Our Fragile Seas

Although my home base is San Francisco, I spend many months of the year in Latin America. The past few years I've been living part-time in Salvador, Brazil. Salvador is Brazil's fourth largest city. It is beautiful and historic but suffers from all of the ills associated with poverty and poor environmental planning.

I most notice Salvador's environmental pollution when I walk along its beaches and swim in the warm South Atlantic waters off its shore. On some isolated beaches where bathers don't congregate the sand is littered with garbage, plastic bags, syringes and other debris washed ashore by storms. When swimming in the water I'm likely to see plastic bags and styrofoam containers float by. It is tragic to see such tropical beauty marred by so much garbage. Imagine how all of that waste affects the water quality, plant and animal life in the oceans. Salvador is just one large city. Multiply Salvador by millions and we can see the impact that man-made pollution has on our fragile oceans.

Greenpeace is at the forefront of protecting our seas and working to stop environmental damage to the oceans and the life they support. Won't you join us in making a donation to Greenpeace's vitally important work?