to do ten and speak at a revolutionary event called the media festival there i not only got to promote the show but i also got to talk about the importance of bridging art and activism and on top of that i sat down with two awesome comedians and modern day philosophers joe rogan and duncan trussell for their epic podcasts is a crazy ride but now i'm back and i'm ready to break the set. a little. for she made me feel like. it's no secret that we live in a fast paced consumer society want to reproduce a gargantuan amount of waste every year a large majority of that garbage is plastic just take plastic bags for example humans use one trillion of them every year according to campaign reuse it that means every minute one million plastic bags are being discarded it's a staggering statistic that compelled my next guest to work with plastic bags an

artistic medium and for over fifteen years she has created various installations turning this hideous product into something beautiful her fascination with the material letter to research more about plastic and how its waste has become an environmental a demick one so large it prompted her to create an organization dedicated to raising awareness about the issue her name is diana cohen is a visual artist and the co-founder of the plastic pollution coalition and she joins me now dion i thank you so much for coming on. thank you for having me abby so i saw your ted talk i was really inspired by it and i'm really thankful for you to come on and shed some light on this i think that many people do not realize how plastic doesn't ever go away and you talk about the process by which plastic breaks down. share so i'm not a scientist i'm a visual artist so just to clarify but from what i've come to learn about plastic in particular from working with it as material in my artwork plastic breaks down into smaller bits photo degrades but that's about all it is and we now are are

guesstimating the amount of time that a plastic bottle or a plastic bag or a plastic cup will be with us on the earth it's something that's designed with an intention of intended obsolescence to be use single use disposable e. one time but in fact it will last potentially for hundreds and hundreds of years terrifying reality their use of coal in the great pacific garbage patch an island is a misnomer what is it really and how expansive are these plastic build the build ups everywhere. well what we've got happening in the oceans and this is pretty interesting if you look at the oceans on the globe there are eleven different gyres systems around the world and these are natural accumulations spinning kind of currents wind wave currents which cause things that end up in the ocean to to accumulate in a certain particular area for example the great pacific garbage patch which is also referred to as the north eastern pacific garbage patch for the north eastern gyre

pacific gyre. it's slowly happened over the years that we've been using these different materials that things begin to accumulate but it's actually an area that's spread out it's over two thousand square miles so it's you can't call it an island it's not an island it's plastic not just floating up the surface but also under the surface and all the strata of the water down on the ocean floor we actually have no idea how much is there i remember you say. twenty years ago a research team went and saw in the bottom of the ocean floor was covered in plastic bags i can't even imagine what it is now i mean that was twenty years ago that i was actually that was actually about twenty two years ago and it was in the sea of japan and it was two marine biologists dr sylvia earle and dr greg stone and they were taking turns going down in a one man or woman submit submersible and greg stone told me that when he got to the ocean floor about eighteen thousand feet he looked around it was covered with

plastic garbage bags yeah i mean that's just a devastating thing to know what is this plastic buildup doing specifically to marine life well it's doing a multitude of things to marine life one it's polluting the oceans so you go to the beach and you see plastic washed up it's our new sand that we have is a kind of plastic sand it's also being it's strangling marine life and it's being unjust and by it so for example that fish that just went by was caught by our friend dr marcus air erik's and he's the founder of five gyres along with his partner and wife commons and he caught that fish caught it open to eat it when he was drift sailing from long beach to hawaii and found that had seventeen little tiny pieces of plastic and it's intestines so what we're finding is a lot of marine birds are ingesting the plastic they're being fed it by their parents laced and albatross other animals are becoming entangled in it we're finding a large amount of plastic in the intestines of marine turtles in whales in dolphins

and the other big problem about this is not just that animals are dying from ingesting the plastic or from getting tangled up in a six pack rings strangled by it fishing line must fish netting now that is used by fishermen is also made out of plastic as opposed to used to be made out of natural fibers and things like that so aside from entanglement and then ingestion what we're also finding happening to. pasta in the marine environment is that it is accumulating other persistent organic pollutants to the surface so you can take one tiny little ball it's like a pretty consumer plastic piece of plastic they're called nergal's and it's what pasta looks like it's like a tiny teeny actually i brought some is a tiny teeny little bottles so i have it in the jar and this is sand from a beautiful beach that from a distance looks pristine it's called renga toto it's an island off the coast of auckland new zealand and this is full of these little tiny particles and if you

