The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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Everybody throws away trash with little or no thought about where it’s going. What you might not know is that a lot of trash goes into our ocean. You may think it is not a big deal and that it’s just a little bit of trash in a really big ocean, but it’s not just a little bit of trash. In fact, it’s a whole lot. There is a place between California and Hawaii called the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, but is better known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. This area is the largest landfill in the world and is completely in the ocean. What are the effects of the landfill on the environment and how can it be prevented and rehabilitated to its original state?
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an area of the ocean filled with mostly rubbish, most of which are not biodegradable, such as plastic and glass. It continues to grow and accumulate each year and is twice the size of Texas!
The existence of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” was predicted by many oceanographers and climatologists. However, the actual discovery of the patch was made by a racing boat captain, Charles Moore. Moore was sailing from Hawaii to California, after competing in a yachting race crossing the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Moore and his crew noticed millions of pieces of plastic surrounding his ship. (National Geographic)

There is over 3.5 million pounds of plastic in the garbage patch. What are the effects of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on the environment and how can it be prevented and rehabilitated to its original state? Cleaning this is going to take effort and time and everyone can help.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a stretch of several thousand miles where plastic and other debris gather due to what is called the North P...

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... and yes, it will take a long time, but that is our fault. We can’t keep pretending that the patch is not there. We will be saving an abundance of wildlife and ourselves. You may think that you don’t live by the ocean so you can’t help the cause but that is not true. Everybody can help and must help. We need to do things such as reuse water bottles and plastic containers and to recycle! It won’t stop the patch from growing completely but it will greatly reduce the growth until we can find a more effective solution to keep the earth and its inhabitants healthy.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?ar_a=1 http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jul/10-the-worlds-largest-dump

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