...The biggest landfill on the earth: Great Pacific Garbage Patch Can you imagine the amount of trash approximately fourteen times bigger than whole Slovakia? No? Then it is about time to make you familiar with Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This large floating landfill is the biggest one in the world. According to Charles Moore, discoverer of Great Pacific Garbage Patch (in 1977), "The ocean is downhill from everything" (as cited in Blomberg, 2011). Considering the fact that high percentage of all trash is produced on the land, it is very surprising then the biggest junk yard is actually in the water and not on the land. Even though, recently many people and companies started to care more about amount of trash in oceans, there is a lack of information about Great Pacific Garbage Patch and related issues among large number of population. First of all, Great Pacific Garbage Patch consists of two parts, Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch as mentioned in article written by Jacob Silverman (n.d.). Some sources refer to Eastern one as Great Pacific Garbage Patch and do not talk about the other one (Boudreau et al., n.d.), even though they do not deny the existence of Western Pacific Garbage Patch it can cause some misunderstanding with names. In this essay, there will be used distinction of Eastern and Western Pacific Garbage Patch as well as collective name Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Eastern one is situated between Hawaii and California, the Western...
Words: 3057 - Pages: 13
...If you don't already know, Trash Islands are just big or small islands of trash on the water. Trash Island sizes vary, for example, (Ocean Cleanup. “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” The Ocean Cleanup, Greenhouse, 2018, ) says there is a Trash Island in the Pacific Ocean that is three times the size of France. They are usually very large and they stay together because all of the garbage goes to the ocean's current and it gets clumped up, this is why all of the Trash Islands are very large. Trash Islands pollute the water just like water bottles pollute that water. On water bottles you can see an expiration date, that is not because the water itself gets bad it is because the water bottle becomes old and the chemicals and oil comes out of...
Words: 326 - Pages: 2
...their first bottled water. In the early times of commercially bottled water, it was marketed as a luxury drink to the wealthy and famous. It takes around 17 million barrels of oil to produce the plastic water bottles in The United States of America. Like bottled water, fossil fuels are harvested from locations around the world, processed, shipped and the consumed. Bottled water wastes a lot of fossil fuels. The burning of oil and other fossil fuels emits global warming pollution into the atmosphere. The price of bottled water is higher than the price of tap water, but in many instances, the water quality is the same. There is even a chance that an expensive bottle of water is just purified municipal tap water. The theory that tap water is bad has permitted the purchases of bottled water to exceed, and has given water bottle companies the opportunity to make copious amounts money. Everyone needs water to survive, especially when up to 60% of the human body is composed of it (USGS, 2009). About 75% of the earth’s surface is covered with water, but only 1% of that can be drank (Soechtig, 2009). Not all...
Words: 1101 - Pages: 5
...1 Atmospheric Pollution and Global Warming: A Real Problem 2 Atmospheric pollution is becoming a bigger and more serious problem as the years go by. What was once thought to be a myth, has now become a threat to species all over the world. The thought of global warming is still laughed at today, but there is enough evidence to prove that it is not a joking matter. In the last one-hundred years, the Earth's temperature has risen by 1.4 degrees farenheit. It is expected to rise by 2 to 11.5 degrees farenheit in the next hundred years (epa, 2014). The weather and the climate has changed as well, and there is proof all around the world. Extreme weather is becoming the norm. There has been a drastic change in rainfall and this has some parts of the world at risk for flooding, or drought. Heatwaves have also become more extreme (epa, 2014). In some places, winters and summers are stretched out, seeming to never end. If the world continues to experience this type of weather, our society and environment will face some major challenges (epa, 2014). Most of these challenges are happening because of human activity. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are emitted into the air every single day. Deforestation, some agricultural practices, and industrial processes are part of the problem, but the burning of fossil fuel is the worst. Fossil fuel is burned as a way to produce energy, and the effects are dangerous. These gases also have an effect on our health...
Words: 1576 - Pages: 7
...The image below shows how the South Pacific Gyre is known as the South Pacific Garbage Patch and is one of the very big five gyres that are currently circulating the ocean (citylab.com). The image below says that there is an estimated 3.2 tons of garbage in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (citylab.com). This patch is about the size of Texas, and located between Hawaii and California (citylab.com). This contributes to the problem because when these gyres have the debris in them they spin around in a current and some islands are right in the path of this gyre for example Henderson Island. “Trapped by natural ocean currents, referred to as gyres, at five locations around the planet. The North Pacific is one of these locations; the South Pacific is another. Henderson Island, an uninhabited coral atoll located at the edge of the South Pacific gyre, was recently discovered to be one of the most polluted areas on Earth.¨(Mosbergen). It is thought that remote islands are immune to the horrific plastic pollution in the ocean, but Henderson island is evidence that that is not true. Henderson Island is inhabited and very far from any coastal communities, so all 38 million pieces of plastic...