look at one of these what happens potentially with a nerd all which are these little tiny balls holding one up i don't even know if you can. zoom in there but there are. but they're very very small and they look like fish eggs or they look like fish so what ends up happening is these can accumulate up to a million times the p.o.p. is the persistent organic pollutants that washington ocean on the surface so you can there's a professor in japan named dr kata who's studying these and what he's found is it can have. pharmaceuticals attach to the surface it can have. any kinds of pesticides everything that runs off into the ocean will collect on us or horses when we eat seafood of course we're in just in these talks and that the cumulated through the plastic ingestion of these creatures i wanted to get to obviously the most obvious question of all why can't we clean it up i mean you know whenever i talk about this issue to people that's the first question what's going on it's

funny because when my artwork started to break down and i began to become aware and open my mind to this problem around me it's like your eyes are suddenly open the minute you realise that there's something really going on which is all the plastic that we've created doesn't actually go away all a very small percentage that's less than twenty three percent in the united states for all the plastic we use is actually being recycled and if you look at that for the world it's it's actually quite abysmal so we're not actually recycling. which we call down cycling which is degrading it turning it into something lesser than it was before we're not actually doing that very effectively and that's because we don't necessarily have the infrastructure in a lot of cities and towns and countries to take back the plastic and reuse it so what ends up happening is. we are also in justing chemicals that are used to manufacture these plastic so in order to make plastic transparent for example or supple or malleable we. can of course that are called sally it's

a whole group of chemicals or you may have heard of this final a hey this is b.p.a. free so what does what's being used now instead of b.p.a. is it b.p. b b p c b p z these are all chemicals that are known to function as hormone disruptors and little bits of them leach into all of the food that we eat that's packaged in plastic plastic bottles plastic cups plastic containers polystyrene gives off a neurotoxin all this stuff so ok come back to this idea of cleaning it up i think my original idea too was to go out with a boat and start picking it up because i imagined that it was an island i imagine that it was this destination that i could arrive at and begin to collect it and do something with it but it turns out that that's not the case it turns out that in all of the oceans in the world what we're finding is more of a plastic soup and that the plastic is not just at the surface of the water it's in all the strata floating beneath through the strata of the water and on the ocean floors all the animals cultivate their habitats throughout the plastic soup and you

know i as i'm sure you know a nineteen year old named boy in slabs developed a cleaning device that he says could clean up seven million tons of trash in the ocean i mean is this summer mining here could really start to make an impact with something like this and people who want to learn more and get involved what they what can they do to help ok so those are two questions that i think that i think that this young man is obviously a very talented engineer and i don't want to dissuade anyone from the idea that they can clean it up or come up with a technology. based solution for this problem the more i have learned about this situation personally and from speaking to a dozen different groups that have been going out and doing trial samples and studying the plastic situation in the ocean and in multiple gyre systems multiple oceans i don't believe that this is something that we can sweep up with a machine i think it's too simplistic an idea but i wish him all the best and i think it's great i think we need to work on this problem from every different perspective in order to solve it at the same time there's

a growing global movement our coalition plastic pollution coalition which we founded in the end of two thousand and nine is now made up of over three hundred thirty n.g.o.s and businesses around the world who are all working on different aspects of this problem to stop plastic pollution and it's toxic impacts on humans and animals the environment the ocean so people are welcome to join we have a very lively facebook following on twitter our twitter is our plastic pollutes our facebook as plastic pollution coalition and you guys have already made enormous waves throughout different cities municipalities have actually taken really strong initiatives to help stop plastic usage because we really do need to ban together and stop this from growing thank you so much for coming on breaking down this incredibly important issue deanna cohen visual artist co-founder plastic pollution coalition thank you very much thanks.

so guys i just got back from an incredible trip to los angeles i went there to attend the media festival an annual event that bridges the artistic and activist communities together to inspire positive change throughout the course of the day the are multiple speakers musical performances and artists that work in an artist an activist myself it was an honor to relay my message and the message of this show to the hundreds of people that attended here's a snippet of the talk i gave while there. we want to know your system which. has conditioned us to consider as something and tina as something on your own triple as a rich man's hobby like president bush. our. only artistic expression imagination which goes hand in hand we need vision better and more. if you're not something it is her responsibility to express

that passion reflected in the event that speaks most. solaris for all of you to heed the great he's. in a world so corrupt with so much justice is it not aren't you to reflect the ugly truth seems to feed the very institutions that want to suppress it is not our duty to imagine something greater that we know what was possible all deserve so they save the planet that mission to change inspiring the world as amazing as it was to speak to such an energetic crowd i was equally excited to talk to some of the greatest minds behind the media revolution tyrrel than terrorism one of them is not only the son of jesse ventura but he's also paving the way in new media with a show called buzz saw i asked him why he thinks art has the ability to push movement and here's what he had to say. braveheart comes great change cultures will always go to our first when they want to learn about themselves you know sometimes

