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Toilette of the world

Posted by opt4green on December 3, 2008 at 12:08 AM

You know how when you were in grade school sitting through science class when your teacher would begin to talk about the environment? I don?t know about you, but my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. TreEagle, used to always talk about how if we did not stop littering we would produce enough trash that at some point in the future the ocean would be covered with garbage. In fact, there was even a documentary on PBS that addressed this very subject. It had the same prediction as my fourth grade teacher, and it even showed simulations of what the world?s oceans would look like?to say the least pop cans as far as you can see is a bit of an eye opener. Well, now there is a place that is the embodiment of that prediction, an actual spot in the Ocean completely filled with trash.

The Pacific Gyre located in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean is often referred to as ?The toilette?. It sounds like a rather odd name until you fully understand what is going on there. Every year millions of pounds of garbage are dumped into the ocean?waste from beaches, boats, illegal dumping, landfills, etc.

In the past trash dumped into the ocean broke down quickly and easily due to the bacteria and chemicals in the ocean, but now there is something that we have created that none of these things can destroy?plastics.

Plastics are a different breed of animal compared to natural waste; plastic is engineered specifically to be light and durable, resistant to bacteria and last long--therein lies the problem. Bacteria are the garbage men of the ocean?left over meals from other fish, waste materials, all of it is cleaned by the bacteria. Plastics are specifically engineered to resist the techniques used by the bacteria (?garbage men of the ocean?) to clean waste. Plastic can last years upon years in the ocean without breaking down.

So no, it?s not those popcans?in fact the cans rust and brake down so they are not a major problem (but don?t throw them in the ocean), but the plastics that were put in there in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s?it?s all still there and will be there for a long time.

But that isn?t even half of the problem that we face when plastics enter the ocean. Something unique about plastics is that they photodegrade, that is they fragment when the sun hits them and after 50 years or so they break into tiny pieces. But the plastic isn?t entirely gone, bacteria still cannot destroy its individual molecules. So what happens to the molecules? They form a soupy concoction with the water that is TOXIC.

So now there is a double whammy, toxic water and trash floating around in the ocean.

I am sure that by now everyone has seen some show that shows the plight of a bird or turtle with popcan rings stuck on its neck, or birds with oil on their feathers (By the way, plastic is made from petrol). It should come to no surprise to you that there are several harmful effects of plastics in the ocean.

Just a quick question, what does your stomach break down food with? The answer is bacteria (and to some extent acid, but ignore that I said that).

Fish are dumb. Turtles are dumb. Clams are dumb. Many animals are dumb. Many animals eat stuff even when they don?t know what it is, things like plastic. If you don?t believe me try feeding your fish paper?they will try to eat it. After animals eat plastic it gets stuck in their digestive tracts and the animals die. Stupid, stupid fish.

So now we are going to go for the quadruple whammy. Not only does plastic kill the fish, it kills the things that the fish eat. When that soupy water from broken down plastic comes it blocks light from the sun, and plants at the sea floor, as well as algae in the lower water column cannot photosynthesis. This not only means that the animals have no food, but also that those levels of the water column can no longer sustain life. That?s right, without the photosynthesizers to create oxygen there is no life, because there is nothing for the animals to breath.

The Pacific Gyre is a prime example of what is to come if we keep littering. We will first make the water look gross, then will kill the fish, then we will kill the things the fish eat, then we will destroy entire habitats by getting rid of their oxygen. Lastly this cycle will find its way to us?what goes around comes around. When it gets to that point there will be hunger, famine and war; it will not just be the creatures of the sea that suffer. In order to ensure this does not happen we must reuse our waste, switch from petroleum based plastic to a biodegradable material like plastic derived from a starch base (ethonal, corn, sugar cane, potatoes, garbage water), and we must take responsibility for our actions and be ready to clean up our act. It all starts with us. Right now there are over 3 million tons of plastic in the Pacific Gyre, more garbage than the entire Los Angeles area produces in a year. It is our wakeup call, because next time this comes to our attention, the ocean might very well be covered in pop bottles.

To learn more about the Gyre look here: http://junkraft.com/blog/?p=86 and here: http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/master.html?http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/1103/1103_feature.html

As always, feel free to leave a comment and discuss this, or any other topic.

-Austin Evans

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