How Can We Clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

This image shows the enormity of the garbage patch.

oceanus-map

Introduction

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an extremely large amount of trash mostly plastics that are floating around in the Pacific Ocean. The trash is always moving in the ocean fallowing the current in a circle. There are 3 main garbage patches in the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans. The garbage has numerous effects on the environment, our health, and our economy’s. New studies show that if left unchecked there may be more effects to our economy and our health. The trash is so far from any countries boarders that no one will take responsibility for it. Any project to clean up the trash is expected to take many years and to cost so much as to bankrupt any country trying to clean it up. There are many recent studies of its impacts, how we could clean it up, and how to stop oceanic pollution.

Impacts

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has numerous effects on the environment and even our health and economy. Often marine animals become entangled in debris that may cause injury and even death. Sometimes marine animals digest pollution either because it resembles their prey or because they eat it while feeding on their normal diet. The digestion of pollution can have many effects on marine animals, sometimes death. Fish lower on the food chain do eat some plastics, then fish higher on the food chain eat them and plastics and so on. This causes marine animals at the higher parts of the food chain to have higher concentrations of plastic in them which could make them toxic to us, and have effects on their health as well. If fish became toxic the market for fish would not be as big and this would not be good for the fishing industry and there for our economy. These recent researches have shown that oceanic pollution does not only affect the ocean but also directly us.

Cleaning up the patch

The supposed cleaning of the pacific garbage patch is estimated to be a difficult project. the challenge is rather imposable, the garbage is spread across thousands of miles of ocean not to mention the trash that is on the ocean floor not the surface, any attempt to collect the trash on a huge scale would require extremely large nets to collect the trash, but would have large consequences on the environment capturing thousands of fish and destroying some ecosystems. Therefore it would require many small collecting crews and ships to pick it up still having the unfortunate harm to many fish in their nets. The task is one so large it is expected to bankrupt any country to take up the task. A 19 year old has devised a system that could clean up the pollution. The system has natural ocean currents push the trash towards collecting platforms, solid floating barriers prevent wild life from becoming entangled and or hurt in the collecting process. By using the proposed solution it is estimated that in ten years of its use that approximately half of ocean plastic pollution would be removed. If a 19 year old is able to design a way to clean oceanic pollution then we all can use innovation and invention to help create ways to stop oceanic pollution.

Stopping Pollution

The problem of solving oceanic pollution is not only about cleaning it up, what is the point of cleaning it if it is just going to go back to what it once was. The easiest solution to stop oceanic pollution is to prevent it from even getting to the water. In order to stop pollution people will need to recycle, which is unlikely with the mind set out todays people. Companies, producers and everything between will need make products that are recyclable and recycling waste products. Governments can make environmental laws prohibiting dumping things in the ocean and possibly provide rewards in lowering taxes for companies that do recycle.

Conclusion

            Recent research has shown that oceanic pollution has many impacts on our world, will be very difficult to clean up, and will be hard to stop, but we have the potential to clean this earth with our innovation and invention.

Possible Response Questions

  • What further impacts may oceanic pollution have on us in the future?
  • What are governments around the world doing to stop oceanic pollution?
  • What further impacts may oceanic pollution have on marine animals in the future?

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