Best Green Nonprofits contest
 
 
Dear Ecosteward,
 
You have an opportunity to help ORI make even more of a difference in communities across the country. “GreatNonprofits” – a site like Yelp – is conducting a campaign to find the top-rated environmental nonprofits.
 
Help us participate in the contest by posting a review of your experience with ORI. It’s easy and only takes 3 minutes! Your reviews will be visible to potential donors and volunteers.  Go to www.greatnonprofits.org and tell us what you think of our work.  
 
With your reviews of ORI, we have a chance to win $500 from Guidestar.org.  All reviews made by April 30th count towards the contest. Help make a large impact on our work for healthier oceans, rivers, watersheds, and ecosystems.  Tell others about ORI, write a review on GreatNonprofits!
 
 
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Alanna Mitchell, author of Sea Sick
 
 
For this week's episode of Moir's Environmental Dialogues, Alanna Mitchell will take us on a dive 3,000 feet into a far Tortuga sinkhole where no one has gone before to discover new life forms, new chemical compounds, and new insights into how it all comes together on the ocean planet.  Alanna Mitchell is a journalist who travels with ocean scientists and marine biologists to discover how we live with oceans and depend on marine life.  With her clear-eyed immediacy she writes in the style of Rachel Carson, yet more personable.  We care that carbonic acid is increasing in seawater with increasing carbon in the atmosphere. During the last century and a half of human activity ocean water acidity has increased by 30%.  What does it mean for you and me when calcareous sea critters start to fizzle in rising seas? Alanna Mitchell shares her experiences with us and will read of her dive from her book, Seasick: Ocean Change and the Extinction of Life on Earth.
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Man Rowing Through Plastics Island
 
 
Heal The Bay, an environmental organization dedicated to making California's waters healthy and clean, is mobilizing folks to cut down on plastic bag use and keep it out of the water. They are gathering signatures for a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger. Ask the Governor to support a state bill to ban single-use plastic bags and paper bags by 2012, and require stores to make reusable bags available for purchase.

Plastic is causing massive problems for our oceans.  Much of the plastic we use - bottles, single-use bags, toothbrushes, printer cartridges, old fish nets, cell phone cases - is added to the growing amount of plastic floating in our oceans. In the Northern Pacific Gyre, ocean currents have carried in plastic items to form a plastic island that covers twice the size of the state of Texas. Plastic leeches toxic chemicals into the water. Sea turtles that eat jellyfish consume plastic bags, as do whales.  These large animals have also been found entangled in plastic. Over years, plastic breaks down into small pellets.  Plastic bits are mistaken for plankton, or due to shear abundance are swallowed by marine birds and fish. Laysan Albatross chicks have been found dead from starvation when their parents inadvertently fed them plastic particles, instead of fish.

Help Halt Plastic Trash and Dumping Into Our Oceans. Join 700 ecostewards who have already spoken out by Signing Heal The Bay's Letter!*
*This link requires flashplayer software. If you don't have a flash player, then sign the letter by clicking below.
 
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ORI 350 Day in Somerville
 
More Ways To Get Involved!

Visit Ocean River Institute's - Save Our Oceans And Rivers - a cause page on Facebook.  Our cause now has 456 members, help us reach 500!
   
Join ORI's Fan page on Facebook.  Write to us and invite friends to join us. Stay informed with what others are saying about ORI and on all the latest news! Please join us by becoming a fan, today!
 
Twitter OceanRiverRob for fast breaking news and updates.
 
Discover how with the knowledge of Rachel Carson and the courage of Achilles individuals are making a difference for healthier oceans, rivers, watersheds and skies. Choose from eighteen podcast episodes of Moir's Environmental  Dialogues, Ocean River Shields of AchillesAlso available free on iTunes, search "Moir's" or "Achilles." 
  

Ocean River Institute
12 Eliot Street | Cambridge, MA 02138 | 617.661.6647