5th Hour - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Visit YouTube.com to view either CNN's "Garbage Island" or "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Good Morning America." Then read Charles Moore's "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch." Reflect on the video & article, and answer ONE of the following questions. In addition to your posted reflection, respond to the postings of TWO of your classmates.

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

2. Suggest a solution to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. How can we solve this problem? Why is your solution better tahn other options?

The article by Charles Moore can be accessed at: http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm

Initial Posting: Due Thursday, September 8 at 11:59 pm
Response Postings: Due Sunday, September 11 at 11:59 pm.

I think that we should care about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The garbage patch reaches all the way to China, and many things that we buy in the United States are made in China. Another thing that caught my attention was that small fish are starting to eat the trash that is in that patch. I would be concerned with eating any type of fish that came from that area because I would be afraid that I would be eating plastic. Yuck. Personaly, I think that the Earth isn't a trash can, and that we should recycle recyclable items and toss the rest into the trash can. The government should create better laws about waste management.

We should care because this will effect not only humans, but animals lives as well. Fish are consuming the plastic and there is more plastic than plankton in that region which means less food for the fish which will kill fish and then bigger fish that feed on the smaller fish will also die from hunger. This could affect whole ecosystems if the problem doesnt stop. Also this could affect humans in the same way, as more and more animals die, the less food we have as well, although its a benefit to be on the top of the food chain, there is still only a limited amount of food supply not made from animals. Also all this trash could eventually build up and get into water supplies, which could contaminate our water, this garbage patch could turn into a huge disaster.

KristinaRider wrote:I think that we should care about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The garbage patch reaches all the way to China, and many things that we buy in the United States are made in China. Another thing that caught my attention was that small fish are starting to eat the trash that is in that patch. I would be concerned with eating any type of fish that came from that area because I would be afraid that I would be eating plastic. Yuck. Personaly, I think that the Earth isn't a trash can, and that we should recycle recyclable items and toss the rest into the trash can. The government should create better laws about waste management.

I agree with what your saying because we have similar views on the fish, and if this doesnt stop it could affect the world as a whole.

I think that we should care about the garbage in our oceans. The garbage in the oceans are effecting everyone's lives. It not only harms us but also the food chain. The trail of garbage travels all the way to China which is not good at all. If you were find ant type of specie in that strip of the ocean you would find inside, all the garbage that was taken in while they were trying to look for food and live their lives. Scientist say that if the fish eat it then we eat it too. I think this is very true because fish is in our diet which makes his diet our diet. With all this garbage in our system more health issues are going to come occur and the death rate may or mat not rise, depending on whether cures can be found in time. I think that the garbage is put there just because of the simple fact that we are all lazy. When we walk down the street and there is trash in our hand we don't want to hold on to it so we just drop it. The dropping of the smallest thing is the start of a huge world-wide issue. We all have a say and role in this issue. I think that the government should be more strict on RECYCLING EVERYTHING possible and put TRASH in the TRASH CAN!!! I think just these few little changes can help make a change in life for our future generations. Our world needs to work together as a team and " there is no I in team " this means that a few people here and there won't do it.

i didn't know that the garbage patch streched all the way from the coast of california all the way to china. athe fact that the fishes may be digesting the plastic items and we may be eating the same thing scares me. the thing that we do on a daily bases including littering and not recycling really shows how we feel about what we are doing to ourselves and of animals. the more we pollute of community the more we pollute ourselves. there should not be any such thing as a Garbage patch, there is no excuse. the community provides us with recycling bins. you dont even have to spend money out of your own pocket to help the community, all you have to do is take the time to do your part.

Ben Johnson wrote:

KristinaRider wrote:I think that we should care about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The garbage patch reaches all the way to China, and many things that we buy in the United States are made in China. Another thing that caught my attention was that small fish are starting to eat the trash that is in that patch. I would be concerned with eating any type of fish that came from that area because I would be afraid that I would be eating plastic. Yuck. Personaly, I think that the Earth isn't a trash can, and that we should recycle recyclable items and toss the rest into the trash can. The government should create better laws about waste management.

I agree with what your saying because we have similar views on the fish, and if this doesnt stop it could affect the world as a whole.

i agree with you how does it make us look that we can't even take out the time to help out the people and animals that help us survive. sometimes the things that we do really do effect us in ways we can't understand. we treat our home like a garbage can is right instead a home.

