3rd Hour - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Before this video and the article, i didn't think that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was that bad, due to the fact that i actually never heard of it before so i didn't have a clear mental image of it.
Now that i have heard of it and seen it, it does rise a cocern. I don't think this is the worst thing that can ever happen, it could be worse but this is an isolated section of water. It is killing wildlife but not to the point where they can become endangered anytime soon. But this is deffinatley something that needs to be taken care of, somethings just don't belong there, like a volleyball?!! That is the last place it should be. This ends up impacting humans by some of the waste drifting off into places that humans could gather food or water from which can lead to bad things happening. One obvious and easy solution would be to just recycle. It is not hard, it is not expensive, and its basically effortless but it can help tremendously for the enviornment. And there would be much less plastic and 'volleyballs' in the ocean being dumped and wasted polluting the Earth and the ecosystem.
t

Okay, so this isn't just a matter of "oh, it's destroying the little fishies' habitats. Too bad, but there's always other water for them to swim in." It's disgusting!!! You get grossed out when you see a band aid floating in the pool. This is sooooo much worse. The fact that the plastic floating around in there will eventually be on our dinner plate alone is enough of a reason to do something about this. Everyone is responsible for this garbage island, so everyone needs to help. Just because it's not in your backyard doesn't mean it's not your fault. Yeah, fish creep me out more than anything else, but they don't deserve to eat plastic.

[quote="jackie!!schultz"]This mess is disgusting and infuriating.

I hear you sister. People just don't care about the repercussions of throwing stuff into the water. People just disappoint me...

[quote="Lara Hamdan"] Lara, this could potentially be the worst thing to ever happen. If no one does anything, all our water will turn into that disgusting mess. We will have nothing to drink, because all forms of precipitation will be full of dangerous chemicals. We can't survive without water, so we'll kick the bucket.

I think that we really should care because that is just SICK ! it affects all humans because we are what we eat . and if we eat fish that eat OUR garbage we might as well be garbage. we can change this no before it gets even more worse than it already is. Its people out there that are making a living off of fishing! and they should be able to fish were there isn't trash and plastic floating all around! Its our fault . and more people should be aware because i know that i have never even heard about this before. . p.s. that picture on that article . almost made me throw up ! Ms.Hancock. . you dnt think you couldve warned us FIRST ?!

Erika Edmonds wrote:Okay, so this isn't just a matter of "oh, it's destroying the little fishies' habitats. Too bad, but there's always other water for them to swim in." It's disgusting!!! You get grossed out when you see a band aid floating in the pool. This is sooooo much worse. The fact that the plastic floating around in there will eventually be on our dinner plate alone is enough of a reason to do something about this. Everyone is responsible for this garbage island, so everyone needs to help. Just because it's not in your backyard doesn't mean it's not your fault. Yeah, fish creep me out more than anything else, but they don't deserve to eat plastic.

AGREE AGREE AGREE !! i do think that we should do something about it . but how can we? its already gotten so far that its sickening !

We should care because we have to think about something besides our ourselves, which is the animals that live in and around the ocean anD how it affects them but also humans. Plastic photodegrades which is just breaking down into smaller particles. Jellyfish and other small animals eat the pieces of plastic and other junk people contribute to the ocean, then other animals eat those, which in turn ends up inside them. Humans eat fish and other seafood so it ends up inside us. We don't even know yet what the effect will be from eating those foods that ate garbage. All of that trash also is most likely decreasing specie sizes, which contributes to endangered and extinct species.

[quote="dkeiyathomas"] I agree animals are eating plastic and they shouldn't be. They think they are getting nourishment but instead they just eat more and end up dying.

[quote="Keith E. Reece"] I agree people have been careless to let this happen. And although only 5% or maybe the video said less than5%, of plastics are recycled, not everyone is to blame. My family recycles 99% of the plastics we use. However, not all plastics are recyclable and St. Louis County doesn't allow us to recycle certain types of plastics. It would be good to figure out how to make every disposable item recyclable, but another thing is to figure out how do we get every human to recycle these?

