We will be returning to Midway again in February 2012 to film and witness hundreds of thousands of albatross babies hatching from their eggs, which our friends on the island say is one of the most beautiful sights on planet Earth. Our film is progressing well, with several exciting announcements coming soon. Stay tuned! ~Chris Jordan

This is a moment in time, a chance to witness and understand our role in an astonishing environmental tragedy. This is a place that provides context. Here, reflected in the beauty of the Albatross, is an unfolding horror. Yet it is a horror in which we see our own lives, a snapshot of our impact on the planet that challenges us to consider how to move forward.

Join us, on a breathtaking and emotional journey, into the heart of the Pacific, and into the heart of ourselves.

Production of the feature film “MIDWAY” continues through 2012.

Cinematography by Jan Vozenilek and Joe Schweers

Click here to view the trailer in HD
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GudEuDTrSLU&hd=1

Filmed by Victoria Sloan Jordan
Music by Christen Lien

The island will soon be covered with tens of thousands of carcasses like this, as the plastic-filled birds die from starvation, dehydration, and choking.

Video by: Jan Vozenilek

Music by: Christen Lien

Midway Journey members Chris Jordan, Manuel Maqueda, Jan Vozenilek and Bill Weaver reunited in May 2010 to attend the Media that Matters conference in Hollyhock, Cortes Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Music by Christen Lien

Video by Jan Vozenilek

A beach cleanup on Midway Atoll made us feel just like Sisyphus.

There are millions of tons of plastics present in our oceans, and these are constantly fragmenting into smaller and smaller pieces which are scattered throughout the water column and present, in different densities, throughout all the worlds oceans.

Contrary to what many people believe, there are no visible islands of trash anywhere –even if some areas, the gyres, accumulate higher densities of plastic pollution. In actuality, what is happening is much more complex and scary: our oceans are becoming a planetary soup laced with plastic.

To make thing worse, these tiny pieces of plastic are extremely powerful chemical accumulators for organic persistent pollutants present in ambient sea water such as DDE‘s and PCB‘s. The whole food chain, invertebrates, fish, sea turtles… are eating plastic and /or other animals who have plastic in them. This means that we are. Like the albatrosses on Midway, we carry the garbage patch inside of us.

Cleaning up this mess is not feasible, technically or economically. Even if all the boats in the world were put to the task somehow, the cleanup would not only remove the plastics but also the plankton, which is the base of the food chain, and is responsible for capturing half of the CO2 of our atmosphere and generating half of the oxygen we need to breathe.

But even if this problem was solved too somehow, the amount of plastic that we could capture, at an immense cost, would be a drop in the bucket as compared to the amount that flows into the ocean every day.

No matter how hard we push, in terms of technology or money, the boulder will be rolling back down the hill, throughout eternity, unless we stop putting more plastics into our environment.

The good news is that we can do this. We can do this now. We need to start a social movement that spreads virally and creates a critical mass of concerned citizens who pledge to move away from our disposable habits, and who raise their voice to reject and reverse a throwaway culture that might be profitable, but whose consequences are intolerable.

Video by Jan Vozenilek
Written and narrated by: Manuel Maqueda
Music by Christen Lien www.itsnotaviolin.com

Click here to see a satellite image of the exact location of this video (click on ‘view map’ and zoom all the way in.)

But amidst all this beautiful Midway magic, Manuel and Chris find that a closer look easily reveals one of the planets biggest hidden threats.

-Jan Vozenilek.

(Video narrated by Manuel Maqueda)

Español: La isla de Midway está rodeada por un impresionante arrecife de coral.  En su costa septentrional, las aguas añiles besan un kilómetro de arenas blancas.

Pero en medio de esta mágica belleza, Manuel y Chris se dan cuenta que una mirada más detallada revela una de las mayores amenazas del planeta.

Vídeo de Jan Vozenilek

Transcripción en español de la narración de Manuel Maqueda

“Hoy hemos llegado a a Midway, y lo primero que hemos hecho tras recibir nuestra charla de orientación ha sido ir a la playa. Al llegar, nos hemos quedado sobrecogidos al contemplar la belleza del lugar y los colores increíbles…. Si embargo, se nos vino el alma a los pies al comprobar que la línea que deja marea alta estaba enteramente cubierta de plástico.  Este trozo de botella ha sido mordisqueado por los peces, está lleno de dentelladas.  Los peces están comiendo plástico, y si ellos los comen, también nosotros.  Y no sólo hay objetos grandes, tambien trocitos diminutos de plástico por todas partes. Si se presta atención, uno se da cuenta que, mezclados con la arena, hay trocitos de plástico por todas partes.  Es increíble pensar que esto ocurre con cada una de las mareas que llegan a esta playa.  Un síntoma del enorme problema que tenemos con el plástico en nuestros mares.

He visto muestras de plástico de la Gran Mancha de Basura del Pacífico y llevo tiempo hablando de este problema y concienciando a la gente, pero al estar aquí, en un lugar tan remoto y tan bello y darme cuenta de lo terrible de la situación…, no ya saberlo, sino verlo con mis propios ojos…. es descorazonador.   Pero me alegro de estar aquí, porque venimos para hacer algo al respecto.”