Guest Essay by Kip Hansen
Palko Karasz, writing in the New York Times, with a degree of insensitivity bordering on blatant intentional libel, reports: “Come for the beaches, say tourism ads for the Dominican Republic. But it has some beaches you might want to skip right now. The Caribbean nation is known for sapphire seas and ivory beaches, but it is grappling with waves of garbage washing up on its shores, a vivid reminder of the presence of thousands of tons of plastic in the world’s oceans.”
The NY Times article is “Wave After Wave of Garbage Hits the Dominican Republic”, published yesterday in the Times’ AMERICAS section. There are photos of a massive shore clean-up, with government employees raking up huge piles of floating plastic trash mixed with seaweed. Most of the article is based on a rabidly biased blog post from an anti-plastics activist group Parley for the Oceans.
It appears, at a quick glance, that Karasz has allowed himself to be gamed into the story by Parley for the Oceans. Karasz is “a digital editor for The New York Times, based in the London newsroom. He is part of a digital team that covers live news, including recent terrorist attacks and elections across Europe.” Environmental news is not his beat…the Caribbean is not his beat….oceanic plastic is not his beat.
Karasz is gamed first and foremost into including “Those piles [referring to the piles of trash in the photos below], most notably the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” are usually far from human settlements, to say nothing of resort destinations.” Karasz’ link leads to another misleading NY Times article from earlier in the year, featuring blow-ups of Petri dishes full of itty-bitty pieces of plastic — the shocking finds of a study that finally included the weight of floating masses of lost fishing nets in the calculations, allowing them to claim “The ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ Is Ballooning, 87,000 Tons of Plastic and Counting”.
The proper reference for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is NOAA’s “How Big Is the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”? Science vs. Myth” — whose iconic authoritative answer is “There is no “garbage patch,”.
Here’s a collage of the photos offered by The Times:
Notice that the story isn’t “Massive Clean-up underway on Santo Domingo Beaches”– instead Karasz echoes Parley for the Oceans blog post nearly word for word — Parley describes Playa Montesionos as an “apocalyptic scene – wave after wave of plastic debris rolling in at Montesinos Beach in the capital, Santo Domingo“ language mirrored by Karasz in the title of his NY Times piece. Karasz then goes on, falling into the trap, with “But instead of visitors relaxing on Montesinos Beach in the capital, Santo Domingo, there has been an altogether different scene, one unlikely to wind up on a postcard: Hundreds of city workers and volunteers who have been waging an uphill battle against wave after wave of sludgy garbage.” Oh, really?
Where is Montesinos Beach?
Playa Montesinos is a little patch of sand built up on the breakwater that protects the cargo ship docks of Santo Domingo — one can drive down next to the fence by the docks — which are heavily guarded. Truck drivers congregate here to eat their lunches while waiting to enter the docks to pick up cargo. In the following blow-up, you can see the white-roof on the left side — the upscale restaurant “D’ Luis Parrillada”.
You will see no lounging tourists and see the beach as it usually is — clean and beautiful. [ These satellite images are taken at random and picked for publication based on their being cloud free.] I have parked where the cars are on the right, waiting to be able to enter the dock area and pick up a life raft that had been shipped to us. I have eaten in the restaurant. This part of town (north of the playa) is Colonial Santo Domingo, with lots of beautiful buildings going back hundreds of years and well worth visiting. It is not, however, near any tourist hotels and the beach is normally as you see it above, empty of people.
The Dominican Republic is a “developing nation” — meaning that is has all the problems and difficulties of other developing nations, including problems as simple as “picking up and disposing of the trash”. The Dominican Republic is in the path of tropical storms and hurricanes, that regularly sweep over Santo Domingo dropping an average of 57 inches of rain a year.
When those torrents of rain come down, they sweep the streets of the slums up-river into the Ozama and its tributaries, washing into the river all the plastic refuse and trash on the streets, many of the houses of the poor, and sometimes whole neighborhoods. Everything that floats comes downstream and enters the ocean between the Naval Officers Club on the east and the cargo docks on the west. The winds and waves are both normally from the south, and blow all the floating material onto the beach — not just at Montesinos, but all along the generally rocky shore of the city of Santo Domingo. The trash gets mixed with the floating seaweed that is driven ashore by the same forces.
Karasz does quote one Dominican “The plastic waste washing onto Montesinos Beach comes from the Ozama River, which flows into the Caribbean nearby”, one of those in charge of the cleanup, Gen. Rafael Antonio Carrasco, told Reuters.” [More correctly, the quote if from Brigadier General Rafael Antonio Carrasco Paulino, the executive director of the Civil Defense.]
