This is 25 minutes long... but you only need to look at it for a few minutes to see what's going on, absolute disgrace... the governments are neither able or willing to clean it up... all caused by huge population explosions i
@Holly Saunders What a horrible sight! Contrast it with these views taken by my wife of the magnificent Colorado River which we live within 10 minutes of: Those tiny white specks are thousands of seashells, most about the size of a nickel. The tiny hummingbird loves the foliage along the river! Huge fish thrive in it, several millions of American Coots pass through here annually, migrating between Canada and Mexico, and the ducks......are everywhere. The river supports them all with food.....the fish pictured are 3 feet long; I've seen them 4 feet! The river is as clean as can be imagined. Not an unusual fisherman's catch:
That is tragic. I have to wonder, couldn't the villagers dump their garbage further away from the river? Why do they dump it there, knowing it will pollute the river?
How horrible; I can't imagine. I wonder why their government doesn't do something about those manufacturing chemical dumps?
This is excatly why we only eat seafoods from the US or Canada or best known clean waters. Sure our waters are polluted also...but our chances are better here.
@Shirley Martin My guess would be, force of habit, tradition, perhaps convenience? Human life in such places seems to be of little value. Frank
I think that further into the video, it's said that in fact, half the reason the rubbish is there is because villages further away the river dump their rubbish into the river, I suppose if it's out of sight it's out of mind for them and they don't care, and certainly the government seems to not be taking any action.!! You're so right @Gloria Mitchell , eating fish or sea-food from anywhere other than places you trust is fraught with danger.
When I was in Jamaica when we had a heavy rain you could almost walk across Kingston harbor on the plastic. I was there over a year in Port Royal in a marina and seen it first hand. Some of these places are just sad
It wasn't until the sixties early seventies that our river while maybe not as bad as that were routinely used for waste disposal. Does anyone remember when our rivers would catch alight a burn? Well our government did something about it. Created an agency called the EPA. Well rivers got clean, smog virtually disappeared, chemicals were no longer just dumped wherever convenient. Wildlife flourished, respiratory ailments and cancers dramatically declined,the scenery returned to its former beauty. Since the day of its conception, Chamber of Commerce, National Industrial Alliance, Farm Bearue, and millions of conservatives have fought and clamored for the agencies dissolution. We can either have A or B pick your poison!
When I was in Jamaica on the weekends there was a street party where they drag out those 6 foot high speakers and then stack them up. All the local people started selling roasted peanuts, fish soup, and fried everything. I had a Styrofoam cup of fish soup than had to leave while I could still hear. Looking around for a garbage can nothing in sight the ground was littered with cups. I asked a local and was told to through it on the ground. I told him no way he asked why everyone does. I asked would you through garbage in your home he said no I told him I am a sailor and the world is my home. I carried that cup ¼ mile to my boat and through it in the garbage. Bing forced to do the right thing by the EPA is not the answer but personal responsibility is.
I don't believe this thread should be derailed by an EPA argument. It's sad that no matter how hard developed countries work to clean up the environment, messes such as this on Java still perpetuate. That video is a real eye-opener for me.
I am not thinking the thread is derailed. Is the point of the thread to bemoan one filthy river on the other side of the world? Or is it about the human races disdain for the planet that sustains us,and how this blight must be overcome by government regulation, as the private sector has proven since time immemorial that they are going to do the cheap, convenient thing regardless of cost. Frank, Do you think that beautiful river would as it is if we did not have stringent regulations in place? Would you make a habit of eating fish downstream of an unregulated mining operation? I am a broad spectrum thinker!