As of recent, President Trump has officially addressed the issue of marine pollution and signed the Save Our Seas Act of 2018. This act recognizes that other countries are dumping their garbage, which consists of mostly plastic, into the oceans and within 6 months to one year, it travels over to the US. It can be found all over the country's coasts but most of the waste floats over to the west coast (the California side of the US).
The USA and many other developed countries ship their recycling over to other countries to be recycled. However, in 2017, China, THE biggest plastic recycler in the world, decided to put a stop to imported recycling products. This is bad news - where are countries going to send their waste to be recycled? We all know that plastic is actually terrible for the earth but this made it worse. Many countries throw their plastic waste into the oceans. The west coast of the US has had to deal with this excess garbage and they are paying to get other countries' waste cleaned up. As President Trump states in the YouTube video below, it isn't fair to make us pay* when it isn't even ours in the first place. So what exactly is going to happen now? In section 101 of the Save Our Seas Act of 2018, it says education strategies with other federal agencies to address source(s) of marine debris will be developed and international action to reduce marine debris will be promoted. Section 102 states that the president should support research and development of activities that reduce of the amount of solid waste created, the amount of that waste that ends up in marine environments, and abandoned fishing gear that ends up in the water (such as hooks and fishing line). It also says that the president should work with representatives of countries that have the largest amounts of solid waste from land based sources into the ocean and that they should work together to create mechanisms to reduce the waste. This is amazing for the planet as knowledge of harmful actions will increase and the oceans will become a better place for the marine animals, tourists, and those who live along the coasts. Will this actually happen? Will the president actually go through with these actions to better the earth and oceans? Only time will tell. *As many people may think that Trump is doing this just because of the money (who even knows, maybe that's true, maybe it isn't), we should be more concerned about how this is going to affect the oceans and marine life for the better. Sources: The video below https://neonnettle.com/news/5317-trump-signs-bill-to-clean-millions-of-tons-of-garbage-from-world-s-oceans https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3508/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22Save+Our+Seas+act%22%5D%7D&r=2
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A couple days ago, a plan made history. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a floating island of trash twice the size of Texas - is going to be cleaned up by The Ocean Cleanup System 001. Trial runs began September 10, it is 240 nautical miles from the shore of San Francisco, California and will be out there for two weeks to make sure it does what we want it to do. After the tests, they will send it out to the garbage patch to begin cleaning it up.
How does it work? The Ocean Cleanup System 001 is a 2,000 foot (600 meter) floating barrier - like a really long noodle - and it hangs 10 feet (3 meters) below the surface. When in use, it curves into a U shape and as the wind and waves push it, it collects garbage. Then, boats travel to the area and collect all the garbage to be taken back to shore to then be recycled. What do you think of this idea? To help start the movement of cleaner oceans, sign this petition to ban plastic straws in Michigan: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ban-straws-in-michigan Resources: https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/10/health/ocean-cleanup-test-trnd/index.html There are many events geared toward the environment and those who want to make it a better place! Here are two clean-ups coming up in September in Grand Rapids. (If you don't live in the Grand Rapids area, you can simply Google clean-ups and other action committees near you!)
Saturday September 8, 2018 - Grand River clean up 9am-1pm at Sixth Street Bridge Park. For more information, visit: https://wmeac.org/mayors-grand-river-cleanup/ Saturday September 15, 2018 - Great Lakes beaches clean-up. For more information, visit: https://greatlakes.org/event/2018-september-adopt-beach/ and: http://greatlakesadopt.org/ (Remember to sign this pledge to keep the Great Lakes plastic free: http://greatlakes.p2a.co/efF2SJR)
When you see pictures of our oceans, you usually see bright blue waters with people enjoying themselves. You rarely see the reality floating right in the water.
Plastic soda rings get stuck around animal's necks, choking them to death. Bycatch, the unwanted animals (e.g. sea turtles, sharks, dolphins) caught during commercial fishing are often not returned into the water but rather left out to die. Birds mistake brightly colored litter as food and eat it, resulting in death. Sea turtles mistake balloons and plastic bags for jellyfish and eat them, also resulting in death. Before you think "dumb animal, they should know the difference", there's no way they could know! WE are the ones that created these unnatural things, not them. WE are the ones killing innocent animals. They have no idea what plastic even is. They're all trying to survive; if they knew that their dinner would kill them, they wouldn't even try to eat it. It is estimated that there are 100,000,000 (one hundred million) TONS of plastic each year. That's 200,000,000,000 (two hundred billion) pounds of plastic in the oceans alone. This plastic kills 100,000,000 (one hundred million) marine animals annually. Oceans are natural carbon sinks which means they take in CO2 from the atmosphere. Since our CO2 emissions have continued to grow, the ocean is taking in too much and the pH is changing. This is called ocean acidification. Coral reefs, oysters, clams, and mussels need calcium carbonate to build their skeletons and shells which decreases when acidity increases. This threatens many lives as these organisms are on the bottom of the food chain and without them, many other marine animals would disappear as well. Now, I want you to google pictures of "marine pollution". I'd post them on here but they're too heart wrenching. To take action, join clean up groups, recycle, and use reusable bottles and bags instead of single use items. |