Cleaning Up Our Oceans

Climate change is partially the fault of man.  The 1.8 trillion pounds of plastic garbage found between California and Hawaii IS completely man made.  It's the result of careless people throwing was in the ocean, down storm drains, and boats and fishermen.  The result is 5 ocean garbage patches throughout the oceans of the world, that are killing ocean plants and animals at an alarming rate.

A Dutch scientist was diving in Greece at age 16 and saw tremendous garbage in the sea, more garbage than fish.  Many fish were dead, having become ensnared in fishing lines and nets.  He decided to devote his life to cleaning up the oceans.

92% of the plastic found in the oceans consists of large pieces, easier to clean up.  The remaining 8% are micro particles of plastic, once large pieces of plastic, that have been broken down and are much more difficult to clean up.  What scientists have done is created a floater that moves with the tides and forms a barrier around the debris area.  The fish can swim below the floater.  It picks up garbage, transports it to land where it is recycled and used to produce durable goods.  The floater uses solar energy, keeping it in constant touch with satellites, so there can be no interference with other activities.  This is a simplistic explanation of what the floater does and how it does it, but it does collect the garbage.

The projection is that this process could clean up 50% of the ocean debris in 5 years, and by 2050, our oceans could be ocean free.  Of course this takes everyone's cooperation.  We need to good managers of the planet, and dispose of plastic properly.  Amazing.  A young teenager's diving trip turned out to be a defining moment in his life.  Because of that diving trip, he has devoted his life to saving our oceans.  Oh, and he's only 24 years old.  What else will he do?

Go to brightvibes.com for short videos on all kinds of interesting environmental issues throughout the world.  You'll be surprised and fascinated by what's going on.