The crash of Malaysian flight 370 is devastating and one thing making the search efforts even more difficult is spotting airplane debris among all the trash that is floating around the globe.
Read and think:
1) Where does this trash come from?
2) What can you do to help/prevent?
3) Who is directly impacted by this trash?
4) Who's responsibility is this to clean up?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-search-shows-extent-of-ocean-trash-1.2594539
This is my blog post for the week:
ReplyDeleteI think it is really sad to see how much trash is floating around the worlds oceans. This has a huge impact on marine wildlife and can be prevented so easily but happens because people are careless. This trash is coming from people littering and not putting garbage in its proper place. This trash is also coming from not reducing or conserving the amount of waste they produce. It can be easily prevented from the three R's, reducing, reusing and recycling. If people didn't waste so much then a lot of this garbage floating in the ocean could be prevented. I think the best thing that the average human can do to help is putting garbage in a garbage bag and reducing the amount of plastics you use. Also if you are on a beach or some water location, make sure that you pick up any garbage along the shore that you can find.
It is sadly the animals of the ocean that are impacted from this pollution. Fish and birds eat the plastics in the ocean thinking it is food and this ends up killing them, or the bigger animals that eat them. Plastics take hundreds to thousands of years to break down, and the fish are dying of malnutrition because they think they are full but get no nutrition from the plastics.
I think because humans are the ones who caused this issue we are the ones who need to take responsibility. I think that there should be boats that go around the ocean skimming the surface with nets to try and catch some of the garbage, as long as minimum harm is done to wildlife. Once the garbage is collected than it can be taken to an appropriate recycling facility or landfill. Action needs to be taken so that the oceans and the animals living in them can be cleaned up and left unharmed.
I found it interesting and really eye opening that one of the main problems for finding MH 370 is all the garbage in the oceans. This just really goes to show how bad this issue is and how badly we need to take action to preserve our wildlife.
Yes, Breandan I agree that it is very sad to see how much garbage is floating in the oceans. Unfortunately though, skimming the ocean's surface to remove the garbage may not be as easy as it sounds. In large patches portions can be removed, but in smaller sections it actually causes more damage to the ecosystem by skimming due to the bacteria, and so on, that would also be removed. It is sad when the search teams sent out teams to locate the plane's debris, and find answers but instead return empty because of the garbage in the waters.
DeleteI agree Breandan, we should try our best to clean up as much of it as we can, but unfortunately its a massive task that no one feels is their responsibility because its international waters.
DeleteI completely agree with you Breandan! I think it should be our duty to clean up the oceans to the best of our ability since we're the ones that could be held responsible towards the mess in the first place. That's also a really interesting point you bring up Ruth about the process of skimming. I would have never guessed that a method like that could be so problematic. I hope that we'll be able to come to an alternative solution though that's beneficial to all parties.
DeleteI agree with Ruth although I wish there was a quick fix I fear that there isn't one. The only thing we can truly work towards is preventing any growth of these floating garbage fields.
DeleteThis is my post for the week.
ReplyDeleteFirst off i think it is absolutley terrible how we arer ruining the key to liufe for almost all creatures on earth, the ocean. We have already severly damaged the land by deforestiaition and pollutuion but it seems as if we have not learned from our mistakes.I beleive that people see the ocean as so vast that they think that theey can throw their trash in it and it will have little to no effect, however when millions of people share the same mindset, this is when problems begin to happen. On a personal level, after seing these staggering numbers of trash in the ocean i will certainly not throw any plastic or waste in general into the ocean and i willdo my best to inform people i know to follow suit. As stated earlier not only the sea snimals are effected by the trash but because of the circle of life and the food chain, in some way every single species on this planet is unfortunatley affected by this. Humans are supposedly the most superior species, and we have single handedly created this disaster so of course it is up to us to set up programs for awareness and maybe even more importantly take action and start the cleeanup process. I hope we can somewhat reduce the damage we have done to the planet. Below is an article which shows how different animals are effected by the trash, it is quite sad to see that such innocent creatures are being hurt or even dying because of us.