KristinaRider wrote:I think that we should care about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The garbage patch reaches all the way to China, and many things that we buy in the United States are made in China. Another thing that caught my attention was that small fish are starting to eat the trash that is in that patch. I would be concerned with eating any type of fish that came from that area because I would be afraid that I would be eating plastic. Yuck. Personaly, I think that the Earth isn't a trash can, and that we should recycle recyclable items and toss the rest into the trash can. The government should create better laws about waste management.

instead of us thinking only of ourselves it is time to think of others. i agree with you we do treat home like a trash can. we ca't even take out the time to help ourselves in the proccess. this Garbae patch is not only hurting otherws and animals it is effecting us. its time to stop being lazy in do something good.

Why should we care?! The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is absolutely embarrassing and is disgusting! Who in the world would want to life like that? It was stated in the video that not only is this "island" affecting the sea life but humans as well. For Christ sake, the issue has reaching China, one of the most important countries we depend on for most of our supplies. Its not fair that some women in China can not have children because others do not want to properly dispose of their plastic. I would HATE to go out into the sea and see nothing but floating trash every where! Why would we NOT care about whats going on in the place we live?

serenasomerville wrote:i didn't know that the garbage patch streched all the way from the coast of california all the way to china. athe fact that the fishes may be digesting the plastic items and we may be eating the same thing scares me. the thing that we do on a daily bases including littering and not recycling really shows how we feel about what we are doing to ourselves and of animals. the more we pollute of community the more we pollute ourselves. there should not be any such thing as a Garbage patch, there is no excuse. the community provides us with recycling bins. you dont even have to spend money out of your own pocket to help the community, all you have to do is take the time to do your part.

The problem with our community is a good amount of people just do not care! They believe that since they are not being harmed directly then there is no problem about. That's just America for you

Ben Johnson wrote:We should care because this will effect not only humans, but animals lives as well. Fish are consuming the plastic and there is more plastic than plankton in that region which means less food for the fish which will kill fish and then bigger fish that feed on the smaller fish will also die from hunger. This could affect whole ecosystems if the problem doesnt stop. Also this could affect humans in the same way, as more and more animals die, the less food we have as well, although its a benefit to be on the top of the food chain, there is still only a limited amount of food supply not made from animals. Also all this trash could eventually build up and get into water supplies, which could contaminate our water, this garbage patch could turn into a huge disaster.

I believe that the garbage has already turned into a disaster it's just gaining momentum as the year goes on and no one does anything about it.

Of course we should care about this. It's not only affecting the ocean, it's affecting the fish, the plants in the ocean, our ecosystems, OUR HEALTH. How people could just let that happen astounds me. I'm not one to judge others, but yeah, I'm gonna judge someone if they don't care about the horribleness the garbage patch is.

One real solution I have to this, not sure if they already have this or not and how efficient it would actually be, but What if we had a hydroelectric plant at the Mississippi Delta? We could be killing two birds with one stone. (Figuratively, figuratively)
Plus 1: We would get more energy there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been taught that Deltas have faster currents than in the rivers. If we have a strong current coming through the plant, wouldn't we get more energy from that?
Plus 2: Scientist are smart, so they could probably figure out a way to filter out the broken plastic before it actually reaches the ocean. If we had a way to control the plastic coming in, it would most likely be easier to get the plastic out in a consistent pace.
Con 1: Affecting the fish population. But if you think about it, it would eventually help in the long run. We would be filtering out the plastic, cleaning their environment and getting it back to the way its supposed to be. They would no longer die from the plastic, allowing them to breed more.
Con 2: We would have to spend money on making/running the plant. But honestly, in my opinion, Our health/Our Earth tromps Money. Politicians might disagree, but I think we should try saving our butts before our economy's. If we spend so much time trying to save the economy, there won't be a need to save our butts. For all we know, we could be dead by then.

Or we could really just try to educate people about the effects of putting plastic in the trash and not in the recycle. I bet a lot of people, just don't know about the effect. If they care about it and change their ways, who knows? Maybe that would be enough to decrease the plastic in the ocean.

