to be kind, brain damaged.

Please enter your comment.
Or, log in with your
Facebook account:
1500 characters remaining

who's talking about this story?

Disclaimer: Care2.com does not warrant and shall have no liability for information provided in this newsletter or on Care2.com. Each individual person, fabric, or material may react differently to a particular suggested use. It is recommended that before you begin to use any formula, you read the directions carefully and test it first. Should you have any health care-related questions or concerns, please call or see your physician or other health care provider.

1012930

Copyright © 2009 Care2.com, inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved