Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Garbage Island

In the North Pacific Ocean there is an island the size of Texas. Yet the odd thing about it is that it’s made entirely of waste. Whether it be our trash or the dead sea animals that have now been caught in it, its size is shockingly huge. Scarier yet is that it is basically stuck here! This mass, which has gained itself several names from “Garbage Patch” to “Trash Vortex”, is stuck here for an almost indefinable amount of time as most of its contents are plastic; which can take many years to biodegrade. Just North East from Hawai’i, there is an eddy that is caused by the edges of three vast currents (Each current coming from different continents). These currents pick up trash along the coast, which may have been deposited many miles inland, yet made its way here as all waterways lead to the ocean.
There is an organization called Greenpeace who is trying to combat this island’s growth first of all by just spreading awareness of it! Few people have even heard of its existence. By spreading the news, they are hoping to get donations or volunteers to help aid in its cleanup.
As always, since this cannot be seen right now, or does not directly affect humans everyday lives as of right now, most people just exclaim their shock at the magnitude of its size, but do not use it to change their lifestyle.

I believe that what Greenpeace is doing is the best possible way to treat this issue. They can just lend this image to the recycling efforts going on worldwide and hopefully this will “turn the tide.”

6 comments:

  1. Wow. I have never heard of the Garbage Patch. To be completely honest, I am just in shock. Hopefully Greenpeace can raise awareness about the Garbage Patch that way people would try and be more eco-friendly. It seems to me that getting rid of the island would be pretty much impossible, but maybe there is a solution yet to be found.

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  2. This is very astonishing to read. I had no idea that pollution has run so rampant, especially in our oceans. Something absolutely needs to be done about this, because this astronomical collection of garbage is not just unsightly, but is dangerous to the ocean-dwelling creatures that live in that area. Waste is becoming an ever-increasing problem for the world, but the worst possible thing we can do is dump it into our oceans because of the tremendous complications it could cause for marine-wildlife.

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  3. I did hear about this island of waste a couple years ago, but it was only briefly and I haven't heard anything about it since then. The fact that we don't hear more about this issue every day is appalling; a giant floating island of waste in the middle of the ocean should cause much more alarm. The lack of knowledge and communication about it shows that people really don't care about environmental issues until they impact their lives directly, like you were saying Brittany. Awareness needs to be raised about this topic and much more needs to be done to find a solution before it becomes a potential crisis to both the environment and humans.

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  4. I have never heard about this Garbage Island and I am stunned. Are the sea animals living around the island being greatly affected by all of this waste?

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  5. I have to say that I agree with Abby on this garbage pile. Though I had heard about floating debris in the ocean collecting together, I am in shock and I had no idea that a giant island of waste is hanging out off the coast of California. Like you Abby, it makes me angry that I and others didn’t know about this, the lack of media coverage makes me wonder what other environmental issues are being neglected and hidden from the public. The whole island looks as big as Alaska and it is almost like the forgotten continent or something. I really wonder what effects this will have on the marine environment.

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  6. oh and a helpful article is: http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm

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