We as humans should care because we are eventually eating our own garbage once it cylces through the food web and back to us. The great pacific garbage patch has linked us with the early diabetes, problems with the liver, kidney and other crisises around the world. Also the effects have been linked with more women having miscarriages. we should care because the "patch" is already the size of Texas so if we don't do something about it its just gonna keep getting bigger and bigger and if its already 3 million tons in weight, that seems like too big of a problem already, so why let it get worse and worse. The suns rays are just gonna break the plastic up more and more making the plastic harder and harder to pick up. Animals are dieing because of our mistakes, does that seem fair?

KristinaRider wrote:I think that we should care about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The garbage patch reaches all the way to China, and many things that we buy in the United States are made in China. Another thing that caught my attention was that small fish are starting to eat the trash that is in that patch. I would be concerned with eating any type of fish that came from that area because I would be afraid that I would be eating plastic. Yuck. Personaly, I think that the Earth isn't a trash can, and that we should recycle recyclable items and toss the rest into the trash can. The government should create better laws about waste management.

i agree with you that the earth isnt a trash can but on the other hand i disagree that the responsibility should directly be the governments problem. in my opinion their role is only to force those to foolish to do the right thing on our own. It is all of our responsibility.

Ben Johnson wrote:We should care because this will effect not only humans, but animals lives as well. Fish are consuming the plastic and there is more plastic than plankton in that region which means less food for the fish which will kill fish and then bigger fish that feed on the smaller fish will also die from hunger. This could affect whole ecosystems if the problem doesnt stop. Also this could affect humans in the same way, as more and more animals die, the less food we have as well, although its a benefit to be on the top of the food chain, there is still only a limited amount of food supply not made from animals. Also all this trash could eventually build up and get into water supplies, which could contaminate our water, this garbage patch could turn into a huge disaster.

i agree that we should fix this for the fish but us Americans could carry on without eating fish, but i think the problem would be if we stopped eating fish because they were bad for us then the people who fish for a living would be out of a job and with the economy as bad as it is, we need all the jobs we can get.

I think that we should care about the garbage that is seeping its way into our oceans.It not only affects the ocean, it affects the fish, the plants in the ocean, our ecosystems, and most of all our health. people are too concerned about themselves to think, hey i'm harming another creature, because of me something that lives and breathes will one day cease to exist. Instead they think, Oh as long as it's not me i don't care.

Ben Johnson wrote:We should care because this will effect not only humans, but animals lives as well. Fish are consuming the plastic and there is more plastic than plankton in that region which means less food for the fish which will kill fish and then bigger fish that feed on the smaller fish will also die from hunger. This could affect whole ecosystems if the problem doesnt stop. Also this could affect humans in the same way, as more and more animals die, the less food we have as well, although its a benefit to be on the top of the food chain, there is still only a limited amount of food supply not made from animals. Also all this trash could eventually build up and get into water supplies, which could contaminate our water, this garbage patch could turn into a huge disaster.

I think that we should care about the garbage that is seeping its way into our oceans.It not only affects the ocean, it affects the fish, the plants in the ocean, our ecosystems, and most of all our health. people are too concerned about themselves to think, hey i'm harming another creature, because of me something that lives and breathes will one day cease to exist. Instead they think, Oh as long as it's not me i don't care.

Hayz.Adkison wrote:I think that we should care about the garbage in our oceans. The garbage in the oceans are effecting everyone's lives. It not only harms us but also the food chain. The trail of garbage travels all the way to China which is not good at all. If you were find ant type of specie in that strip of the ocean you would find inside, all the garbage that was taken in while they were trying to look for food and live their lives. Scientist say that if the fish eat it then we eat it too. I think this is very true because fish is in our diet which makes his diet our diet. With all this garbage in our system more health issues are going to come occur and the death rate may or mat not rise, depending on whether cures can be found in time. I think that the garbage is put there just because of the simple fact that we are all lazy. When we walk down the street and there is trash in our hand we don't want to hold on to it so we just drop it. The dropping of the smallest thing is the start of a huge world-wide issue. We all have a say and role in this issue. I think that the government should be more strict on RECYCLING EVERYTHING possible and put TRASH in the TRASH CAN!!! I think just these few little changes can help make a change in life for our future generations. Our world needs to work together as a team and " there is no I in team " this means that a few people here and there won't do it.

