BLUE PLANET ALMANAC™

Addicted to Plastic, showing on Sundance Channel

Aired on the Sundance Channel, the excellent Addicted to Plastic caught our eye. But although Addicted to Plastic’s vaguely apocalyptic, 12-Step title made us nervous, producer and director Ian Connacher crafted a thoughtful, well-researched foray into THE cultural phenomenon which has permeated every aspect of our lives and bodies. Addicted to Plastic is even fun at some points to watch. So, breathe easy, Monsanto and Dow Chemical, we’re not comin’ to get ‘ya. We just decided to find out why fish, plankton and us have plastics in our tissues.

Connacher adventured across 12 countries, five continents and many oceans to bring us these fascinating stories. To hear the exciting, real-life discoveries behind Connacher’s making of this film and its research – including his leap of faith in quitting his position with Discovery Canada to make it – be sure to tune-in this coming Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 to HealthyLife.net. Listen to the next installment of Blue Planet Almanac as host Mike Austin interviews Connacher live.

Ian Connacher, director and producer

Most of us take plastic for granted, and expect it to be involved in literally everything we do. Think about it. And that’s one of Connacher’s primary points in the telling of the story. Plastic came to us via our mid-20th century interests in the science of a better life. It has been a boon to our existence, and has also proved itself to be our curse to our long-term fortunes because of unanticipated side effects to our very health, and of course, the health of the Earth. Enter Ian Connacher and his pleasant suggestions about the means to solve plastics pollution.

But the coolest thing about Connacher’s take on plastic isn’t that he’s trying to make us suffer through yet another dystopian vision of what we’ve done to ourselves through the miracles of modern chemistry. Instead that he thoughtfully considers sustainable solutions throughout the film. To which we’d respond with a variety of salutary, happy and even politely profane exclamations. We’d even wave a lit, steel-bodied cigarette lighter his way.

a fellow addict from a distant land preserves their identity

From Cryptic Moth Production’s media release, “Addicted to Plastic is a feature-length documentary about solutions to plastic pollution… The film details plastic’s path over the last 100 years and provides a wealth of expert interviews on practical and cutting edge solutions to recycling, toxicity and biodegradability. These solutions – which include plastic made from plants – will provide viewers with a hopeful perspective about our future with plastic.”

Covered in Connacher’s Addicted to Plastic, is the world’s newest, largest and most unintentional dump, The Pacific Ocean’s Eastern Garbage Patch. Across the Web it’s A.K.A.: trash in ocean size of Texas,  garbage patch like Texas,  garbage patch,  Good Morning America Great Pacific garbage patch,  Texas sized trash in ocean, garbage in the ocean size of Texas and Oprah garbage patch the size of Texas.

the documentarian in his native habitat

And this isn’t Connacher’s first rodeo, and it shows he knows what he’s doing. From his bio: “For more than 10 years, Ian Connacher has been documenting solutions to environmental issues. He has written for various newspapers and magazines including Shift, Canadian Geographic and The Globe and Mail. He also co-founded Earth Change Productions, which distributed a documentary on climate change solutions to schools and libraries in 2000.

In 2001, Ian produced segments for CBC’s SUNDAY show and then spent 5 years producing segments for the science show DAILY PLANET on Discovery Canada. In 2005, Ian founded Cryptic Moth Productions and produced a short film entitled ALPHABET SOUP, which chronicles a scientific voyage to an ocean vortex where plastic debris accumulates. This was the inspiration for Cryptic Moth’s latest project, ADDICTED TO PLASTIC.”