[quote="adamobrock"]I agree. I wouldn't want plastic in my stomach. i would nnot be able to swallow it in the first place.

danirivera wrote:I knew that we had a waste problem, but I never realized how bad it is! To know that there is 3.5 millions pieces of trash floating around in the ocean is really unbelievable! I find myself asking the question, How could we let this happen? We are not only harming sea life,birds, but in the long run we are harming ourselves. I think it is important that we all start making a change whether it be recyling or not littering. It is not fair that the sea life and birds are suffering because of us.

True, I didn't know there was that much trash out there either. I don't see how humans could be so careless and litter and throw trash wherever they feel the need to and not think about how it affects them or the environment. Everyone needs to participate in making a change to see an improvement. Birds and animals are suffering because of us, and only we can protect their habitats for them since they can't recycle themselves, and don't use the products we use that end up in their homes.

adamobrock wrote:It is truly amazing to know just how much trash is being dumped into our oceans, and how long it lasts there. We should definitely care about this because we are desturbing a delicate food web by just dumpning our trash wherever. When fish try to eat the plastic, they can either suffocate or be poisoned and die. The lack of these fish will lead to a lack of food for other fish. This stars a chain reaction of fish dying of starvation. Also, like the video said, we could be eating our own trash. Since plastic does not decompose, it could transfer from animal to animal when the animal is eaten, and will sooner or later end in our stomachs. And trash in your stomach is not a pretty thought.
Also, with a trash mound that big, it is assumed than many of the fish had to relocate away from the trash mound. Introducing foreign animals in a new environment creates a problem for both the new and old animals. This leads to a fight for food, and can lead to the extinction of certain species.

I do agree with adam that we are disturbing the food web. The only thing he didn't say was that the fish that are poisoned we could eat which could hurt us in the end even more then the food chain being messed up.

alexushughes wrote:We should care because we have to think about something besides our ourselves, which is the animals that live in and around the ocean anD how it affects them but also humans. Plastic photodegrades which is just breaking down into smaller particles. Jellyfish and other small animals eat the pieces of plastic and other junk people contribute to the ocean, then other animals eat those, which in turn ends up inside them. Humans eat fish and other seafood so it ends up inside us. We don't even know yet what the effect will be from eating those foods that ate garbage. All of that trash also is most likely decreasing specie sizes, which contributes to endangered and extinct species.

Alexus picks up where adam did not state. I like how she puts us into the web instead of focusing on jsut the animals.

Every human should care about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch because it affects humans and animals alike. All the plastic is being consumed by fish and birds and it helps them in no way. Not only are they consuming the trash, but they are getting caught in it, which could eventually cause them to die. The Garbage Patch ultimately affects humans because the fish eat the plastic, and humans eat the fish. Which basically means we could be eating plastic every time we have a fish dinner, and the plastic isn't good for us either. I think this problem can be solved if humans can rely less on plastic. Yes it's a hard task, but if we were able to find some other thing to use besides plastic we would be contributing less to the garbage patch, global warming, and we wouldn't be wasting resources as much.

Jonesayy wrote:This is Bri Joe.. So I feel that we should care about the debri in the Pacific ocean. Not only is it killing animals put there but it affects us. Sea men can't fish out there because the water is contaminated and gross. You can't sail out there because the water is gross. Chemicals from all the debri sinks into the water which could spread to other places. In my opinion we should not litter and start to pick the stuff up. In the story it tells how the guy did it so why can't we? Not only does it contaminate the water but, it makes us as americans look bad to other country's. I mean there was a volleyball out there. It does not even make sense to why a volleyball is in the middle of a ocean. So we should just clean it up and care because its harming our earth and makes us look dirty.

Bria's right, it affects humans because we can't fish out there or sail out there. The chemicals affect everything in a bad way as well.