news can be dry or you know dark and depressing and sometimes nor to learn about the human experience you have to order certain there to tell us what the human experience is but it's not just about how our can relate powerful political messages through symbolism it's also about how we can use our imagination to mold art in its most natural form and that's exactly what psych eyes founder peter joseph elaborated on. if you look at nature in the system it is this. as this. kind of sculpture it's a mold we've slowly become we've been able to learn about it and unlike any other species in the world we can shape it so we can actually engage the world create it in altruria or make it to our betterment or we can use it about actively engaging with each other and harmonizing with the earth the cultivate a better future i left this festival with a greater understanding of this notion and how it can be achieved together but it wasn't only the ideas that impacted me it was all the people that i met there from

all walks of life who showed enormous love and support for this show and its message so thank you for all the inspiration gave me a new strain and reminded me why i'm here every day. mainstream media scare in america again i call them out for not knowing. and realize. i'm.

building a new. mission to teach music. this is why you should. only. be british. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cause a report on our team.

that speak. to you. guys did you hear the corporate media has officially issued a worldwide terror alert. u.s.

officials are warning that they have in the shop at a high volume of chatter that in case a major attack may be in the works likely at the hands of a.q. a.p. this comes as the agency shuts down embassies and consulates in nineteen cities in the mideast and africa for the rest of the week dozens of u.s. intelligence analysts have been urgently scouring databases telephone intercepts and web sites for clues creating renewed fears that the terror group may be planning for an attack again. the u.s. and western interests wow what i was getting flashbacks from after nine eleven constant media fear mongering about terrorism even though americans are more likely to die from furniture falling on them what bombing campaign or civil liberties or wrote in this newest terrorist threat is tracked distracting us from so basically what the media is saying is that americans should be on high alert constant standby for an act of terrorism and be in constant fear but of course we don't actually know why or the basis of where this is even coming from and here's the catch hidden

under all that terror is the fact that what the u.s. has been doing is launching drone strikes in yemen at the same time courting the associated press there have already been four strikes in less than two weeks interestingly enough the corporate media is alluding to the fact that drone strikes are increasing because of this terror threat but has anyone considered that that logic might be completely backwards here's a thought maybe just maybe the uptick in u.s. drone attacks is actually encouraged allocated to target american embassies after all every drone that kills innocent people serves as a tool to radicalize the communities those people are a part of so even if this latest and greatest threat is a legitimate should we really be surprised of course that point isn't addressed by the press because keep in mind here's. yet here's the new sex apparently keeping

people afraid is better than keeping them informed because we sure as hell won't be seeing this on the corporate news testimony from a young many youth activists who spoke right here before congress about how drone strikes are terrorism and how his village lives in fear of them on a daily basis. when they think of america they've been going. over that had fired missiles and you thought it was a violent militants. to achieve one drones that i accomplished and the system it is now and then some good against america and you stop. this is not an isolated and in a sense the drone strikes of the face of america to many enemies yet yemenis america has become synonymous with predator drones so here's a question do they get nationwide terror alerts when u.s. drones are flying overhead about to destroy their lives.

sufficiently been two months since the first n.s.a. leaks were made by whistleblower edward snowden well we've seen so far is a rare glimpse into the extent of the u.s. government's massive spying grid since the first news broke it's been a revelation of to revelation and it seems like every day another layer of secrecy is being pulled back most recently learned the n.s.a. is data collection is also reaching out into other government agencies namely the drug enforcement agency yet documents uncovered by reuters found a disturbing link between the n.s.a.'s data mining network and a secretive unit of the v.a. called the special operations division or so d. what was discovered was that the s o d agents not only have access to the grid but that they have been specifically directed to cover up the use of surveillance as a source of evidence when finally in the legal reports this means that they're

being told to lie about accessing n.s.a. data check this out one of the documents reportedly given to all members of the secret da group actually says this says remember that the utilization of as though d. can not be revealed or discussed in any investigative function you know i thought for sure there was some sort of law on plays or some sort of document overwrite the constitution so this is a plea that little part about a right to a fair trial which includes knowing just how an agency obtains evidence against you . but that's the whole point isn't it if the da is legally immune. i'm revealing how they gather evidence there is no way to know if a person was targeted by mistake or worse a victim of entrapment entrapment being more common than not these days i think that the concept of the da having free rein to n.s.a. data is terrifying for a little bit more about why you should care but the true extent of unwarranted

