The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of 5 major ocean regions devastated by enormous amounts of trash and is believed to be the world’s largest landfill estimated at 2 times the size of Texas. It consists of two vortexes of garbage collected by ocean currents. This gigantic accumulation of plastic was discovered by Charles Moore 13 years ago in 1997 when he was returning from a yacht race and decided to sale through the North Pacific Gyre.

“As I gazed from the deck at the surface of what ought to have been a pristine ocean. I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic. It seemed unbelievable, but I never found a clear spot. In the week it took to cross the subtropical high, no matter what time of day I looked, plastic debris was floating everywhere: bottles, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments.”
- Charles Moore

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The North Pacific Gyre is the largest ecosystem on earth and has been immensely effected by this garbage patch.

What's it made out of?

Disposable plastic is the culprit.

Single use, toss away, one-time plastic is fulfilling 5 minutes of purpose before becoming useless and incredibly harmful garbage for hundreds of years. Disposable plastic makes up 90% of the garbage in the oceans. This includes plastic bags, bottle caps, disposable water bottles, and styrofoam.   Plastic never biodegrades into another substance. Plastic will always, always be plastic. Instead it photodegrades, it breaks down to smaller fragments in the presence of sunlight. It takes about 500-1000 years for plastic to photodegrade.

The Great Pacific garbage patch isn't visible from satellites because it consists of tiny pieces of plastic that have photo degenerated. Most of this plastic has become so small that it is invisible to the human eye. A great deal of it has become a similar size as to phytoplankton, which is the foundation of the marine food chain. Filter feeders from small fish to whales are mistaking the plastic for plankton and eating it. Larger fish who eat many of the smaller fish are getting all of the plastic from the smaller fish because their bodies cannot process plastic out. This leads to bioaccumulation of plastic and increasingly toxic animals as you move up the food chain (this is called biomagnification). As a result of biomagnification some whales and dolphins are even labeled as toxic waste.

80% off all garbage in the ocean has come from land.
Because sea level is lower then land elevation; wind, rain and other types of weather can easily take lightweight plastic into bodies of water that’ll carry them into the ocean. 

 

Effect on wild life

Plastic is being consumed by animals who mistaken it for food

Bottle caps and lighters for birds and plastic bags and balloons for turtles (who eat jellyfish, which plastic bags and balloons look like in the water) are the most commonly ingested items. 

“A turtle found dead in Hawaii had over a thousand pieces of plastic in its stomach and intestines. It has been estimated that over a million sea birds and one hundred thousand marine mammals and sea turtles are killed each year by ingestion of plastics or entanglement."
- Greenpeace

Effect on Us

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is just one of many examples of how we are abusing our resources and destroying our planet. Since plastic and toxic chemicals from plastic are finding their way into the ocean’s food chain, we’re finding them on our dinner plates and in our bodies. Our body processes these plastics the same way it processes fat. Plastic is stored on the body as energy and when we loose fat the concentration of plastic increases because the concentration of fat decreased. Scientist are constantly discovering how toxins from plastics are disrupting the natural functioning of our bodies and the heath risks that are a product of it. Mothers producing milk, which is essentially fat, are transferring the toxins from her body to her child’s through her milk. 

Plastic toxicity is also said to be linked with obesity, birth defects, cancers, immune system suppression and developmental problems in the young.

The ocean also has a huge effect on our weather, temperature and overall climate and these effects could turn violently negative if we continue to consume and discarded at the rate we are now. Cleaning up the ocean manually is out of financial reach and could cause unpredictable damage to wildlife.

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Together the 5 garbage patches cover 40% of our oceans

If you don’t think our lifestyle is having an impact on our planet, your denial won’t save you from the consequences. Think of all the inorganic waste you produce, every day, every week, every month, every year, All of that waste is still right here on earth. We need to stop the build up and start the clean up by changing our unsustainable practises in our everyday life. Small changes in our day-to-day routine build up, just as bioaccumulation and bio-magnification build up and make a massive difference.

sources: national geographic / wikipedia / greenpeace / newint.org / factmonster.com / savemyoceans.com / ecology.com / sciencedaily.com

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like a fairytale

 






congratulations to kate middleton and prince william!
they look so beautiful together. like something out of a fairytale

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earth day

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.  

- Native American Proverb

April 22 is the one official day of the year for celebrating our planet and to recognize our role in the environment of our home.  Everything we take, create, use, consume and throw out stays right here on earth. We use so much we don’t need, so much of what we happily could have gone without, so much of what takes us no where and it all doesn’t go anywhere else. All our garbage, our air pollution, stays right on and in the atmosphere of our planet. Plastic takes thousands or even millions of years to disintegrate, the garbage trucks just take it somewhere else for it to stay for the next millenniums. Everyone only needs to use a little for it to add up to being a lot. 