I think that we should care about the garbage that is seeping its way into our oceans.It not only affects the ocean, it affects the fish, the plants in the ocean, our ecosystems, and most of all our health. people are too concerned about themselves to think, hey i'm harming another creature, because of me something that lives and breathes will one day cease to exist. Instead they think, Oh as long as it's not me i don't care.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is definitely an issue I wasn't aware of. I think it's crazy on how big this "patch" is and how careless and unaware people are of this matter. This is definitely something we should be concerned about. Why? Well because our carelessness could severely damage oceanic ecosystems and threaten the aquatic wildlife. How does that affect us? If the animals in the ocean are beginning to die off or their ecosystems are thrown out of whack, this could affect their population. if their population decreases, then we won't have as much seafood. this doesn't mean if aquatic animals die off then we do, this is just saying that if we dont act on this matter, we might have to cut down on our seafood cosumption. Nobody who ejoys seafood wants to do that. So please, recycle your plastics and metals and paper. dont litter. do your part in saving the sea animals and cleaning up the Pacific ocean.

Ben Johnson wrote:We should care because this will effect not only humans, but animals lives as well. Fish are consuming the plastic and there is more plastic than plankton in that region which means less food for the fish which will kill fish and then bigger fish that feed on the smaller fish will also die from hunger. This could affect whole ecosystems if the problem doesnt stop. Also this could affect humans in the same way, as more and more animals die, the less food we have as well, although its a benefit to be on the top of the food chain, there is still only a limited amount of food supply not made from animals. Also all this trash could eventually build up and get into water supplies, which could contaminate our water, this garbage patch could turn into a huge disaster.

Ben I agree with your statement and Im completely in favor of your argument. This careless behavior could turn into a national or even a world disaster.

KristinaRider wrote:I think that we should care about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The garbage patch reaches all the way to China, and many things that we buy in the United States are made in China. Another thing that caught my attention was that small fish are starting to eat the trash that is in that patch. I would be concerned with eating any type of fish that came from that area because I would be afraid that I would be eating plastic. Yuck. Personaly, I think that the Earth isn't a trash can, and that we should recycle recyclable items and toss the rest into the trash can. The government should create better laws about waste management.

Kristina i dont want to eat plastic either;i heard it doesnt sit well with my stomach. if we could all just do our part in recycling all the items that can be recycled and making sure all wastes make it to a trash can, then we can clean up the Pacific Ocean and save those animals. And ourselves.!

People should care about the garbage in the ocean- it is undeniably man-made. Pollutants from plastic can inhibit ocean wildlife and ultimately contaminate human food. People should be less lazy and recycle plastic because that is the only proper disposal of plastic waste.

DanManzella wrote:We as humans should care because we are eventually eating our own garbage once it cylces through the food web and back to us. The great pacific garbage patch has linked us with the early diabetes, problems with the liver, kidney and other crisises around the world. Also the effects have been linked with more women having miscarriages. we should care because the "patch" is already the size of Texas so if we don't do something about it its just gonna keep getting bigger and bigger and if its already 3 million tons in weight, that seems like too big of a problem already, so why let it get worse and worse. The suns rays are just gonna break the plastic up more and more making the plastic harder and harder to pick up. Animals are dieing because of our mistakes, does that seem fair?

No it doesnt seem fair and i agree that we should do something about it. also, i didnt know it caused so many other problems like u mentioned.

I really do care about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The garbage is reaching China, that means its alot of garbage and most of it is plastic. Everyone should recycle plastic, instead of throwing i t away. While this garbage is just making its way around the ocean, the fish is eating it. That means we are eating garbage that we throw out. I think if we keep this up, its going to be alot of garbage all over the Earth. I also think there wouldn't be any way for us the clean it up, so we should just start taking care of our plant now.

KristinaRider wrote:I think that we should care about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The garbage patch reaches all the way to China, and many things that we buy in the United States are made in China. Another thing that caught my attention was that small fish are starting to eat the trash that is in that patch. I would be concerned with eating any type of fish that came from that area because I would be afraid that I would be eating plastic. Yuck. Personaly, I think that the Earth isn't a trash can, and that we should recycle recyclable items and toss the rest into the trash can. The government should create better laws about waste management.

I think so to. Because i feel like i have ate plastic. I feel like everything that everyone is throwing out and not recycling, is going right back to me and i am eating. I'm not trying to eat it, but things that i eat is eating it. I also agree with you when you say the Government should create a better law about waste management. I think everyone should get arested if they don't recycle their plastic, instead they throw it away.