Okay, since nobody else has replied I'll stick my foot in it...
The video is well produced and does a good job of explaining what a baseline is. For those of us who've grown up in the NW or know the local history, we already have a kind of short-term baseline. The changes are heartbreaking. Just to name a few: loss of the salmon runs, smelt runs, and frequent red-tide/toxin warnings. I often wonder what it would have been like to dive here back in the 1800's when the Indians were scooping up salmon at Bonneville with nets (maybe back then a few salmon lost to hungry sea lions wouldn't have mattered, eh?).
So you know that I agree. Now I'm really going to stir the crab pot...
I suspect that most of the readers of this board -- and many in the NW -- are already eco-conscientious; they're probably "thinking green" and not likely to dump their Prius' motor oil into the Sound. In essence, the video is preaching to the choir. As an example, if the caffeine we drink gets flushed down the toilet and ends up in the ocean, what should we do? This is an argument for better sewage treatment technology, not guilt-tripping coffee addicted sods like myself who use the drug to combat SAD [chuckle here].
What I'm leading up to is that (IMO) it seems we need to 1) identify what would improve the environmental quality of Puget Sound most effectively (best bang for the buck), and 2) make it easily possible for all people, not just us eco-friendly latte-drinking bubble-blowers, to do the right thing, environmentally-speaking. To be blunt, all the videos in the world aren't going to help unless we have the
political will and
economic motivation to improve things. Perhaps the Puget Sound Partnership would agree?
Alright, I'll get off my soapbox. Now maybe you can help me. It turns out that I'm currently taking an oceanography course, and there is an upcoming project wherein I have to write a position paper urging action on an environmental issue affecting Puget Sound, citing sources from peer-reviewed journals. I already have something in particular in mind, but if you have an environmental pet-peeve that you think should be addressed by a group like PSP please let me know -- I'm open to suggestion.
glenn