This is a 60 second promotional video I created for Heal the Bay. Heal the Bay is an amazing environmental nonprofit established in 1985 that is dedicated to making the coastal waters and watersheds in Greater Los Angeles safe, healthy, and clean. They use science, education, community action, and advocacy to fulfill their mission. Visit them at:  https://healthebay.org/

by Ava Morrison. As a surfer I'm constantly confronted by the plastic waste that finds its way into our oceans. From grocery bags and candy wrappers floating in the water, to the soda bottles and fishing gear washing up onto the shore, plastic trash is everywhere. But the scale of this problem is so much bigger than first meets the eye. I believe this crisis is one of the most urgent catastrophes facing our world.

by Ava Morrison. I spend many months of the year in the middle of the Sierra Nevada forest, where I go to school. It's impossible not to see the crisis facing California forests. Unprecedented tree mortality is the effect of decades of drought, climate change and an explosion of Pine Beetles. Which makes our forests just one spark away from the next mega wildfire.

by Ava Morrison. This is a movie trailer I created for a longer documentary I'm in the process of making. The documentary is about a massive DDT dumpsite 3000 feet below the surface and just 12 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. It is the result of irresponsible environmental laws from the 1940s and 1970s, and it is so massive not even the EPA knows what to do about it.

This report from Live Science gives an overview of the m assive DDT dumping ground found off the Los Angeles coast, and reports that recent mapping expeditions have revealed that it is bigger than anyone thought.

PBS News Hour This PBS News Hour investigation gives a good overview of the massive underwater toxic waste site off the Southern California shore. Between the 1940s and 1970s industrial companies used the ocean as a dumping ground. Marine scientists have identified over 25,000 barrels, and possibly as many as 100,000 barels, that hey believe contain the toxic chemical"DDT." UC Santa Barbara professor David Valentine, talks about these poisonous barrels.

This PBS investigation discusses the link between the DDT dump site on the sea floor, to the DDT contamination in animals higher up in the food chain, marine mammals and condors. KPBS reporter Katie Anastas says research links DDT to reproductive harm and cancer.

Dr. Shelley Luce, Heal the Bay CEO and President talks about the toxic superfund site lurking below the beautiful waves. She refers to the recent LA Times investigation into an underwater DDT dumping ground near Catalina Island.

This YouTube TV documentary is a beautiful full length documentary that covers nearly all aspects of the global ocean plastic pollution crisis. It is an epic investigation that follows an award winning filmmaker and a world-record free-diver as they travel the globe discovering the devestating impact plastic is having on our oceans and the marine animals that live there.

99% of the plastic that should be floating in the oceans is missing. Even accounting for the plastic that washes up on beaches or is trapped in arctic ice, millions of tonnes has simply disappeared. But it's not gone. It's just out of sight: on the sea floor and also broken down into particles too small to see. In this Endevr documentary, scientists go in search of micro-plastics. and discuss the toxic effects on the entire food web.

Plastic pollution is getting worse, despite widespread public awareness of the problem, massive investment in recycling, and years of pledges to stop polluting. This Business Insider  documentary debunks the myths about where ocean plastic pollution comes from and the best way to fight back. Ocean plastic is not mainly from littering: 82% come from mismanaged waste. And recycling may not be the key: over 70% of ocean polluting plastics are not even recyclable. Solutions need

This Economist video looks at where plastic pollution comes from. The video focuses on small island states who are suffering most, despite the fact that they produce the least amount of plastic.

This Ocean Clean Up video is an amazing summary of the challenges of cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Garbage patches are composed of plastic pollution that is highly diluted, spanning millions of square kilometers. This cleanup solution is designed to concentrate the plastic and funnel it into floating pens when it can be collected, sorted and removed.

This Planet Wild video documents a local effort to clean up plastic pollution in one of the world’s most polluted seas. The Mediterranean Sea is home to just 1 % of ocean water but 7 % of its microplastics. Every year, 570,000 tons of plastic end up in the Mediterranean Sea. That’s as much as 625 garbage trucks being dumped into the sea per day. After capturing plastic pollution that comes from the Albania’s Kukës region - where there is no waste managent system - engineer

This Mariposa County Resource Consservation District video is an extremely interesting historical look at the Sierra Nevada wildfire crisis. The video was created by wildlife biologist and forest ecologist George E. Gruell. Gruell published a landmark book "Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests" in 2001, and this video is based on the insights in his book.

The Sierra Nevada Conservancy focuses on how dense, drought-stressed forests have become prime targets for devastation — not only from Bark Beetle infestations, but from the role of older trees and competition in determining which trees survive.

The California State Association of Counties ' video underlines that our forests are being been transformed from carbon sinks into carbon emitters. And the sheer amount of fuel created by increased tree mortality puts entire forests at risk from mega-wildfires.

This US Forest Service video estimates that over 129 million trees have died in California’s national forests since 2010. Researchers discuss two things contributing to massive loss: fire and water. The availability of water influences the size of trees, the density and the types of trees. Fire controls what’s going on in the understory.

This National Geographic short film explores the devastating impact of mountain pine beetles on North American forests. A researcher examines the insects' genetic code and the trees' resilience to understand how some trees are fighting off these destructive bugs.

This National Geographic video explores how the tiny Mountain Pine Beetle is unleashing vast devastation across North America’s pine forests. Warmer winters and drought-stressed trees mean that these beetles are multiplying out of control.