Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-09-20/cleaning-the-pacific-ocean-plastic-patch-won-t-solve-the-problem.
This article discusses a company called Ocean Cleanup which was created by an 18 year old man with the promise to get the plastic out of the Pacific Ocean. Experts fear that although this sounds good, it is not really addressing the problem. What the companies plan is, is to use nets and other things to pull the plastic out of the water. But, scientists say that it is actually the plastic that has shrunk down to a much much smaller size that is actually the one that is poisoning and choking birds and sea creatures. In some areas, it is said that there are more plastic than there are plankton meaning animals at the bottom of the food chain will eat the plastic and starve.
My opinion on this is that I hope that it does have some effect on the amount of plastic in the oceans. Although the company may not be getting all of the “microplastics” that are in the ocean, hopefully they can help with the overall scheme of things while other people try and come up with a solution to try and get the smaller plastics out of the oceans. It is also going to take more effort from just the normal people who are not involved in the cause. According to the article, we are still adding eight million tons of plastic to the oceans every year, so in order for this company to actually have somewhat of a major effect, it is going to take effort from everyone to reduce the amount of trash that gets into the oceans.
Im always impressed by how young these people are, 18 years old?! This gives me a lot of hope for the future as many brilliant young people are going into the world and they can fix so much. I Believe this generation is the smartest ever.
I agree that removing the large pieces of plastic should still be somewhat helpful. Even though they may not be what is actually harming ocean life, it will prevent the new plastic from turning into the small pieces of plastic. I also agree that in order for the oceans to be cleaned more efficiently, plastics use needs to decrease greatly. What is the best way to do this?