Stories of Kindness from Around the World

When I was a teenager, I wrote a story about a young investigative reporter who found a direct link between cancer and plastic. The more she uncovered, the more she aggravated captains of the industry called Big Oil. If her story broke, they realized, they would lose a lot of revenue. They calculated that the risk of removing her vs. the risk of losing money would be worth it. They chased her all over the globe but ultimately she exposed them and the world became plastic free. I wrote that in the mid-70's by hand in my notebook. I have no idea where it is or what happened to it. But even then we knew plastic was not cool.

As I grew older, I began to read really disturbing things about plastic. What I read and shared with my family convinced us to stop buying bottled water and start buying stainless steel water bottles. We use water filters and we shop with canvas bags as much as possible -- though we can definitely do better with that one. I learned about the dangers of BPAs and how they change our bodies at a cellular level. For the first time, I learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a snarled tangle of plastic that circles the planet on currents which is estimated to be the size of Texas. More on that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch

So as a person, myself, I can do certain things:

- Carry reusable shopping bags

- Give up bottled water

- Say no to plastic produce bags

- Carry a stainless steel travel mug at all times for coffee and other drinks

- Buy from bulk bins as much as possible (bring own bags/containers)

This ^ "top 5" list is from the site "Bag It" a documentary about one Colorado "average man's" journey with his town to eliminate plastic from his life.

http://www.popularhispanics.com/hot-trends.php?pid=204

Another thing I can do is keep writing stories. I think fiction is a great way to get folks thinking about things. At least I hope so. I wrote a short story in two parts about a girl who stumbles into a green mist and gets transported to the past -- (our present) -- where she's horrified to see plastic everywhere and no one is wearing hazmat suits! Her husband meantime gets transported back to the 40's and is captured as a spy. =) If you'd like to read these they links are here. I'm going to be publishing my short stories for free download soon...ish. Hopefully the posture idea will really work well. =)

Trail Sketch
https://nikiflow.wordpress.com/2015/02/05/trail-sketch/

Snap Shot
https://nikiflow.wordpress.com/2015/02/06/snap-shot/