#areyoubookenough_family
In 2019 I have decided to participate in the book-making challenge “Are You Book Enough” on Instagram.
Read moreIn 2019 I have decided to participate in the book-making challenge “Are You Book Enough” on Instagram.
Read moreWe probably started hearing about the problem of marine plastic at an event about turtles, held some years ago at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. I think that was the first time I met Calum Duncan of the Marine Conservation Society, and started to listen to the message he has been championing for many years now.
There is a regular beach clean at Cramond foreshore in Edinburgh, which runs at least once a quarter, and which we go along to as often as we can. So when an invite from Nicola Holland of Funky Ella’s Travels popped into my mailbox, I was happy to sign up to go along to an event being organised by Susanne Arbuckle of Adventures Around Scotland.
Here’s Susanne introducing us to the serious theme of the day with a quote which has inspired her: “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it” [Robert Swan, OBE, FRGS]. Susanne had taken this to heart, and not only talked about it, but took action to organise an event attended by a group of Scottish ‘content creators’ who she hoped would raise awareness of the issue and take action to turn the plastic tide.
The problem is that our seas are filling with plastic, which is affecting every part of our planet’s fragile ecosystem. The Marine Conservation Society works to raise awareness of these problems, and campaigns to protect our seas and the marine life there.
There had been some recent publicity surrounding the state of the beach which sits close to the Queensferry Crossing – Ferrycraigs Beach which was dubbed by the press “worst for nurdle pollution“. I had read the articles, and thought that maybe there wouldn’t be much left for us to pick up as there had been several beach clean-ups there. How naive of me… it didn’t take long to find out that the beach still needed plenty of help.
We headed down to Ferrycraigs Beach to get organised for our beach clean and find out what awaited us. As veterans of several Cramond clean-up surveys, we thought we had experience of seeing beaches in grim states, but this was a whole new level.
It was really hard not to just go into a decline about the state of the beach, after all we were only working away for an hour and there was just SO MUCH plastic there. The problem with collection was that the plastic was mixed up with a lot of broken down wood, so was difficult to separate. As we were only allowed to pick up while wearing gloves, it made collection of these tiny objects really tricky. We really needed some sort of sieve to carry out the separation exercise.
After our allotted time of collection we gathered to weigh the results and Catherine Gemmell of MCS UK talked about the number of cotton bud sticks and nurdles which had been collected. During our break for lunch, Catherine completed the task of collating the data from the data sheets which the teams had used to record the different types of waste picked up. It’s information like this which makes joining an organised beach clean so important. Instead of just picking up waste and binning it elsewhere, the data is used to put pressure on policy makers in governments and in business to be a catalyst for positive change.
Meanwhile, another of the teams had been finding out just how long plastic waste can hang around in the sea: this washing-up liquid bottle was a genuine vintage find.
It had been a thoroughly depressing morning: how could we make a difference, and what could we do to continue to help?
When you’ve spent the morning getting more and more concerned about what you can do to help, it’s good to have positive people like Catherine Gemmell of MCS UK around to make sure you understand how you can take individual action to change your own behaviour.
Back at the hotel, Catherine had laid out a few samples from her own “action pack” for us to take a look at.
Our education continued with talks from:
Alasdair Neilson from FIDRA about their work in publicising nurdle pollution and campaigning to have micro-beads removed from cosmetic products. He has a specific interest in looking at the language used to communicate environmental issues.
Robbie Blyth from Fife Coast and Countryside Trust about the work they do throughout Fife to look after the natural environment, including the beaches around the Fife Coastline.
As a treat after all our hard work and learning during the day, we headed to South Queensferry for a cruise with Forth Boat Tours on the Forth Belle, picking up visitors from Inchcolm and sailing under the three Forth bridges. We were delighted to have the skipper point out some puffins flying and bobbing around Inchcolm. On the return trip, we passed close enough to this rock where cormorants were nesting. A chance to catch a glimpse of the hazards of marine plastic – can you spot the nest which contains orange rope or netting?
This nesting site is within sight of the Queensferry Crossing – that’s the one of the pillars in the distance.
It’s taken a few weeks after the event for me to write up this post, partly due to being shocked at the extent of the pollution which we had seen so close to home, and also to give time for due reflection on real changes which I could take as a result of the information which I had gathered.
The first thing was to give some of the ideas which Catherine had suggested a try:
The next thing was to think more about how I could prepare for the challenge of reducing plastic in every day life, so I ordered the book and went on another beach clean at Cramond:
I hold my hand up here, I’m just not ready to #GOplasticfree during July, but if you’d like to find out more, then read all about it. Maybe, like me, you’ll take the steps to cut out plastic, and at the very least make sure that you are an ace re-cycler.
Susanne Arbuckle – Adventures around Scotland
Marine Conservation Society – Susanne’s article “Beach Clean with Scottish Bloggers” which has links to many of the other blogs, vlogs and articles written about the event.
When I want to treat the teenager in my family to a healthy lunch, we head to the Hula Juice Bar where there are all sorts of smoothies and juices to tempt her. And for some tartan light (the sort to cheer you up on a dull day) they have the aptly named “Sunshine in a Cup” juice (a peach and mango combo).
I got to thinking today about Scottish sayings, and positive thoughts. The ones I found were generally not particularly cheerful. But I thought I could put a positive ‘tartan light’ on this one. It’s a lang road that’s no goat a turnin’, or in translation “It’s a long road that does not have a turn.”
Applying this to projects or ideas I wonder if it’s meant to ensure that we realise that we can always change course if we find we’re not going in exactly the right direction?
A story in the 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith caught my eye, and the inspiration for this project was lodged in my brain:
From: VOLUME 10; episode 18:
It was Angus Lordie who suggested the remedy. “A light box, Lou,” he said.
“Put it on a table and sit beside it for 40 minutes a day. It makes your brain believe you live in Italy or somewhere like that. It gives you a blast of light – something we can be a bit short of in the Scottish winter.”
Big Lou had heeded his advice and ordered a catalogue from a firm in England. She had been intrigued by some of the lamps on offer: one acted as an alarm clock, gradually filling the bedroom with the equivalent of morning sunlight; another, a Scottish offering, had the bulbs behind a panel of tartan glass – this bathed the user in tartan light, said to be of particular benefit to those in whose heart a dark winter might diminish positive feelings of Scottishness, or might indeed encourage a feeling of the wrong sort of Scottishness. It was impossible, the catalogue claimed, to feel at all dour if you sat in this light each day, even in places, of which there were admittedly one or two in Scotland, where one might be inclined to feel slightly on the dour side.
So, let’s see where this takes us. A search for little rays of tartan light to help you through the driech days and encourage positive feelings of Scottishness.