For Okanagan-based cinematographer Jan Vozenilek, the journey that began with a surprising invitation and ended with reels of moving footage is not, in fact, over.
As one of the five-person crew who traveled far north to Midway Atoll in the North Pacific last fall, he documented a plastic tragedy-in-progress. Others on the team included Chris Jordan, Bill Weaver, Victoria Sloan Jordan and Manuel Maqueda.
This three-kilometre-long island, which is midway between North America and Asia, may be one of the remotest islands on earth, but it has not escaped the effects of human culture. Its once pristine beaches are now littered with toothbrushes, cigarette lighters, combs and other swirling garbage--of which 90 percent is plastic--that has been pushed there, and kept there, through converging water currents.
The sadder story here is about the millions of albatross who have come to Midway to nest and lay eggs and who cannot distinguish between a Coke bottle cap and their traditional seafood fare.
An estimated one-third of these albatross bird fledglings die every year of starvation, of choking, of puncture by sharp shards.
Their beach-strewn carcasses reveal stomachs filled with coloured plastic bits--and it was this sight amongst others that has inspired Vozenilek and the Midway team to reveal to the world what is happening, and why.
"Daily life on the island was an emotional rollercoaster," Vozenilek says. "We wanted to take these images and turn them into some kind of artistic film that could bring people to the level where they're emotionally connected in a much deeper way. Where they are asking themselves what each individual can do."
Since last fall, the story of their Midway Journey has gone viral. This once unseen environmental disaster has been featured prominently on Discovery Channel. Their collection of 20-plus short films has accumulated 72,000 YouTube views and their Facebook fan group has almost 700 fans.
In December, www.midwaythemovie.com was launched as a related initiative to carry on the work and encourage positive social change.
Since his return from the trip, Vozenilek has done numerous community and school presentations about life on the island and how we tend to forget that the liquid lifeline from local waters to river to ocean is unbroken, that how we live in our communities can affect not only us but albatross who nest thousands of kilometres away.
The experience has also benefited his family's buying habits. "Our first shopping trip was a shock," he recalls. "Everything was wrapped in plastic. For example, apple strudel comes in plastic boxes. So we went to the fresh bakery in the store instead and asked if we could buy strudel without the plastic. Imagine if 10 people a day did that. It would get noticed. At the next staff meeting, they would talk about it, and the important message of environmental responsibility would go right to the top."
Getting Off the Bottle:
The Toxic Footprint of Bottled Water
Reducing bottled water use is one of the easiest changes we can make to protect our own health, to protect the environment from plastic waste and to protect the planet from global warming.
A Statistics Canada analysis found that nearly 30 percent of Canadians chose bottled water as their main source of drinking water in 2008.
Each Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic water bottle manufactured generates almost four times its weight in greenhouse gases and releases at least two carcinogens in the process. Hundreds of millions of PET beverage bottles end up in Canadian landfills each year.
Whether measured by energy use, greenhouse or toxic emissions, or the volume of plastic waste, PET plastic beverage bottles create an enormous environmental footprint --a footprint that will grow as long as water bottles sales continue to increase.
Toxic Free Canada has issued a challenge to public decision makers and consumers: Buy less bottled water to reduce waste, the use of oil and the release of greenhouse gas emissions and toxins.
Visit www.toxicfreecanada.ca to take Toxic Free Canada's online pledge to buy fewer PET plastic water bottles. Their downloadable booklet, Getting Off the Bottle: The Toxic Footprint of Bottled Water, provides facts about waste, toxins and greenhouse gas emissions created by PET plastic water bottles in Canada.