Plastics Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch—film and discussion

What: Plastics Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch—film and discussion

Who: Mike Stout and Dee Koshhirka from the Izaak Walton League

Why: Because plastic pollution has become a huge problem, and we can help mitigate it!

Film description: Thousands of miles away from civilization, Midway Atoll is in one of the most remote places on earth. And yet It's become ground zero for The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, syphoning plastics from three distant continents. In this independent documentary film, journalist/filmmaker Angela Sun travels on a personal journey of discovery to uncover this mysterious phenomenon. Along the way she meets scientists, researchers, influencers, and volunteers who shed light on the effects of our rabid plastic consumption and learns the problem is more insidious than we could have ever imagined.

*Dee Kochirka, Allegheny County Vice-President and registered nurse for more
than 30 years, will explain the myriad of detrimental effects plastics is
having on humans, our air, water and environment,  how it is slowly and
invisibly poisoning us, our food chain and irreparably damaging and
polluting our environment, as well as detailing the chemicals involved in
the plastics-producting process, how those chemicals are endocrine
disruptors, and cause a host of cancer and neurological diseases. 

*Mike Stout, AC Chapter President, will summarize the future for our area
ahead, as Shell Oil Company is soon to bring on line a petrochemical
facility in Monaco (Beaver County) that will spew 2.2 million tons of CO2
into the atmosphere annually, and produce 80 trillion nurdles annually (see
attached pic of nurdles), 10-15% of which will spill in transportation to
production facilities and end up in our streams, rivers and drinking water
(for a detailed look at his comments, see attached "Plastics Talk"
document.) Most importantly, he will then talk about what we as individuals
and communities can do about moving away from the use of plastics. 

Closed captioning will be available for this event through Google Meet. To enable captions in Google Meet, click on the three dots menu in the lower right corner and choose “Turn on captions” next to the CC symbol.