By Andria Mack, Guest Blogger

Not too long ago, I left my career in hotel management and found myself working for an environmental non-profit organization. I have to admit that the reason I wound up there had less to do with my passion for the environment than my need for a steady gig to support myself. However, when I read the job posting working as the executive assistant to an environmental "power player,"  I thought that perhaps I might benefit from exposing myself to a little green culture. Boy, did I have a lot to absorb!  

I'm an L.A. local who recently moved back after living in San Francisco for about 15 years, so I am at least ahead of some people in the sense that I believe in the reality that is global warming. I believe that we, as humans, have contributed to this predicament. (And the fact that there are some who don't believe that - including one former VP nominee who shall remain nameless - leaves me speechless!) I am proud of the fact that I had previously worked for a hospitality company (JDV Hotels) that practiced green policies and practices designed to "...educate their employees and guests, reduce waste and toxins, conserve natural resources and partner with local and environmentally-friendly businesses," and I manage to always throw my plastic water bottles in the nearest blue recycling bin. Beyond that I am [in my newly formed environmentally conscious opinion] woefully behind in my responsibility to our planet.

(By Sasha Abelson, Guest Blogger to the Climate Program)

I have been searching for the right word to describe a particular phenomenon and concluded that such a word does not (yet) exist.  The phenomenon I am speaking of is as follows: upon becoming aware of a piece of information previously unknown to you, you become hyper-sensitized to that information.  You now to see it, hear it and read it everywhere.

Take the nurdle for example.  I had never heard the word until a scientist from Heal the Bay mentioned the nurdle in her lecture[i].  Nurdles are small plastic pellets which are melted down to create nearly everything made of plastic.  These nurdles escape from factories and often end up on beaches where they become a significant source of ocean and beach pollution.  Nurdles are frequently mistaken by marine life for fish eggs, and find their way into their digestive tracts causing starvation.  After learning of the nurdle, no longer is a stroll on the beach just a stroll on the beach.  Now, my eye cannot avoid spotting these tiny balls of brightly colored plastic.  This is what I have coined the Nurdle Effect.