At 10:57AM today summer officially begins, for it is the time of the Summer Solstice. It is a time many consider summer activities, such as going to the beach or the woods. But there is more on the beach than sand and more in the woods than moss. There is an abundance of micro-plastics.
Now that we in New Jersey are supposed to be no longer using those disposable plastic bags, you know, the ones that say “Thank you,” one would think that the problem of micro-plastics has gone away. But it has not. Those old plastic bags have left a residue of plastic particles so small that they pass through waterways into the ocean.
And our beaches are full of them. Environmental groups comb beach sand and wooded parks looking for micro-plastics so they do not end up in the bellies of fish, birds, or even whales. So much of what we dispose of ends up where we least expect it.
Prayer for the Day
Holy Creator, we wake amazed at the change of seasons,
For the beauty we see around us as we enter summer;
But even as we marvel, we know there are many still caught
In deep despair and sadness, poverty, and war.
Grant, O God, that we open ourselves to them, giving hope,
So their lives may be transformed and changed.
In the name of the One who opens us to the world,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
As long as there has been marine life, there has been marine snow — a ceaseless drizzle of death and waste sinking from the surface into the depths of the sea [coming from] mostly dead things.
- Sabrina Imbler, journalist
We sort of think about plastic as being inert. Once it enters the environment, it’s rapidly colonized by microbes.
- Linda Amaral-Zettler, Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
And the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness?
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.
Job 38: 16-18