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/pollution/
i really agree with your point that humans are supposedly the most superior species yet we are destroying our planet!
DeleteI agree as well Nick! The ocean has so many species that even humans haven't discovered yet and it is so unfortunate that we destroy it without any thought to the future. It's the vastest ecosystem on Earth and humans really need to stop and think about their activity before destroying it bits at a time.
DeleteThis is my post for the week
ReplyDeleteIt is really crazy to think that the search crews cannot find reminisce and clews from the Malaysian flight that went down because of all the trash crowding the area in the ocean. The ocean is supposed to be a beautiful natural place and the fact that we are filling it with all sorts of trash is awful. The trash is coming from all sorts of things such as cruise ships. Another factor of the trash being thrown into the ocean is fishing and boating equipment such as nets and and rods. I assume that a lot of the trash also comes from people littering in general. A possible way of preventing so much trash being thrown out into the ocean is maybe creating stricter littering laws and making sure cruise ships and other boating ships etc aren't able to litter and if they are caught in this act the fines will be significant. This impacts everyone I believe because the pollution in the ocean is a big problem that effects everyone on the Earth. I also think that if this is happening it effects specifically in this situation the people who lost family in the missing plane and are being given false hope when they think that they've found clues to the missing plane but it turns out it's just trash in the ocean. It is really important to keep the ocean clean and keep littering laws stricter as it is contributing to so much unnecessary pollution. This article further explains the amount of trash cruise ships pollute the ocean with
www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2013-10-cruise-ships-flushed-more-than-1-billion-gallons-of-sewage-last-year
I'm definitely on board with your idea of enforcing stricter littering laws, Julia! It's ridiculous that people would resort to throwing their trash in the ocean and it something that could be easily avoided if we weren't so carless and lazy. I think we generally need to be more considerate towards our environment.
DeleteThis is my weekly post:
ReplyDeleteThe disappearance of the Malaysian flight has brought some awareness to the amount of un-traceable garbage in the oceans. Today, many scientists have made predictions on how much garbage truly is in the ocean, but no one really can measure the amounts, and definitely not how much is on the sea floor.
I decided to focus my post on the plastic portion of the garbage that is polluting our oceans. Plastics are made up of a variety of chemical –compounds and are therefore not biodegradable at all. Plastics cannot decompose with any natural process, meaning that any plastic product that is currently in the ocean has no hope of biodegrading. Some will sink, but others will diminish into sand-grain sized particles which are nearly impossible to clean up off of shore lines, and in the water.
This waste that is constantly floating around the oceans, moving from place to place in groups, can’t be skimmed due to the damage it would cause to the natural ocean environment. So, today mostly, environmental groups are forced to wait for the plastics to be washed up on shore before they have a hope to clean it up.
I found it very interesting to read into the rubber ducks that fell overboard that was mentioned in the original article. It is very ironic that thousands of plastic ducks, and frogs fell overboard into the ocean, and of all things, they were ducks which is probably one of the reasons it became so famous. Today, scientists are learning more about ocean currents as the reports of the ducks finding their way to shores arise, and scientists can estimate the path of the ducks.
As I was reading, looking for a solution there was no easy answer. The best option for us today, is to reduce our use of plastics. Plastics are not biodegradable, and so the use of other materials would decrease the amount of plastics that are available to make their way into the oceans.
This is a link about the rubber ducks:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/09/business/goods-lost-at-sea/
and then one about the effects of plastics:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific
It's really unfortunate that skimming isn't really an option, I feel like it would be the most effective!
DeleteI hadn't thought about how the plastics break apart into small grain like pieces. This just makes the damage even greater than we think it is. Wow! Thanks for bringing this up.
DeleteThis is my post for the week.
