OPINION:
Against the backdrop of the Green New Deal and hand-wringing predictions of total global devastation within 12 years comes this, from the organization 4ocean — a way to do environmentalism that doesn’t rely on government regulation, U.N. treaties, shrieking politicians selling ridiculous emission cut-backs, or even taxpayer dollars.
Imagine that. Rather, it’s all about individual action and free market ingenuity.
What a concept.
Have you seen the television commercial? Have you checked out the website, 4ocean.com? Do.
“One ocean. One mission,” is the group’s guiding compass. “Let’s end the ocean plastic crisis together.”
Their backstory is breathtaking.
“The story begins when Alex [Schulze] and Andrew [Cooper] take a surf trip to Bali Indonesia,” reads the “about” section of the group’s website. “Devastated by the amount of plastic in the ocean, they set out to find out why no one was doing anything about it.”
One of their observations?
Village fishermen were physically pushing their boats through piles upon piles of washed-up plastic just to get to the water’s edge.
“The two surfers realized that the proliferation of plastic threatened both the ocean environment and the fishermen’s livelihood. Could the fishermen use their nets, they wondered, to pull the plastic from the ocean? This idea stuck,” the site went on, “and they knew it was time to hit the drawing board.”
But not to point fingers or demand others act on behalf of their crusade. And that’s what’s so remarkable.
Greenpeace, for example, would’ve sent out minions to block corporate-tied ocean liners.
The Earth Liberation Front would’ve blown something up, or chained members to trees. The Sierra Club would’ve sent its well-funded lobbyists to Capitol Hill to call in political favors and demand taxpayer clean-up dollars. The Environmental Defense Fund would’ve charged into high gear to get a lawsuit going.
And scores of other radical Green groups, from the Natural Resources Defense Council to the World Wide Fund for Nature to all the little offshoots that have sprung within states and localities tied to these big-name Green outlets would’ve ramped up their press presence, issued statements of condemnation, put out propaganda pieces about the poor village fishermen. Then would’ve come the Hollywood types, with their Republican-hating, President Donald Trump-blaming messages.
Yada, yada. You know the deal.
But not these two surfer dudes.
They didn’t “hit the drawing board” of politicization. They “hit the drawing board” of American ingenuity, combined with a good dose of free market capitalism.
“After realizing that the demand for seafood was driving the [village] fishermen to focus on fish instead of plastic, [Alex and Andrew] knew they had to create something that could fund the desired cleanup efforts. This is how the 4ocean Bracelet was born,” the site states. “Made with recycled materials, every bracelet purchased funds the removal of 1 pound of trash from the ocean and coastlines.”
In less than two years’ time, this surfer-started organization’s employees have successfully cleared the oceans of nearly 4.2 million pounds of trash.
Moreover, the ocean-cleaning is done entirely by private citizens serving as both staffers and volunteers to 4ocean, and by private dollars via sales, in large part, of its bracelets — bracelets that come backed by a guarantee. It’s a private sector success story in a Big Government era. It’s a ground-up, not top-down, approach that’s working wonders.
“Our One Pound Pledge to our customers is that 4ocean will remove one pound of trash for one bracelet purchased from the ocean and coastlines within 12 months from the time of purchase,” 4ocean writes, in a disclaimer.
And then this: “100% of our sales are directly or indirectly invested in our global ocean cleanup operation … cleanups, boats, employees, tools, equipment” and so forth.
Amazing. Accountability, even.
How refreshing. Two guys driven to act on behalf of the betterment of others, using the free market and personal creativity to solve a societal problem — and providing jobs and service opportunities for hundreds of others in the process.
Sounds like an American dream come true. Big Government types need not apply.
Truly, 4ocean deserves all the support free market, capitalist, conservative, patriots can provide. This is environmentalism, done properly. It’s a recipe all of Green America should be following.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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