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the great pacific garbage patch examples
essay about the pacific garbage patch
literature review on plastic pollution
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Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a 2013 environment documentary movie directed by Angela Sun who love telling the stories about water. This times, she tells us the stories about how do the plastic product and garbage threaten our earth. Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch reminds human the serious issues of highly consumption of plastic products. The movie opens with Angela Sun ask the people where do the plastic garbage finally go and what do the plastic make from. Nowadays, everywhere we go are surrounded by plastic. For example, we drink from it, eat from it. People from all walks of life depend on plastic so much as it is a cheap and convenient product. However, people do not know where do the plastic finally …show more content…
In this documentary, Angela Sun would like to lead us to find out the answers of these thesis. In the major part of the movie, Angela Sun and other environmental activists go to diverse enormous “garbage land” in the worldwide where do the global plastic debris concentrates in. There are also so many shocking statistics about the amount of plastic garbage can showcase how serious are the problems are. Besides, she investigates how the substantial amount of plastic garbage threaten the eco-system. To strengthen the point of view that how plastic by-product affect human’s health, there is an experiment of BPA mimics estrogens on Angela Sun which are some chemicals released by plastic products and harm the human. In this experiment, they can realize that how fast can the BPA pollute human. What is the most important thing is Angela Sun goes to the plastic industry trade association(SPI) and uses hidden camera footage for interviewing the profession of plastic industry about the BPA. Surprisingly, most of these profession have no idea about that and even the Food and Safety Tester claims that it is very low level of BPA in their plastic products which …show more content…
Firstly, I love their filming skill which utilizes the hidden camera footage. To be a documentary, hidden camera footage is the most exciting element as it can expose the secrets that people do not realize. The hidden camera footage show audience an ethic issue among the plastic industry. As I mentioned above, most of the profession of the plastic industry even unconcerned the by-product of the plastic and how it harms our earth. Because of this filming skill, audience can appreciate the truth and it also can attempt the aim of the documentary, recording the truth without any disturbance. Secondly, one of the strength of the documentary is that it has enough conviction. An example of how a point is strongly made is the convincing BPA experiment. As the documentary mentioned, BPA have been found in 93% in human. Among this thesis, Angela Sun tests what is the effect on her blood after touching the plastic which involve BPA by other experts. Ultimately, the consequence of the experiment is obvious enough to indicate the harmful effect of BPA on human body. Finally, the documentary chooses the right evidences to demonstrate the point. After watching the documentary, I feel upset and sorry about that although all of the plastic garbage are made by human, the environment has to sustain most of the harmful consequences and human
This pollution problem is so ubiquitous plastic can be found throughout the marine environment from coastlines to near shore lagoons to remote ocean hotspots where plastics caught up in marine currents. And gathered up into huge garbage patches that swirl
Gillis, C. (2011). Trashing the island: why the 'garbage patch' in the mid-Pacific is not nearly the disaster it's been made out to be.(ENVIRONMENT). Maclean's, (3). 53.
originally been discarded on land” ( Weisman.) Moore estimated that the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” alone has roughly three million tons of plastic waste in it, and has grown by 100 percent over the past 40 years. It’s crazy to think we are polluting the only home humans have; filling the oceans of the world carelessly with waste.
Since 1950, Americans alone have used more resources than everyone who ever lived before them. Each American individual uses over twenty tons of basic raw materials annually and over two million plastic bottles an hour. Just by Americans alone, the total yearly waste could fill up multiple garbage trucks and wrap around Earth six times and reach half way to the moon. In the book Affluenza by John De Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor they state, “In 1996, we used nearly a third of its resources and produced almost half of its hazardous waste” (--). Which has resulted in millions of tons of plastic that has entered the oceans. The survival of many species are being jeopardized by the plastic
Charles Moore first discovered the garbage patch in 1997 between Hawaii and the coast of California. It is roughly double the size of Texas and can be 100 feet deep in some places. The increase in the amount of garbage in the gyre is due to the increased use of plastic on land (Kostigen 2008). The pollution that is non-biodegradable in the ocean comes directly form the carelessness of human consumers. When a consumer discards litter, such as a plastic bag or empty soda bottle, it has the potential to reach the ocean through ocean dumping or blowing wind. These methods of pollution are the causes of this great mass of pollution. The trash that makes up these landfills comes from both the eastern shores of Japan as well as the Western coast of the United S...
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is sometimes referred to as the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch and the Pacific Trash Vortex is a floating patch of garbage that has collected in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, which is located in the middle of two high-pressure areas between Hawaii and California. The majority of the garbage, which is also called marine debris, in the patch is plastic, but items made from other materials such as glass and rubber are also present. Though the garbage patch is too large and goes too deep under the surface of the ocean for scientists to determine exactly how much garbage is in it, they have collected up to 750,000 bits of plastic one square kilometer (CITE). This sort of debris floating around in the ocean is dangerous for several reasons. One important reason is that marine animals mistake some of the garbage, especially plastics, for food (CITE). Another reason that the floating debris is so dangerous is because it can block sunlight from reaching deeper levels of the ocean, and thus, it removes the energy source for many autotrophs like alga...
