On The Beach

There was no response from my letter to the Foundation.

Attempted to contact them numerous times.

Ignored.

To: Li Ka Shing Foundation

As you know Mr. Li Ka Shing began his business career in plastics.  He has stated in numerous interviews the importance of his plastic business in the development of his fortune: "I knew that plastics had a great future."Unfortunately his words are prophetic.

I am a filmmaker, journalist, artist and activist.  I currently live in Vancouver, British Columbia. I was recently in the state of Hawaii, the Big Island.  While there(presenting one of my films) I spent a number of weeks in the area called
Ka Lae, or "South Point".

Ka Lae is the most southerly point of the United States and it is believed that the first Polynesians to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands first arrived at Ka Lae somewhere between 400 and 800 A.D.   Ka Lae is registered as a National Historic Landmark District and as such is an important area in the national mind of the USA.

As you may know Hawaii is the most isolated population center on Earth. It is roughly 2,400 miles to the closest landmass (California)

It is also an area of Hawaii whose lovely beaches is covered with plastic flotsam that was combed from the wide Pacific.  Below some images of the immense amount of plastic garbage that arrives daily, hourly, monthly, yearly onto the shores of Hawaii and Ka Lae. During our time in Hawaii my wife and I devoted a number of days to picking up this trash and depositing it to a recycling centre.

Native Hawaiians have a concept called — wa'a (the canoe is an island, the island is a canoe) - it is the concept of responsibility for the environment. I ask that your organization take some responsibility for the state of the Pacific Ocean in terms of the immense amount of plastic trash that is choking it.  There are numerous agencies that in my opinion you should be funding and initiatives that you should be either assisting or starting. It is clear that LKSF was built out of the wealth generated from the world's need and desire for plastic products of all sort (including plastic flowers) I believe it is partly Mr. Li Ka Shing's responsibility to act to help clean the world from the scourge of dangerous plastic pollution in our oceans.  I would be happy to help you to further focus on what would be of most help.  

Certainly an effort should be made in relationship to daily cleansing of the beaches of  Ka Lae (the larger pieces of plastic often get thrown back to sea...as the further deteriorate they become much more dangerous for the health of the ocean and thus the health of the planet) and further support should be given to efforts to clean the great Pacific garbage patch. The garbage patch is composed of PLASTIC.

Eight million metric tons of plastic waste enter the marine environment each year lies on beaches as discarded items or broken-down microplastics.

On microplastics

and
Tiny microscopic animals called zooplankton are ingesting plastic particles at an alarming rate, according to a new study. That could not only pose a risk to salmon but also spell trouble for the entire aquatic food web -- from zooplankton to humpback whales

This article in SCIENCENEWS covers much of the issue and its importance.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/oceans-plastics-offer-floating-fortress-mess-microbes and speaks of groups and initiatives you should be funding!
and this article describes the importance of putting into place much more stringent efforts to prevent the release of plastic trash into the Pacific...
Waste collection and waste management systems must be put in place where they are needed most, in developing nations such as China, Indonesia and the Philippines where fast economic growth accompanied by increased waste is outpacing the capacity of infrastructure to manage this waste. In the longer term, we must rethink how we use plastics with respect to function and desired lifetime of products. At the end of its life, discarded plastic should be considered a resource for capture and reuse, rather than simply a disposable convenience.
IMAGES FROM KA LAE   {If there appears to be broken links...simply refresh your page. They should appear. Thanks!}