Saving the Great Pacific Garbage Patch one piece of plastic at a time!

 GRASSROOTS ACTIVIST HONOURED

The Goldman Environmental Prize honours the achievements of grassroots activists in six continents, recognizing their efforts to protect natural habitats and push for political change, often at great personal risk.

                                 

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On Thursday, January 28, 2021 the BBC carried an article: “Kristal and her students are fighting to eradicate ocean plastic.” Kristal Ambrose, it said, founded the Bahamas Plastic Movement in 2013 and aims to tackle the serious problem of plastic pollution in The Bahamas.”

Another publication, “One Earth”, features each week an environmental activist and hero from around the globe, - a person who is working to create a world where humanity and nature can co-exist in harmony.

Chezza Zoeller is a “One Earth” contributor. She writes: “The Bahamas is an oasis that has 700 islands across 100,000 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean that houses an enormous amount of marine life – from sharks to coral reefs. Tourism is a vital part of the economy; however, it is also partly responsible for destroying the ecosystem.” 

Operating outside of the traditional power structures in the Bahamas, Ambrose used science, strategic advocacy, and youth empowerment to get her country focused on plastics. 

This is the first time a Bahamian person has won the prize. We read in The Guardian.com

In 2013 Kristal Ambrose founded “The Bahamas Plastic Movement.” What was the aim of the Movement? To tackle the serious problem of plastic pollution in the Bahamas. She started with the children and had youth camps to educate them about plastic pollution.

Kristal had a close connection with the ocean as a child. Her father used to take her with him every day when he went for a swim. Later, while she was working at an aquarium “she spent two days pulling plastic out of a sea turtle.” It was a traumatic experience for her. She vowed that “she would never drop a piece of plastic on the ground again.”

Jonathan Watts writes in The Guardian (Nov. 2020) that when she was 22 years old Kristal “went on an expedition to study the Pacific Ocean.” That was when she sailed through the “vast mass of marine and household debris known as the western garbage patch.”  She examined the waste and noticed that the plastic debris were basic items that we all use at home. Individual consumer habits, she realized, have global environmental consequences. 

“This experience inspired her to form the Bahamas Plastic Movement to help develop solutions to plastic pollution and educate youths all around the Bahamas.” Chezza Zoeller writes.

Plastic is not only lethal to wildlife but the entire food chain since humans eat and digest the fish that have plastic particles inside them.

“Across the world 8 million tons of plastic waste enters the ocean each year.”

“Single use plastic is particularly wasteful lasting in the environment for up to 1,000 years despite being used for mere minutes.”

Kristal, a marine biologist, started youth camps to educate the children at Harbour Island Green School about plastic pollution. Then with the help of a lawyer she drafted a bill and in January 2018, along with her students, took it to the Minister of the Environment in the Bahamas, In April 2018, the Minister officially announced a ban on single use plastics. Starting in July 2020 anyone found using single use plastics would be fined thousands of dollars.

“We are part of history! We were able to help shape legislation,” she said.

Kristal’s work has now been recognized globally. She has been featured in the Sierra Club Magazine and in Coastal Living Magazine where she was named an Ocean Hero.

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