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Plastiki sails into Sydney Harbour

02-Aug-2010



When the Plastiki docked next to the submarine at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney I thought back to my childhood. Reading about the Kon-Tiki expedition and the later two Ra voyages had fueled my young imagination and admiration for those adventurers who push the boundaries and take on enormous challenges.

The reasons for the challenges have changed over time but underlying many great ocean adventures has been a desire to expand our knowledge and understanding of the world we inhabit.

The Plastiki symbolically spearheads one of the greatest challenges for humanity - keeping our planet healthy for future generations. The knowledge that we are treating our oceans as a garbage bin needs to be exposed every day. The fact that we are carelessly creating then discarding toxic particles that will eventually creep up through the food chain is shameful.

Plastics are a problem in the Mentawai Islands. One day we travelled from Tua Pejat to Katiet and halfway through the journey the boat slowed and I wondered why. The ocean was smooth, the sun was out but the water was a mess with all imaginable kinds of plastic. These floating clumps were so thick that our driver had to carefully negotiate a passage through to avoid clogging up the engine. This plastic could only have come from sources far away from the lightly inhabited islands.

Good global citizens can make a difference and the SurfAid Schools Program applauds the Plastiki expedition and all that it represents. We will develop ways to support this important challenge through our promotion of positive global citizenship values, which recognize the importance of environmental sustainability and the belief that we can all make a difference.

- By Milton Brown


Tropical paradise... or is it? Photo: Milton Brown


This beautiful Mentawai beach was littered with plastic. Photo: Milton Brown


The Plastiki in background, with Expedition leader David de Rothschild and Surfrider Foundation Australia GM Kristy Theissling. Photo by Andy Myers of Surfrider Foundation




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