Relying on Cyrill Gutsch, the founder of Parley for the Oceans, who is based in New York, Karasz parrots “It happens pretty much all the time if there is a strong rainfall or a storm,…The phenomenon is not confined to the Dominican Republic, and can be seen in many developing nations with a coastline. “Everybody uses the rivers and the beaches as dump sites.” and “What is happening in the Dominican Republic is only a small symptom of the larger global problem”, Mr. Gutsch said. Plastic dumped in and near rivers washes into the ocean, and only a small percentage bounces back onto shore. The majority makes it to the high seas.”
Based on my personal experience living in the Dominican Republic for ten years, it is absolutely untrue that “Everybody uses the rivers and the beaches as dump sites.” While there is a tendency to be a “little loose with litter” and municipal trash and garbage pickup systems leave a lot to be desired, none of the governmental entities actually use rivers or beaches as “dump sites” — anyone caught using a beach as a dump site would be arrested if reported. Neither does the Domincan Republic allow the dumping municipal trash “in or near” rivers. Sanitary land fills in the DR may not quite up be to US or European standards, but every effort is made within their economic reach to be responsible.
The assertion by Cyrill Gutsch that “only a small percentage bounces back onto shore. The majority makes it to the high seas” is unsupported by evidence and certainly is not true for the Caribbean which I sailed up and down for years — there is very little floating plastic off-shore — sighting anything big enough to see with the naked eye is an “event” often leading to changing course to get close enough to check out the identity of floating entities. We did see, on one occasion shortly after a hurricane, a refrigerator sans door, floating 50 miles offshore.
So, despite what this one activist organization publishes, and games a London-based NY Times journalist into repeating, here’s what the beaches of the Dominican Republic really look like — “scout’s honor” — I have been to each of these many times and always found them just as pictured:
Sosua Beach — North Shore (I lived in Sosua for a year, while my youngest son, now a Captain, attended an International High School):
Bavaro Beach — a beautiful, all-inclusive report on the East Shore:
Macao Beach — East Shore:
Playa Rincon – faces the Atlantic on the north side of Samana Peninsula:
And then there is this beautiful, rarely visited prefect pink sand beach called Playa El Valle — facing the Atlantic:
The two “businesses” shown by Google Maps demonstrate the entrepreneurship of the Dominican people. They are, in reality, just two beach shacks — one nominally a “bar and grill” and the other a “restaurant” at which Josefina will fix you a meal, if she’s there. Although not an authorized port for foreign vessels, we anchored there under Safety At Sea rules for “any port in a storm”. The locals arranged a horseback riding tour for us.
Pay no attention to the libelous reports in the NY Times. There are hundreds (literally, hundreds — I have pictures — lots of pictures) of equally beautiful, near empty beaches in the Dominican Republic — vacation packages, including airfare, are available very inexpensively to lovely all-inclusive resorts.
Or, like my family, go on your own, sail down or fly, stay in native hotels where you will be treated very well.
The Dominican Republic is beautiful. Visitors Welcome.
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Authors Note:
This is really a lesson in junk journalism. It appears that a journalist in London was ‘touched’ by an activist group in New York to write a hear-say story about something in the Dominican Republic — a story bound to scare away tourists, on which a lot of their economy depends. Oh, the trash did wash down the Ozama, it does every heavy rainfall, and the government cleans it up. It does not affect tourist beaches.
The same thing happens in the Phillipines, all over Southeast Asia, Malaysia, etc. Not as bad in Africa which doesn’t have as many huge cites along the coasts.
If I hadn’t had the personal experience in the DR, I wouldn’t have spotted the fake news aspects.
Lesson To Be Learned: Whenever an activist organization is involved in a news story — check and double check the “facts” — it’s easy to be burned.
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Quick Links:
Wave After Wave of Garbage Hits the Dominican Republic
biased blog post from an anti-plastics activist group Parley for the Oceans
“Great Pacific Garbage Patch,”
The ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ Is Ballooning, 87,000 Tons of Plastic and Counting
NOAA’s “How Big Is the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”? Science vs. Myth
Late Addition: You should also read my previous essays on pelagic plastic:
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Long Beach California has the same problem. Trash coming down from the Los Angeles River shows up in the marinas at the mouth. They have a boat designed to gobble up the floating trash, but it never goes away. But then again, Long Beach isn’t “third world” (yet).
rbabcock ==> Thanks for the First World comparison. It is mostly geography — rivers flow into oceans, bringing with them flotsam — trees, branches, bits of wood, escaped trash, dead animals. All over the world — same thing.
The more “free living trash” the greater the problem at the river mouth.
I recently had a conversation with an acquaintance and tried to correct their misconceptions about the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. When I explained that even if you were in the midst of it, you would be hard pressed to see anything floating in the water. Much is subsurface or microscopic. But the visual conception most people have of a ‘garbage patch’ is a near continuous raft of debris. When I made these points to my friend they seemed crestfallen, as if I’d informed them there was no Easter Bunny. Some people seem to enjoy doom and gloom.