A plastic milk jug takes 1 million years to decompose.
Today, Americans generate 10.5 million tons of plastic waste a year but recycle only 1 or 2 % of it. - greenfeet.net

It can be hard to believe but there are 7 billion people living on earth, people who need to eat, breath, space, and resources. People who will have children who will need the same. People who will need the earth just as much as we do. We have been using too much of what has been doing too little for us. How much do you throw away? Do you know where it goes? Do you know how long it will be there? Do you know how much more there is for you to take? With constant awareness and we can make this common knowledge and being green a habit to save our habitat.   Here's what you can do, lets make it right, lets do it now.



stop buying bottled water
29 billion plastic disposable water bottles are produced a year using up 17 million barrels of oil annually.
Tap water is actually safer than bottled water, regardless of what the corporations have been telling you, because it more closely regulated. Spring water or bottled water actually isn't always inspected. Attach a filter to your tap if your not convinced instead of buying water, the plastic can be recycled but it also takes a lot of energy to recycle it, just as it takes a lot of energy to produce it.

Don't buy CDs/DVDs, instead rent or download
Over 1200000 CDs and DVDs end up in landfills every year. DVDs and CDs are both unrecyclable.

Read Newspapers, Magazines, etc. online
10 million tons of unrecycled newspaper are thrown away every year, if half of that was recycled 75 million tress would be saved. Every 20 seconds a tree is cut down and each year important rainforests like the tropic rainforest in Brazil are dramatically reduced in size. Forests are so important, the diversity of animals and plants living there should not be touched, the cure to cancer may be hidden in a forest and if we keep destroying forests we may loose.


use a laptop instead of a desktop computer
laptops use up to 70% less energy than a desktop computer,
plus their smaller size means they take less material to make and will take up less room in your compartments


Buy a used car
Used vehicles are even more efficient than purchasing a hybrid vehicle because of the electricity and materials it takes to make the vehicle.



Go vintage
Wearing pre-worn clothes helps the earth more than buying clothes made out of organic fibres or thread. Again, it takes a lot of energy to manufacture items.


Eat less meat
Cattle farming is the #1 cause to deforestation. Most of which is to raise beef for fast food restaurants. Try to have a meat free day once a week or as much as possible!

Protect the earth. 

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japan 9.0 magnitude earthquake

hi everyone, thank you all so much for all the tips and advice on new york for my trip. i feel so blessed for all your support.

On March 11, 2011 japan was hit with an enormous earthquake the 5th largest earthquake of all time and the hardest earthquake Japan has ever faced. The tragic earthquake in Haiti last year had a magnitude of 7.0 and try to recall the amount massive of damage it inflicted and all the lives it took, the one that erupted in Japan today is 707.945 larger than that haiti earthquake.

"The quake that struck 2:46 p.m. was followed by a series of aftershocks, including a 7.4-magnitude one about 30 minutes later. The US Geological Survey upgraded the strength of the first quake to a magnitude 8.9, after initially saying it was 7.9. The quake struck at a depth of 10km, about 125km off the eastern coast, the agency said. The area is 380 kilometres northeast of Tokyo. The quake was so strong it moved the entire country's location by approximately 2 meters (about 6.6 feet) "

 

Luckily, because Japan experiences small earthquakes frequently, they are better prepared. most buildings are constructed to be much safer in the event of an earthquake, (Japan is said to be the most prepared nation the world for earthquakes) however because this one is so strong there still has been catastrophic damage and many areas have been swallowed by water.

the death toll exceeds 10,000 (updated march 13, souce: daily nation and CBC news) thousands remain missing. Many of those deaths were cause from drowning, numerous aftershocks followed the initial earthquake and tsunami warnings were issued all along the pacific coast.

tsunami warning predictions in Japan

Fortunately, the tsunami waves produced from the quake have not caused extensive damage along the Pacific rim, however 1 person is confirmed dead from the harbor of Crescent City, California after attempting to photograph the tsunami waves. Japan was already facing a huge problem with depopulation as the economy forced everyone, woman included to work full-time and less people had the time to start a family. it is unknown how japan will repair itself from this disaster
"Prime Minister Naoto Kan addressed the nation shortly after the quake, saying the government will do "everything possible to minimize the damage." " - The Washington Post

even today (Saturday, March 12, 2011) japan is still, experiencing and expecting more aftershocks.  another earthquake with a magnitude of over 7.0 is expected (70% chance) within the next week. Japan has faced over 370 aftershocks since Friday. 

"On Saturday, an estimated 6.4-magnitude quake hit near the east coast of Honshu at about 10:15 p.m. local time, just 82 kilometers from Fukushima, home of the already damaged nuclear reactor that stoked fears of a meltdown. Another quake on Saturday registered 6.1. - CTV news

students show their support in their school in Ahmedabad, India

Canada: Text REDCROSS to 30333 to donate $10
USA: Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 

As of March 12, Canadians have already donated over $77,000 to the Red Cross! (source) Please show your support!

to learn more please read these from the boston globe, CTV news , the Japan Meterological Agency and earthquake.usgs.gov
have a loved one in japan? wireless phones are down but landlines are still working! (call 613-943-1055 or 1-800-387-3124) or try google person finder.

UPDATE (3/12/2011): The Japan Meteorological Agency has revised the magnitude of Friday’s earthquake to 9.0, up from 8.9. (source: BBC news)


this post will be edited as a i get more information, my heart goes out to everyone suffering from this earthquake and i hope help comes quickly to those in need.

it seems we just keep discovering the earthquake was worse and worse. stay strong japan!







 

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