Each year, during the month of April, the world celebrates Earth Day. Earth Day reminds us that we play an active part in the degradation of our planet’s ecology and environment. Moreover, it is a wakeup call that humans must take steps to protect it from the ravages of our expanding human civilization.

An example of our inadvertent impact on our Earth that we may not fully appreciate are the vast islands of floating trash accumulating in our oceans. An example is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive accumulation of marine debris in the Pacific Ocean. These huge patches of floating debris contain a lot of marine refuse consisting of fishing nets and buoys. However, over 80% of these accumulations are made up of discarded consumer plastics.

Our guest this week is local resident Reid Harlocker. Reid is a retired communications engineer who is now focusing his energy on studying these phenomena. He recently returned from an expedition to study this monumental pollution problem. He will present his findings in an eye-opening presentation called the “Problematic Pollution in the Pacific.”

Join us this Friday at noon online to learn about the impact of these growing islands of trash, and our role in producing them.  

Read a related CDA Press article.

ABOUT OUR MEETINGS

The Democrat Club meets each Friday at noon online. We distribute a Zoom link for our club meetings each Thursday prior to the meeting date. Contact Phil at pjwmia@aol.com or Ruben at rmiranda2265@gmail.com, to request the link or assistance connecting. We will return to in person/online meetings as soon as it becomes safe to do so. You can find videos of past Club meetings at KootenaiCountyDemClub.com/Meeting Videos.