Pacific trash iceberg. Can we cope with this island disaster?
In previous releases on the AllatRa Science channel, we have repeatedly touched on the subject of garbage and the consequences that the planet's pollution causes.
For more than half a century, the question remains open of the ever increasing size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between 135 ° -155 ° Western longitude and 35 ° -42 ° Northern latitude. Its area varies from 700 thousand to 15 million square kilometers. Precise calculation is hampered by the fact that the plastic is transparent and more than 70% of the plastic sinks to the bottom or is directly below the water surface. And all this prevents us from making accurate calculations by means of satellites. Often, garbage can be seen only from the side of a ship or while diving underwater with scuba gear. And since the routes of the ships pass far away from the "Pacific trash vortex", its size, at the current time, remains unknown.
The Great garbage region is divided into East and West.
According to various estimates, up to 2.5 million pieces of plastic and other debris are dumped into the ocean from the mainland every year. And this largest garbage dump on the planet remains almost in one place thanks to the underwater currents.
The Spot has received many names.
(Great Pacific Garbage Patch)
Pacific Trash Vortex
North Pacific Gyre (North Pacific Gyre)
(Eastern Garbage Patch)
Pacific Trash Island
Trash iceberg
Circulation dump
The garbage patch is causing enormous damage to the environment. And the most dangerous are plastic products which don't decompose for hundreds of years.
Experts predict that there will come a time when official science will no longer be able to do anything with this huge amount of floating debris, if they do not start to solve this issue already today. Every year, more than 1 million birds and mammals die from debris. Plastic products, which they take for food, are found in their stomachs.
Despite the numerous facts, many people do not take the subject of ocean pollution seriously, even in the scientific community. After the storms threw over 70 tons of garbage onto the beaches of the Hawaiian Islands - Kauai and Niihau, the problem of pollution began to be taken more seriously. And still they try not to notice this issue, expecting that it will solve itself. It's time for people to understand that we must not be passive in the affairs of society. It is important for everyone to take responsibility for everything that happens in the surrounding world. After all, we all have one place of residence - Earth, one nation - humanity.
More and more people see the consequences of the destructive consumer attitude not only to their lives, but to the whole planet. Activists in Great Britain wrote a petition signed by 110 thousand people about recognizing the Great Pacific garbage patch as a separate state and calling it the Garbage Island. According to them, this was done in order to draw the public's attention to the problem of ocean pollution.
We must not forget that we are, in the first place, People. And instead of making a state out of a heap of garbage, we are able to simply clean it up. We must not allow a humorous attitude towards this question to become the norm for all mankind, a topic that is discussed while ridiculing it. Those activists have already developed a flag, currency, postage stamps, and design of the passports for "residents" of such a "state".
We, the People, should remember that attention is the energy of life, the basis of life for every person. It is life itself. But where do we invest our attention? Is it possible that it is being diverted from the ever-increasing natural disasters and impending cataclysms?
It is important to begin the transformation of society from the consumer format to the spiritual and moral with the elimination of ignorance in society, because in some countries, it is considered acceptable to throw garbage into a nearby body of water.
We must popularize cultural and moral values, spread examples of kindness and humanity, creating conditions for the prevalence of cheerfulness and humaneness in society. Then we will be able to solve not only the questions of garbage, but also of all the undesirable phenomena that exist in our society.