Words: 1195 - Pages: 5
...The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest garbage swill. The swill holds roughly 3.5 million tons of garbage resulting in a soupy mixture about the size of the state of Texas. However the exact size varies from source to source some even claiming that it is twice the size of France. It is currently floating halfway between Hawaii and San Francisco, California. Charles Moore, a retired furniture restorer and volunteer environmentalist was returning home from a Hawaiian sailing race in 1997 on a 50 foot catamaran. On a whim he decided to cut across the edge of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a place that sea goers avoid. Here sea currents bring debris from the Pacific coast of Southeast Asia, North America, Canada, and Mexico. Currently 90 percent of this debris is plastic, an astounding difference from 50 years ago when almost all of it was biodegradable. Currently sea life is severely affected by this floating disaster. They are starving and dehydrated which has lead to them dying. Some animal die what they ingest plastic thinking it was food or get it caught around their neck. Plastic chips are coating the beaches; some so bad that you have to dig down to actually find sand. I am stunned to be honest. After thinking it through I really shouldn’t but somehow the degree to which we harm our environment and ourselves surprises me each time. We need public awareness. People where scrambling around when they thought Y2K was going to happen but when it is ‘just the environment’...
Words: 325 - Pages: 2
...What have we done to our planet? Negative press, research, and reports from around the world raised issues regarding our problematic oceans. Misguided and crucial errors humans make harm oceans using unsustainable practices which eventually eliminate many species of sea creatures and destroy the water they inhabit and we need for our survival as well. Countries around the world have been heavily positively praised while some have been lauded negatively, for instance, the United States. A crying shame how most countries on Earth seem in continuing spiraling towards ecological harm in an abundance of forms, regarding ocean garbage, coral reefs and oil spills over a twenty-five year period have caused our oceans’ ecology suffering to escalate. Incidents regarding a floating garbage patch in the Pacific, even cruise ships repeating sewage and garbage dumping are atrocious. The problem is, most people do not pay attention and take situations such as these as non-existent. Evidence documented over decades suggest our oceans’ trouble will continue unless change happens sooner rather than later. Change in how we respond to problems should not take years for resolution, because some of the damage may be minute and builds up over time, while some comes in big bunches that there is not time to waste in resolving. In some of these cases, years elapsed before any significant progress had been made, resulting in more damage than first observed. The problems have similarities and differences...
Words: 4802 - Pages: 20
...Man versus Nature: Technology Versus Environment: Money Versus Wild Life Bristol Bay Although the fishing industry has long been associated with the contribution of marine pollution little work has been done on the effects on the industry itself of marine debris and other pollution. The fishing industry is responsible for discarded nets, hooks, fishing poles, and many times sunken boats, among other gear. In many circumstances this is not the intended plan when going fishing to catch their paychecks. In fact the fishing industry pays a high price for these losses from the time they have to replace their nets to the pulling of old nets and trash out of their new nets on a regular basis. When questioned about the effects of marine debris on their fishing activities, Shetland fishermen responded that 92% had recurring problems with accumulated debris in nets, 69% had had their catch contaminated by debris and 92% had snagged their nets on debris on the seabed. Many also experienced fouled propellers and blocked intake pipes. On average, 1-2 hours per week were spent clearing debris from nets. Debris could cause a restricted catch and many boats avoided particular fishing areas altogether due to the high concentrations of debris. It has gotten to the point for many fishers that they can no longer fish certain areas known to be well stocked with money fish due to the time consuming issues with trash and fishing debris in those specific waters due to left behind gear. Ultimately...
Words: 3821 - Pages: 16
...As a part of our everyday life, everyone produces a little bit of trash with minimal thought as to where it's going. Most people assume that the trash they are producing will end up in the local landfill or recycling plant, where it will stay until it composts and returns back to the earth as rich nutrients or is reborn as an environmentally friendly product. Unfortunately, this is not the case, each year between 4.8 - 12.7 million tons of trash and chemical waste will make its way from our local landfills to the depths of the ocean floors. Once in the ocean, the naturally occurring currents will collect the trash and form massive garbage patches that are now found around the world. The chemicals that are dumped in the ocean cause eutrophication,...
Words: 1961 - Pages: 8
...Plastic Paradise Response I have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch once or twice but I don’t think I full realized how bad the problem was until I saw Plastic Paradise. When I heard of the “garbage island” I honestly thought it was an island of garbage you can go out onto and potentially stand on. The fact that you can’t really see the island because it’s all spread out and a few inches below the surface was an astonishing fact! The way the oceans current moves that so no matter where the trash starts out in eventually it’ll arrive together in the island section by Midway is also very interesting. It would be pretty cool if the could study the way the currents moved so that way they can have ships in certain sections of the ocean that just pick up the trash there so it doesn’t keep traveling around the Pacific risking lives then finally coming together near Midway. I heard in high school science classes about how the plastic epidemic was affecting animals in the ocean as well as birds but the trash and plastic on Midway is threatening about 2 million albatross. When they toured the island they saw dead/dying birds from plastic that got caught up in their throats or stomachs which eventually killed them, but the man cut open the bird and they found pen lid and fishing line, pretty much they found a bunch of items that do not belong in the ocean and should have never got to those birds. Along with the birds the Captain of one of the boats said he caught a small fish...
