The future is coming, so dream big and hope its not a nightmare.

It's not my place so who cares. Sadly many travelers are more worried about themselves than they are about our environment. This has been a trend I see more and more over the years.

At the Reef Lodge Backpackers in Townsville we are trying to do our best for the environment and help to reduce our waist. All our lighting is energy efficient and we are now going over to LED, as well our taps, toilets and showers have water saving devices or disc's and we have placed signs in all our rooms with air-conditioning asking to consider the environment. We use biodegradable cleaning products and try to minimize the wastage of old linen, towel and cloths that are left here and send them off to be recycled.

Sadly when I look around, often I find people have checked into a room, turned on the air-conditions only to be sitting in the room with the doors and windows open. (Waste of energy.) People check into a room and turn on the a/c before they go out all day. 10 or 12 hours later they come back (Waste of energy) Not to mention the dollar cost in running these unites.

Its also the small things that I see like the people throwing rubbish out of their vans and cars and leaving it in the gutters, streets and storm water drains. This is not so bad in the dry season as most of it but not all, gets picked up by the street sweeper. Although, in the wet season it all gets washed into the Ross river and out to sea.

Trouble is its the little things that cause the biggest problems as illustrated by the bird above. Small pieces of plastic, caps, cigarette butts all contributed to this poor birds agonizing death. So next time you throw the tiny lid off a container, bottle top, broken pen remember, it ends up in the drain so think about these animals you are helping to kill.


Here are some stats on a small bit of litter I often see thrown in the gutter or on the street. Over 32 billion cigarettes are smoked in Australia each year. If the butts from these cigarettes were placed end to end, they would circle the planet 16 times. 

The nicotine trapped inside 200 used filters may be sufficient to kill a 160 pound adult human - 30 to 60 milligrams.  Imagine a month without rain followed by a brief thunderstorm that washes 500,000 nicotine laden canoes - enough to kill 2,500 humans - into creeks and streams.  Aquatic life at the bottom of the food chain can pay a deadly price. But so can fish who mistake butts for food or birds who use them for nesting material.  Nicotine isn't the only villain as trapped tars and toxic gases leach into waterways too. 

Thank you to the URL below for these states :o(

http://www.oxygen.org.au/hardfacts/tobacco-and-the-environment 
http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Butts.html

 This turtle has obviously got stuck in a 6 pack beer tin holder and sadly growing up has caused it growth distortion due to the restriction around its middle.

 This shark has also got caught in a piece of rubbish up around its gills and head cutting into it flesh as grows. the shark will at some point die due to it predicament.

This young turtle was caught up in a small insignificant piece of fishing net. Think of the distress and pain this poor creature is in.

Our planet is being consumed by waste

 Sadly we only have one home and we are living on it. Its called Earth, so lets try and help her out. If you have the chance of reducing the wastage. Then do it!

http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-news/ocean-trash-plaguing-our-sea

It is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or the Seventh World Continent. It is the largest garbage dump in the world, and it floats on the Pacific Ocean .
http://www.ecopol.it/rassegna-stampa/?lang=en