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest garbage dump in the world. According to estimates made by experts, the patch holds approximately three and a half million tons of garbage. Majority of this garbage is made of plastic. This waste is a threatening problem to the patch’s surrounding wildlife. Many animals are caught in the floating pieces of trash and it is the cause of the deaths of about one million birds and about one hundred thousand other sea animals. Due to the oceans nature and constant moving currents, the trash is also constantly moving. Therefore the size of the patch never stays the exact same. However, scientists believe it be approximately two times the size of Texas. The plastic is mostly broken down from larger materials into small pieces. The patch has been referred to as one scientist as a, “plastic soup”. This garbage poses such a threat mainly because it does not biodegrade. These plastics will be in the ocean essentially forever. Many plastics also contain chemicals, and absorb other chemicals and pollutants they become exposed to. These newly absorbed toxins are then leaked and distributed back into the ocean over time. The chemicals can directly enter the bodies of the animals which consume them. A study was being conducted by scientists of the fish that inhabit the area around the patch. What the researchers found inside the belly of one fish (that was no larger in size than that of a finger), was eighty four small fragments of plastic. It does not take scientists to recognize the impact of this problem, Zach Gold, who is sixteen, is from Santa Monica California. Zach enjoys s...
While a beautiful sunset on the beach can be astounding, a spectacular scene is not the only benefit oceans provide. Without the oceans, we would not have adequate amounts of oxygen to breathe or enough protein to eat. The Earth's climate would not be inhabitable for human beings and many animals. The oceans supply medicines, food and drinking water which arise from ocean processes. Out of the five oceans, the Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest and deepest ocean. It spreads over an area of 165.2 million square kilometers. More than 25,000 islands float within the Pacific. Within the Pacific Ocean lies an unusual island, an island that is more than twice the size of Texas and is earth’s largest landfill, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (McLendon). Society is unaware that the excess use of plastic and other non-biodegradable materials has ended up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is the main source of ocean pollution. The solutions, ranging from manual clean-up to eliminating any further obliteration to the Garbage Patch, will reduce the amount of effluence the world has to endure.
“Solutions to Plastic Pollution in our ocean” Natural Resources Defense Council. 3 March 2014. web 20 April 2014http://nrdc.org/oceans/plastic-ocean/default.asp
The main effect of this plastic is pollution. In passage 3 it states that ” We have so much to thank the oceans for; however, they are threatened daily by natural and manmade pollution. Ocean pollution comes in many forms, but the largest factor affecting the oceans is plastic”.
We are living on a plastic planet. Starting from the air that we breathe, the food that we eat, and the soil that we live on, plastic is everywhere. It may be hard to believe that a substance that was made for convenience would turn into a product that could ultimately destroy our planet. Plastic is a non-biodegradable material that has been mass produced for our convenience since the 1950’s. Today, over 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into the ocean each year and is estimated to increase to 800 million tons by the year 2025. The film “A Plastic Ocean” uncovers the plastic issue that is ever so prevalent in today’s world and shines a light on the reality of what we as humans are doing to our oceans.
It generates hazardous waste that is ultimately deposited in the oceans’ shores. As most of the plastics deposited are non-biodegradable. The plastic pollution is damaging the marine life as well as the well being of human. In the article “Plastic Pollution” by Kiener, it is stated that the plastic comprises of 10 percent of all ocean debris. It has been estimated that about 100 million tons of plastics are used worldwide everyday, and only 5 percent of the plastic is recycled because most types of plastic cannot be recycled economically. Kiener also notes in his article that approximately 2.4 million pounds an hour of plastic enters in the world’s oceans everyday. Therefore, the most important thing that we can do is, to stop plastic waste from entering the oceans in the first
Since the 1960s when plastic bottles were widely distributed, there have been several negative externalities resulting from their consumption and disposal. Flooding landfills and leaking into water supplies, debris fortified with chemicals that are often ingested by marine life, harmful emissions caused by its incineration, and the difficulty of recycling are just a few of the negative externalities that costs millions in. About 4 percent of the world’s oil production is used as raw materials to fuel the machines that make plastics, and people all over the world are exposed to chemicals from plastic several times each day through the air, dust, water, food and use of consumer
Plastic pollution negatively affects America’s future. The origin of this environmental pollution is caused by the excessive lack of ethics that human beings have. Many times, people throw garbage on the streets, seas, etc. Not knowing that this will be severely altered the environment, and planet earth conditions. Environmental pollution is found in many places such as plastic products, cleaning products, food, animals, personal care products, and the most dangerous in the environment where the oxygen we breathe and share with other living beings (Eriksen 2013).
Using plastic bags are second nature to people in this day and age. Warner acknowledges, “Much to the dismay of the environmentally conscious citizens worldwide, the ubiquity of the free plastic carryout bag has bred nonchalant consumers who take this modern convenience for granted” (646). Although some people are conscious about the environment, people strive more for convenience and do not think about the impacts using bags have not only on the environment, but on themselves as well. If something is bad for the environment, it will alternatively be bad for humans as well. When plastic bags are exposed to the sun from being littered all around, the ultraviolet rays cause the substances of plastic bags to weaken. After the substances weaken, the substances become invisible to the naked eye. The substances that are no longer able to be seen are toxic to humans (Warner 649). As a result of plastic bags being littered around, animals consume plastic bags. This is negatively affects humans because animals are often consumed. When humans consume animals like, fish, there can be plastic in the fish’s belly, which then transfers to the humans and this poses a concern for human’s health. Humans are negatively affected by plastic bags because of the toxic chemicals in plastic bags, as well as, consuming animals with plastic in their