Friday, March 23, 2007

to pee or not to pee....

: : for those of you who don't speak Swedish, the tidy whiteys above read, " don't poop in the Baltic Sea" and on the red ball it says "don't pee in the ocean".

this is related to a discovery that I made this past summer, when I learned that most, if not all, of my American friends pee in the ocean when we go to the beach!! I have since then realized how naive I was on the matter, but for years I have been happily unknowing that while we're all hanging out in the water, playing frisbee, doing headstands, chatting.....they've all been standing there PEEING!! I was appalled when I first found out! so, I decided to conduct my own survey and sent out an e.mail to all my Swedish friends, asking if they also pee in the ocean? I was dissapointed by the results...not Swedes too! although, not as bad as my American friends, about a third of my Swedish friends said they pee in the ocean. there seems to be no statistics available on this subject, but I've heard rumors that about 1/3 of Swedes is correct....and supposively, the Frenchmen are the worst! so, stay away from the French riviera!

while visiting folkform's website [Swedish design company that I spoke of in previous post], I found this ad campaign [images above] that they created for the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. The ad campaign is a traveling exhibit aimed at educating the people of Sweden about the environmental issues currently affecting the baltic sea. And informing people about what can be done on both a national level as well as a personal level to improve the conditions of the .baltic sea., where pollution levels have been increasing steadily for many, many years now. and what do you know, one of the top ten things that we can do on an individual level to help create a cleaner and healthier .baltic sea. is to........ NOT PEE IN THE OCEAN!

there, finally, I've made my point! I will continue to use toilets, porta potties, bushes whatever else is available at the beach, BUT the ocean.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

:) du har inte gått lite långt? Allt avlopp kommer ju ändå i vattnet, vad kan lite extra kiss göra?
/puss

xoxo katie xoxo said...

true story! i was among the peeing guilty this past summer. though, let the record show, not even we crude americans would consider POOPING in the ocean. gross!
xoxo k

red.house said...

jolis,

jo kanske.....men jag kunde inte låta bli när jag såg deras reklam kampanj :) och jag tror ändå att större delen av vårt avlopp renas och filtreras innan det skickas ut i havet? hoppas i alla fall?...kanske borde undersöka detta....

red.house said...

katie,
thank you for your honest confession *smile*. yes, guilty as charged.

I just couldn't pass on blogging about such a comical ad campaign.

and maybe we'll get some more confessions out of this?! *smile*

Anonymous said...

oj, Anna. Nice post. I'm guilty as charged, though I find the environmental claims behind all this a bit questionable. And I also find peeing in the ocean quite pleasurable. It really helps you ease into the water when it's cold! xxoo Mai

Anonymous said...

Am I the only one who really wants those undies?!
-Megan

red.house said...

good point! I do really like those undies!

Anonymous said...

did you know that in scuba diving and surfing and other sports where you spend a long time in the ocean in a wetsuit, they tell you that if you're cold you should pee in your wetsuit to warm yourself up? you will be warmed up from inside your wetsuit and your body won't have to expend energy keeping your pee warm.

gross but true.

Shona~ LALA dex press said...

does this also apply to surfers who pee in their wetsuits to warm up?

Shona~ LALA dex press said...

Oops, I failed to read the post above mine, this has already been addressed by Lexie.

Erika said...

Peeing in the ocean is the last thing that I'm worried about! What about the hundreds of thousands of gallons of whale ejaculation? Or what about raping dolphins? Or the sharks that will attack you in 3 feet of water! I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound crude but there is no way you'll ever find me in the ocean!

Anonymous said...

Pee is not pollution. You may not like it, but it is not harming the ocean.

It does not bring bacteria to the water, either. The other subject, instead, introduces so-called "colibacteria"
http://www.lenntech.com/faecal-bacteria.htm

So: pee freely in the ocean, but don't poop in the ocean.

red.house said...

I agree with our reader, pee is not pollution, and it does not bring bacteria to the water but it does act as a fertilizer, in very small amounts....but this is the problem that we're having with our lakes and oceans, they're being overfertilized which speeds up and expands alge growth. I'm sticking to it. no peeing. plus it's gross.

Anonymous said...

yeah, i admit when lying out for a while, I hate to get up off ym towel and stroll back to the bath house to pee. So, I sneak into the water, when it covers my bikini I just let it go, and then go back to tanning.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to the beach today and was thinking about peeing in the ocean. All my friends do it and I want to see what it feels like.

nerd bro said...

I will the beach today in addition to had been thinking about peeing inside the ocean. Most our buddies practice it in addition to I wish to observe what exactly the item feels like.

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