"The Coral Reef of Death" by Randi

-
We live in a world full of waste. With a project that is “The Largest Cleanup in History,” This will allow us to catch part of the five tons of plastic that is put into the ocean every year. It is established that this project could catch almost half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the next ten years if it is finalized and established by 2020.
Several offshore companies, (SBM Offshore, Heerema and Basilisk) also there are several institutes,(IMARES, Deltares and MARIN) are doing extensive research and getting together trying to establish this ocean cleanup. They believe we can initiate the cleanup by 2020. The ocean cleanup is very important. So much trash has been put into the oceans, there is actually a ocean garbage patch, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. These people are building several prototypes,some have even been successful. But now there is one established in the North Sea. They put it in the North Sea because there it is one of the most violent seas there is. A small storm in the North Sea is the equivalent to one of the worst in the Pacific. Every time this machine, or prototype is logged. Everytime it moves and is logged then put into a system that helps develop a better machine.
All of these events are happening as we speak and read. In 2017 a pilot version of this machine will be put in the Pacific Garbage Patch to start the official clean up. The Dutch government has approved this project and has helped develop this advanced technology, and all of this started in 2013. They started this because of the trash that is enveloping the sea and its surrounding areas. Also because it is slowly killing the fish in the sea. People have been trying to clean up the sea before, they have cleaned sections before, but this is a mass cleaning. It is going to be the Largest Cleanup in the History of Environmental Cleanups. The waste problem will never be fixed, but it will help to do this because it will lower the rate of poisons and toxins introduced into the sea.
In doing this, after the Pacific Garbage Patch is cleaned up and back to its cleaner self, we will be able to deploy this mechanism to the other seas. We will not only be able to clean the Pacific but the Atlantic, the Gulfs, and the other major waters of the world. Because the mechanisms are powered by the waves of the sea, it will cost money to build but in the long run it could potentially pay for itself. Boyan Slat, CEO and founder of The Ocean Cleanup, said “This is a historic day on the path toward clean oceans. A successful outcome of this test should put us on track to deploy the first operational pilot system in late 2017.”

This cleanup will help those people who live in places that rely on the coral. The great coral reef brings in tourism, and with this creature dying then it is making the huge island smell of something dead, there for chasing away the fish, and because the fish's food source is dying they are migrating away. THere for also taking another hit on the economical growth of the places that the coral helps, the coral is driving people away, and the fishing business is bringing in less money. So this ocean cleaning will drastically change the livelihood of the villages, near the water.

Citation:

Road to Execution

Garbage Patch- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and other pollution issues

The ocean Cleanup Unveils First Prototype

Technology

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 13, 2017 at 10:11 AM

    I like the topic and the approach into it. The project to clean up the ocean from the garbage is one that I feel strongly about. I also like the many sources listed in the blog post. I would have liked to see more info about the garbage patch, but the rest of the post is pretty good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 13, 2017 at 2:15 PM

    Neat topic Randi. I learned a lot from your report. I had no idea there was an ocean garbage patch. Hopefully this mechanism will help clean up our oceans!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Cultural Perspectives On Gun Laws" by Mika P.

-
Image
On October 26th, a Dallas policeman shot his son after thinking he was an intruder. Fortunately, no serious injury or death occurred. No charges were filled and an arrest was not made. After I read this I began to think, what would people who don’t live in the U.S. might think about this. According to Reutters, in 2011, 47% of Americans reported owning a gun. In other parts of the world owning a private gun has many different laws. In the UK the gun laws are extremely strict. You have to have a Shotgun Certificate and a Firearm Certificate. To gain the Firearm Certificate you must be over the age of 14 and you must have a good reason for needing one. You must also have two different references and state all or any of your criminal records. This certificate has to be renewed every five years. According to Business Insider, in 2011, the UK had 0.07 gun homicides for every 100,000 people and the U.S. had three gun homicides for every 100,000 people. Because of the strict gun laws i...
Read more

“Trash: The Silent Killer” By Hannah H.

-
Image
Between California and Hawaii, there is a swirling vortex of trash that is threatening the underwater ecosystem. This mass of garbage grows every day, and researchers now say it is twice the size of Texas and will continue to increase exponentially. Many people have never heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Two questions that I have is how did we let this happen? And what can we do to fix it? Video link: https://youtu.be/0EyaTqezSzs  There are five offshore plastic accumulation sights in the world. The largest one is right by the U.S. in the North Pacific Ocean. The trash starts off in rivers and eventually makes its way to the ocean where the currents pull it into the gyres. Once there, it will break down into smaller microplastics making it less likely for the disintegrated trash ever to leave. Each year it is estimated that 1.15 to 2.41 millions tonnes of plastic enter the ocean each year. Most of the trash is less dense than water meaning it will float. Right now the ...
Read more

"Seeing the World - Destroying the World" by Stella R.

-
Image
Studies have found tourism has a large impact on global warming and environmental problems. Recently it has been found that tourism accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gases, which does not sound like much but is 4 times more than originally thought, and has shown to be growingat 4% annually. Greenhouse gases aren’t the only environment- harming effects of tourism, as tourism hurts biodiversity and creates ozone layer depletion. One of the biggest environmental problem tourism gives us is hurting biodiversity, taking over wildlife reserves and killing species. It hurts biodiversity as hotels, restaurants and tourist attraction are built, destroying rainforests and other land areas that used to be animal and plant habitats. So how is tourism hurting the environment so much? Tourism accounts for greenhouse gases mostly through transportation. Transportation caused 75% of tourisms greenhouse gases, with planes being the main source of that. Greenhouse gases are what causes the gree...
Read more