“Some people seem to enjoy doom and gloom.” Very many do! They will dismiss good news and embrace bad, it is really rather sad.
Wow! This is the kind of “rest of the story” in-depth, follow-up that’s needed for every NYT and LAT advocacy article. I would not bother with articles from HuffPo or WaPo as a waste of time.
Thanks for the post! My hunch is confirmed!
A couple weeks ago, I noticed the uptick in these “we are drowning in trash, we are evil” catastrophe stories.
Knowing the Communist MSM as I do, I decided to ponder what might really be going on.
I thought about beach trash. A memory crossed my mind: enjoying the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. part, and seeing trash washed up with Spanish language. A food wrapper here, and a plastic bottle of laundry detergent there. This memory is from a few years ago. Somehow, the Celeste Blue color of the plastic bottle struck me as beautiful, although I also had a thought that Mexicans somewhere were maybe throwing trash overboard when boating, or trash had blown from some bin into the Gulf.
FFW to a couple weeks ago. It occurred to me that, most likely, NEARLY ALL of this trash is NOT from the United States, BUT we Americans are the target of the guilt campaign.
Everywhere I go in urban or suburban U.S. is well-appointed with TRASH CANS. This is an odd, but admirable, feature of my nation, and culture. Finish your banana or coffee in the airport, and how far do you have to look for a trash can? They are almost within 20 feet no matter where you are!
So, if the U.S. is NOT the cause of all of this trash, why target us? Why take away MY straw? Why not target the Mexicans, the Dominicans, the Chinese?
This is a shake-down for money, and to further plant GUILT in our minds, so we are more amenable to whatever control the Progs ask for.
We already pay to manage our effluence. But most all of that is local. The Communists are going to find two ways to exploit this: funding from U.S. to battle this, across the world (like we fund U.N., NATO, and everybody else enjoys the perks), and funding to research the calamity of all of this trash.
This post helps illustrate the suspicion I had, and told my wife. I am sure there is already, somewhere, an analysis that shows where the ocean’s trash comes from. And most won’t be from U.S. – but the solutions will almost surely be: U.S. gives up control gets taxed, and funds global research.
Kip,
Thanks, as always, for posting!
But…you neglected to report on, probably, the most important detail of all: What is the best DR cigar?
I anxiously await your response.
rip
ripshin ==> I will point out that I am an alarmingly straight straight-shooter. Don’t drink alcohol, don’t smoke (anything), don’t chase women (other than my wife). That makes the DR an odd place for me as they have arguably:
1) The BEST RUM
2) The BEST CIGARS
3) The MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMEN
(I said “arguably”, but don’t want to argue about it — that just means that one could sensibly argue for the point.)
Haha, fair enough.
My visit to Nicaragua earlier this year leads me to believe that points 1 and 2 could reasonably be contended (as a Presbyterian, I hold firmly to the “all things in moderation” lifestyle), but would have no comment on point 3.
Thanks again for the article.
rip
One would think that the great New York Times would seek a higher standard but we’ve learned again and again and again that the NYT has intentionally corrupted itself in its climate coverage. How has such a revered institution allowed itself to morph into a tool of professional advocates.
This is pathetic behavior by a once-great institution. I guess the NYT has concluded that this type of pandering sells newspapers to idealogues and causists that constitute their target demographic. Why should I believe anything in this newspaper?
spalding craft ==> It is the journalism (lack of…) that interests me. This Times reporter in LONDON gets a email or whatever from Parley on the Oceans in NEW YORK “Hey, look, State of Emergency in the DR, plastic on the beach, link to our blog post” — journalist reads their alarmist story, Google’s a few images up from journalism photographers, searches the NY Times digital archive for “background”, finds a Reuters story with a quote from DR Civil Defense, and throws together a “story”.
Hasn’t a clue about the Dominican Republic, never been to Santo Domingo, doesn’t even look up the reported location on the map,
thinks “playa = beach = tourist beach” — botches the whole story. Doesn’t fact check the story from a known activist site.
In short, gets gamed.
But as some astute reader above pointed out — It matches the desired narrative, so it runs.
Echo Chamber Magnifies Fake News ==> TIME magazine, echos NY Times, which echo’s Parley for the Oceans alarmist story.
The story escalates into Waves of Garbage Are Covering the Dominican Republic’s Beaches in Trash piles of trash on “Montesinos Beach in the capital, Santo Domingo, as far as the eye could see. ”
Another reporter taken in … didn’t look at a map, doesn’t realize Montesinos Beach is only as long as a football field. Claims “beaches” instead of “beach” — A couple of more echos and the whole country will have been buried in plastic trash…that’t how rumor-mongering fake journalism goes.
