Today I set out for the islands around Nha Trang with a boat and a guide. The goal was snorkeling, but the weather was foul and I didn’t last too long in the 65 degree-water (it is colder by the outer islands). The photo shows a local fisherman in a round bamboo boat - something unique to Vietnam I think - used for getting to and from shore.
After my brief dip in the ocean, my guide took me to a floating fishing village where people live in huts lashed to fish pens out on the water.
It was very pleasant until I saw a woman toss a plastic ramen soup wrapper and an empty can of condensed milk straight into the ocean. Apparently, she has been disposing of her trash this way for 30 years. I am afraid this attitude – “so long as it goes away from ME” – is far too common here, based on what the locals tell me and what I have seen (see prior blog entry “A Plastic World”). So we do our beach cleanups and ban plastic bags in California, and nitpick every piece of litter, and on the other side of the world, people are deliberately adding plastic to the ocean. I nearly feel silly as carefully peel the plastic cellophane from the cap of my water bottle and find a trash bin for it, since everyone just discards things like that onto the ground. But how do I come to a country and preach environmental principles to people who are eking out a living anyway they can?
No comments:
Post a Comment