The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

What up team!

Two summers ago I went to a leadership seminar called Pearson Seminar on Youth Leadership (PSYL) and we did a project on environmental issues.  Our group looked at something that I had never heard of before, its called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, basically it’s a massive island of garbage floating the middle of the ocean.  What happens is currents form a spiral which traps floating debris, the source of the patch comes from many countries; Japan, Canada, and the US are major contributors. The real shocker to this “waterfill” is the size. It’s hard to get an exact size, but it has been estimated to be the size of TEXAS!

The patch has countless effects on wildlife in the area; passing fish mistake small pieces of plastic for food, and essentially eat until their stomachs are full with garbage.  If you look at the pictures to the lest you can see that the effects are giving animals a horrible death that they do not deserve at all. Because of the massivness of the patch takes up tons of space, this forces marine life to find a new habitat. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, because it’s in international waters, no country wants to step up and take responsibility.  There has been an effort to clean the patch from companies like Pepsi, but it’s not enough, governments need to treat this issue as a priority and act. Maybe we could even write some strong worded letters to our man Stephen Harper to start making change?

If you would like more info on this issue, click this fancy link


- Owen T