Keith E. Reece wrote:I can't believe that we didn't see this coming! Oh my God how could we have been so careless as to just let this happen. We're all to blame here. Anyone who has ever eaten a Hot Pocket or opened a package is at fault. The question is now, how do we make every disposable item recyclable, how to use less packaging, how do we clean the oceans quickly, safely, and economically?

Keith makes a good point. If we could make everything recyclable then there would be a lot less trash in the world.

[quote="JessLockette"]We should care because, animals are dying because of our careless ways. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch impacts humans because, when those animals die, they cause their predator(s) to die aswell, just causing a chain reaction. Then ultimately, the animals that we eat will be affected bedcause, they won't have anything to eat, so then our food will start to run low.

I agree with you Jessica because animals are dying because of our careless ways and about the chain reaction.

dkeiyathomas wrote:We should care about it being a large garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean because it is affecting the animals in the ocean. Instead of the animals eating the other animals that they usually eat and survive off of, they are eating plastic. Ultimately this will affect humans because humans may need some of the animals in the ocean to be used in their food. Also humans will be affected because slowly the number of animals living in the ocean will slowly decline and become extinct.

i like how you added the animals slowly declining and becoming extinct. I agree with what your saying and with whats happening to the animals

I agree with you keith. It is amazing how careless society is and we need to change now before too late

How come we didnt see this comin bruh. This is the time to were we alll need to come together and make a stand/change and find a solution to thiis vial problem. WE CAUSED IT< WE GOTTA FIX IT!!

[quote="JessLockette"]

dkeiyathomas wrote: I agree animals are eating plastic and they shouldn't be. They think they are getting nourishment but instead they just eat more and end up dying.

I agrree

1. Why should we care? How does the Great Pacific Garbage Patch ultimately impact humans?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a great deal and can affect humans negatively. While viewing the video an interesting topic was approached. The fact that the fish and animals are digesting the plastic is affecting both human and fish population. Meaning potientally the fish that digested the plastic is going into our meals that we consume. Yes they do get clean, but note thatthe plastic is very small and some piece may be missed. Thats personally disgusting. We should care about this problem,because animals are consuming plastice without self-consiousily being aware of it. They view it as food and its harming them and potientally killing them.

Devin McCullough wrote:We should care about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch because we are the reason why the garbage is there and it is harming innocent animals. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch ultimately impacts humans because we eat the sea animals that eat the plastic and become toxinated. So, humans would gain toxic chemicals from those sea animals.

I totally understand and this is a serious issue. I cannot believe that onbly 5% of plastic is being recycled.

dkeiyathomas wrote:We should care about it being a large garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean because it is affecting the animals in the ocean. Instead of the animals eating the other animals that they usually eat and survive off of, they are eating plastic. Ultimately this will affect humans because humans may need some of the animals in the ocean to be used in their food. Also humans will be affected because slowly the number of animals living in the ocean will slowly decline and become extinct.

i Understand and totally agree, this is an issue that we should approach with open minds

Jonesayy wrote:

alexushughes wrote:We should care because we have to think about something besides our ourselves, which is the animals that live in and around the ocean anD how it affects them but also humans. Plastic photodegrades which is just breaking down into smaller particles. Jellyfish and other small animals eat the pieces of plastic and other junk people contribute to the ocean, then other animals eat those, which in turn ends up inside them. Humans eat fish and other seafood so it ends up inside us. We don't even know yet what the effect will be from eating those foods that ate garbage. All of that trash also is most likely decreasing specie sizes, which contributes to endangered and extinct species.

Alexus picks up where adam did not state. I like how she puts us into the web instead of focusing on jsut the animals.

It is a very good point she brings up! But at the same time it is important to realize that it is our fault as humans. So it is not fair the animals and sea life is suffering because of us. I believe we should focus on them. Quick Side note, I love your response alexsus! you used you noggin and related it to what we learned in class. Gold star for you!