Words: 676 - Pages: 3
...1969). Albatross are declining in numbers due to long lining, and plastic pollution in general. Albatross are a colonial species that nest in remote oceanic islands such as the Galapagos Islands. The albatrosses are a group of large to very large birds; they are the largest of the procellariiformes. These birds have a lengthy lifespan. They have a sharp edged bill that has an excellent sense of smell for a bird. The wingspan of these birds is exceptionally large and can be up to 11 feet wide (National Geographic 2015) . As they need strong powerful wings to be able to endure a life at sea. These birds are often thought of as the most legendary of all birds (Carboneras 1992), and they were often thought of as almost sacred and that it was bad luck to shoot or harm an...
Words: 1200 - Pages: 5
...------------------------------------------------- Essay on “Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics” Social responsibility is an idea that has been of concern to mankind for many years. Over the last two decades, however, it has become of increasing concern to the business world. This has resulted in growing interaction between governments, businesses and society as a whole. In the past, businesses primarily concerned themselves with the economic results of their decisions. “Today, however, businesses must also reflect on the legal, ethical, moral and social consequences of their decisions” (Anderson 15). This paper will discuss the concept of corporate social responsibility. It will give the definition of the phrase, and identify some of the global factors that necessitate corporate social responsibility. It will discuss the importance of corporations setting up corporate social responsibility projects, and the impact these have on society. Social corporate responsibility and the maintenance of high ethical standards is not an option but an obligation for all business. Corporate social responsibility is no longer defined by how much money a company contributes to charity, but by its overall involvement in activities that improve the quality of people’s lives. Corporate Responsibility has come up as a significant subject matter in the international business community and is progressively becoming a mainstream activity. There is mounting recognition of the momentous effect...
Words: 2129 - Pages: 9
...plastic bags and sheeting, cotton bud sticks, monofilament fishing nets, and ties for multi-pack drink-cans. Floating plastic can be blown by the wind or carried by ocean currents, often ending up in the middle of oceanic gyres where currents are weakest. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an example of this. It comprises a large area of the North Pacific Ocean. It is estimated to be double the size of Texas and contains more than 3 million tons of plastic. The gyre is estimated to contain six pounds of plastic for every pound of...
Words: 1378 - Pages: 6
...won. Upon beginning to watch Wall-E, I did not expect an animated film to have such great meaning and address many of the societal issues it does in the film. The main issues Wall-E touches on are consumerism, technology, and environmental problems. The movie brings light to these issues by placing the setting in 2805 and showing the audience what these issues could be like hundreds of years down the road. Many of the readings we have done in class give reason to believe the Earth and civilization could become what it is in the movie Wall-E. The first societal problem brought to light in the film is environmental related issues. The first thing we see in the film are a bunch of stacks of garbage piles, sometimes bigger than skyscrapers. This undoubtedly ties into how we go about disposing of our garbage and sewage today. According to the article read in class called “Why Consumption Matters”, the average American in 1990 would throw out four to five pounds of garbage a day, while being responsible for 124 pounds of behind the scenes consumption. This behind the scenes consumption includes construction materials, fossil fuels, industrial materials, forest, and metals amongst others. We must also keep in mind that this is a 1990 figure, and that Americans consume significantly more in 2014. It is statistics like these that make it almost inevitable that we end up with skyscrapers of garbage like in Wall-E. Additionally, Hardin brings up a point worth noting in “The Tragedy of...
Words: 1265 - Pages: 6
...ROSALIA RADUVA | 2012000295 | Topic: Social Accounting & Ethical Governance Abstract Social accounting and ethical governance is becoming a concern in Fiji businesses nowadays. This assignment will outline how Bank of the South Pacific deals with social accounting and transparency and ethical governance. Firstly, it will consider the social accounting factors which is the ‘Go Green’ event. Secondly, it will consider how transparency is Bank of the South Pacific and thirdly, it will consider ways in which Bank of the South Pacific can maintain ethical standards. Finally, some recommendations will be drawn as to how to improve social accounting, transparency and ethical governance at Bank of the South Pacific. Introduction The purpose of this assignment is to study as to how businesses in Fiji work towards social accounting and transparency and ethical governance. The business to be studied for this research is Bank of the South Pacific. Bank of the South Pacific is one of the largest and most successful banking organisations in the South Pacific. Bank of the South Pacific has its largest branch in Papua New Guinea and is represented in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Niue as well. Some of the services provided by Bank of the South Pacific include BSP Telephone Banking, BSP online, BillPay, BSP Mobile Phone Banking, and Access to BSP Mobile Phone Banking, Transfers and BillPay payments, Security of BSP Mobile Phone Banking, ATM and EFTPOS. The term social accounting is the...
Words: 6006 - Pages: 25