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that the disappearance of the Malaysian flight is a very tragic and heart breaking even that has happened, but it has brought awareness to a much bigger problem at hand. That problem is pollution of our earth's oceans and seas. As the article talks about, there is millions of tonnes of garbage in the waters, the majority of them being plastics based products. Now, cleaning up this disaster is near to impossible, but what we can do is prevent it from getting worst. The only way to solve this lies within our daily consumer habits. Any plastic products or products that have plastic packaging have the potential of ending up in the waterways, if thrown in the trash. This can be avoided by the three R's (reduce, reuse, recycle), as Breandan has previously mentioned! by simply collecting the recyclable plastics and reusing them in a different form would make a huge difference. Although the three R's just isn't enough on it's own. We need to focus on sustainable biodegradable sources, for example paper cup instead of a plastic bottle, the paper cup came from a sustainable source, being tree's, which will renew itself within your lifetime also will bio-degrade and provide soil for a new tree to grow in, as opposed to the plastic bottle which came from oil and will outlive you and many generations. If we all steer our consumer habits away from plastics, we can make a huge difference! I know personally, my family has managed to reduce our trash bin to only one small grocery bag of trash per week.
Here is one of the links to one of many biodegradable packaging company sites and as well the FIVE R's!
https://biopak.com.au/products.php?id=0001&purchase=yes&o=t
http://ilovesuperearth.tumblr.com/post/332540168/the-5-rs-environmental-education
You make a good point about using biodegradable products! I think focusing on using these sorts of products when they are needed is a good idea. Good post!
DeleteI really like your ideas of using biodegradable products Micheal! I never thought that paper cups were better than plastic water bottles. I always thought it was the same because they both could be recycled. I definitely need to re-think how my family recycles and composts products. I really need to take some tips from your family if you are only sing a small grocery bag for a week's worth of trash.
DeleteI definitely agree on the need to buy more sustainable products. The fact is whatever we throw into the garbage can is going to stay in our dumps forever. We as consumers should definitely encourage companies that we buy from to package their products in materials that are easily recycled such as glass, or even better in materials that can be recycled and are biodegradable.
ReplyDeleteThis is my week's post:
ReplyDeleteAs many others have said, it is sickening what we are doing to our oceans. I feel that recently the attention has been on air pollution and climate change, and somehow the immediate damage we are causing to the world around us is going unseen. Although some excuses can be made for the air pollution (i.e that it is hard to stop due to the way our industrialized world functions) pollution from pure ignorance is inexcusable. Improper waste disposal is needless and has great consequences. Conveniently, these consequences aren't staring people right in the face and therefore they can pretend they don't exist. Unfortunately for them, the search for the Malaysian airlines remnants has forced us to see what we are doing to our planet.
Most of this problem is caused by the things that we buy. Big companies continue to package their products in plastic containers that are not always necessary. I have seen some companies using bio-degradable packaging (off the top of my head I can think of Sun Chips) but doing some research I found that alternative packaging can have a worse effect on air pollution due to the manufacturing process. So we're really kind of stuck regardless of how we package our products.
The best thing we, as consumers, can do that I can think of is reduce the amount of packaged goods we buy and avoid individually wrapped items. For example, instead of buying the boxes of pre-made food and processed food, buy fresh produce. You can even skip the bag when buying fruits and veggies, or you can save them and use them every time you buy more produce. Unfortunately things like meat and dairy must be packaged in one way or another, but if you go for the recyclable option and make sure it ends up where it is supposed to at least it is better than taking out bags and bags of trash. My family only contributes a couple grocery bags full of trash every week which still isn't great, but it beats some of my neighbours who have two or three tall trash cans full every week. It is easier than most think to reduce packaged goods, particularly food, and it could even force you to eat a little healthier. The problem is that we don't have the same impact as the large companies do. As many people who have worked in fast food or many other crappy part time jobs know, everything goes in the garbage, and they can fill a dumpster a day.
Here is a site that talks about the potential problems with alternative packaging: http://www.solidwastemag.com/news/study-plastic-packaging-beats-alternatives-for-energy-use-emissions/1002945128/?&er=NA