surveillance i'm joined by b.d.s. producer menomonie offload welcome back to. this show you did a great analogy made it home for the better only. barely so what is the deal here manny because you know i thought the d.l. i didn't but i'm just saying hypothetical now that i'm watching this i thought they were fighting crime and fighting the war on drugs i thought they were looking for a drug dealers and common criminals so serve well known well we're not just talking about the da we're talking about a division within the dea a which is the special operations division right so what exactly they're doing is a question. on its own really what it boils down to is that yes the you know it's expected that agencies are going to have some sort of communications between between each other and share certain information but what we're learning from this from this latest revelation is this thing called parallel construction these guys are being told to cover up where they're finding their surveillance and that's

really the scariest part of about this is that it's an agency that we that we kind of associate with catching common criminals catching drug dealers and they're having access to things that are generally reserved for national security matters i just love that this is in writing. don't tell anyone what you're doing or where you're getting this information from just violation after violation after violation and it's really astounding talk a little bit more about parallels construction and why it's unconstitutional right this is this is exactly the point i think that the best way that i've seen this broken down is that when you think of how surveillance is working in not only in the united states right now but around the world under and a say and under prism is that you have. you have one. massive data collection place so the d.a. in this specific instance is able to either get a tip from an anonymous source that this is happening sure that this this fits in as well but they're also able to intercept some sort of communication whether it be telecommunication with a b. a message that you sent online they intercept that they have that information and

then make it then make a phone call to local law enforcement and tell him look we know something's going to happen make this routine traffic stop because you're going to find something the cops find something they're able to arrest this the suspect you know maybe there's contraband maybe they're stuck somewhere but the investigation then begins at that traffic stop and the investigation doesn't look back to the surveillance or the spying or where they were able to get that tip in the first place the investigation begins at that routine strapped traffic stop so not only that but that specific information of where they were able to get this evidence from is being held from the defense attorneys of a suspect not only a defense attorney but a prosecutor and a judge so right off the bat there goes your free trial right there goes your fair trial sorry a so i mean right right away as soon as you're able to legally with immunity withhold evidence from the prosecution and the defense and the judge i mean you know there's total disregard for the constitution and that in itself is parallel construction that's that's this latest revelation and that's i think being

overlooked because i don't know because it's just the latest revelations just another layer of this craziness and really what happened again you know what happened a problem because i mean it's so unbelievable that they can do this and you know i never really heard about this agency within the d.a. before i mean do we know really anything else about the agency how extensive is it we do know this isn't the revelation isn't that we're suddenly finding out about the special operations division s o d they've been around since the since the ninety's since one thousand nine hundred three to be exact they were doing counter narcotics in latin america at the time but really what we're finding out about their collusion with the n.s.a. and their connections with governor government aid. is that s o d s actually not just the d s o d is comprised of several different units so about two dozen that includes cia the f.b.i. the n.s.a. and a lot of what they do unfortunately is under the name of national security so we don't really know what they're up to and that's another problem when in and of itself is

that we're living in a time of overclassification that it over classification is another is another aspect of the surveillance state that's a crime and not a lot of people realize that wouldn't when you perfect examples what's going on to people like bradley manning where he revealed classified documents will should that have been classified in the first place that's a that's a question that we should be asking and whether or not whether or not he's a traitor for revealing classified information is why was that information classified in the first place and i think it's important to note that you know the more information that comes out about the more agencies that have access to this unconstitutional blanket dragnet of survey. data and not just make it out of course we know that there's more than just that they've been lying to us but it's just susceptible to hacked to be accessed by foreign bodies by people who are criminals i mean all of our information is so vulnerable right now and the fact that it's being a shared amongst government agencies outside of even the and say is just so dribbles on many we have about thirty seconds left but we just learned about x. keyscore how does that take all of this to

a new level it's surely we were just coming to you were saying oh people are just seeing this revelation it's starting to become diluted the conversation is really start to become diluted because it's just another revelation but we just last week or the week before we learned about x. keyscore and the way x. keyscore works alongside prism is that if you think of prism as a hard drive in the way you're able to search for a file in your hard drive x. keyscore is able to do a search that pinpoints things without actually typing a keyboard the guardian posted a very perfect example if you're in a region of the world with that speaks english and you're speaking farsi and it's going to pick that up whether it's a telephone communication whether it's an e-mail whether. it's twitter so i mean this is really the extent of the survey and i'm sure more and more will come out thank you will definitely be keeping on top of it thanks many appreciate it. that's it guys for today thanks for watching as always have a great atmosphere at backing them up. to.

six months of bomb destroyed. one ton the most still open still hungry. special coverage. all told me my language as well but i will only react to situations i haven't read the reports so i'm not in a position to the know i will leave them to the state department to comment on your latter point of the month to say to mr kerry you have a car is on the docket no god. no thank you no more weasel words. when you they had a direct question be prepared for a change when you throw a punch be ready for a battle freedom of speech and down to freedom to crush.

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