Journalists should do the job they are paid — get the news — check the facts — report the real story.
I think “journalists” these days have become akin to stockbrokers and other salespeople; they’re paid for quantity— not quality.
If this ‘journalist” wants dirty beaches all he has to do is go over the mountains to Haiti.
Thanks for the news!
Out of curiosity, I did a little internet checking on Cyrill Gutsch.
The guy is a NYC clothing designer and an obvious phony. This little stunt is basically nothing more than a marketing gambit intended to attract gullible flies to his flypaper.
The guy makes P. T. Barnum look like a piker.
Thank you, Kip!
For reality and common sense and the pictures!
My family went to Punta Cana for Christmas in 2016 and it was gorgeous. Let’s hope the New Yorkers believe the Times and stay away!
If the New Yorkers believe Clinton and Bloomberg, then they’ll believe anything.
more here, from a self-proclaimed drunken Australian journo who also knows Santo Domingo. He says it’s crap, too, but reckons the beach is spurned by swimmers who don’t want to take a dip in the river’s 140kms of effluent.
http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2018/07/plastic-tide/
Yowie ==> Thank you for the link — Playa Montesinos is not for tourists nor for swimming…. but across the river and around the breakwater is the beach reserved for Naval Officers and their families. Clean and beautiful…we were allowed in once as we had dome some humanitarian project with Civil Defense….
Thank you very much for sharing the informative post. Wonderful place. Why does the NYT want to destroy the economy of the impoverished third world nation?
To support the economy of the NYT? Alarm is an essential nutrient for Gen Eco.
Dominican Republic – a story bound to travel tourists on which a lot depends on their economy. Oh, the trash did not wash the Ozama, it does not rain, it does not affect the beaches.
____________________________
Yields
Jobs in the city cleaning services of the communities in the Dominican Republic.
Johann ==> The DR has a huge unemployment problem — and the government often hires huge teams of unskilled labor to do jobs like these — cleaning the shoreline, picking up trash along highways, shoveling mud brought down by torrential rains, etc.
It is literally true that whole neighborhood are occasionally washed into the Ozama.
Kip: I don’t think we’re on confronting sides of the fence.
Regards – Hans
Johann ==> I didn’t think so either….just filling in the landscape. It is perfectly true that the DR uses these kinds of “preventable” emergencies to hire the unemployed.
Thank you for your blog post Kip. This has been on my mind for a few days now.
As you described, it all started with Parley for the Ocean’s poorly crafted “#plasticmergency” blog and then media outlets from across the glob started to pick up the story without adding any context or actual facts. No mention of the recent storm, flooding or general issues with waste management etc. The New York Times piece though stands out as the most vile. The first 2 lines are cringe-worthy.
I also do not appreciate Parley’s social media language which makes it sound as if they are primarily responsible for the clean up efforts. They may have helped, but they should not and cannot take almost full credit for the clean up efforts. My understanding is that more than 500+ tons was cleaned up and Parley was responsible for 30 tons. Plus, I’d say the damage they’ve done in painting the country as a dump and Dominicans as lazy, dirty, ignorant people who all dump trash in our rivers and oceans is greater than what little impact they may have had with one week’s worth of getting (mostly Dominican) volunteers to clean up.
I contacted Parley for the Oceans a couple of days ago and I encourage others to do the same. They should be held accountable. Good intentions mean nothing if you they are unable to own up to mistakes and allow themselves to be held accountable.
Here is the message I sent to Parley a few days ago:
“I am saddened to see what you have done with the video footage Parley shot of the garbage in Sto Dgo after the recent storm in DR. You could have employed a more culturally competent and sensitive way of attracting attention to a very important global issue. The New York Times piece which quoted your founder saying “everybody uses the rivers and beaches as a a dumping site” was disgusting. Everybody? Really? Your media push raised awareness about plastics while also indirectly communicating to the entire world that Dominicans are trashy, backwards people that need saving. This may not have been your intent, but I think impact is far more important. Nobody cares more about this issue than Dominicans who have to live with it. (Not every Dominican, of course. Blanket statements and over-generalizations are dangerous aren’t they?) You’ve done us a great disservice and serious harm to a nation that relies on tourism. Surely there was a more responsible way to message this! I believe you owe the nation an apology.”
Thanks again!
Disclaimer: Like approx. 97% of climate scientists , I agree that climate change is real and attributable to human activity.
Norita ==> Par;ley for the Oceans had absolutely zero to do with the cleanup as far I can tell. All the workers in photos are Dominican Civil Defense employees.
Kip, I have a place just outside of Sosua and have visited the beautiful beaches on both the Caribbean and Atlantic sides. Why would a paper like the NYT smear a little country like this to promote the awful narratives of these mean times.