In anticipation of the holiday, many of us, if not considering options for relaxing on exotic islands, at least dream about such a pastime, looking at the beautiful pictures with views of Hawaii. However, apart from these paradises in the Pacific Ocean lurks another piece of land from which all horrified. We are talking about a giant garbage island, the size of which at the most conservative estimate is three times the size of Great Britain.
This garbage island has several official names. It is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Eastern or Pacific trash continent "musorovorotom." Sometimes, as they call trash iceberg because the garbage has no connection with the bottom and floats on the surface and in the upper layers of water.
Garbage Island is located in the North Pacific. This location is due to ocean currents that form around giant whirlpool, to bring more and more waste, and keep all the garbage around in one place. According to some assumptions, even the Garbage Patch consists of two parts: West and East. However, the exact form of this island still requires clarification.
For a long time the garbage island remained unnoticed, as this place is far from the ship's route. He became a pioneer Charles Moore, who after attending a Pacific regatta came back home to California and decided to deviate from the usual routes. What he saw left him in shock!
«During the week, whenever I went out on the deck, we sailed through the plastic garbage. I could not believe my eyes: how could we dirtied a vast area? For this garbage I had to go every day, and no end to be seen » i>, - shares his experiences of Charles Moore.
After finding garbage island environmentalists sounded the alarm, but the government of different countries prefer to look at this problem through their fingers. After Garbage Patch drifting in international waters, and no one wants to bear the huge costs of cleaning no man's land. On the problem taken seriously only when during a storm on the Hawaiian Islands has thrown out about 70 tons of garbage.
Garbage Island grew rapidly since the 50s, when in use began to appear en masse products made of polyethylene and plastic. Scientists estimate that the area is now a giant garbage spot is about one million square kilometers, and the mass of all garbage reaches four million tons. The exact dimensions of the giant garbage patches to determine not so simply because the island itself is almost invisible from space. After all, plastic and polyethylene are transparent and difficult to see in the water. Discover garbage island can only swim in it.
The main source of ocean pollution is waste of the population of India and China. After all, these countries are very densely populated, but rather poor. Local authorities are not able to organize the disposal of waste, and people consider it quite normal to throw trash into the nearest body of water.
Garbage Island is fraught with great danger. Animals take small pieces of plastic for plankton eat them and die, because the body can not digest or withdraw foreign objects. Also, marine life entangled in plastic waste to the extent that they can not get out on their own.
Every year the garbage island is growing more and more. Therefore, you need to solve the problem immediately. To contribute to the common cause everyone can. To do this, at least throw plastic waste bins and not haphazardly. A possible to opt out of the mass use of plastic containers and move to reusable bags made of biodegradable materials.
As you see, to solve the problem of ocean pollution is possible only by joint efforts. So inform your friends about this eerie island. After reviewing the record, none of them are hand does not rise to throw trash in the nearest creek.
via ofigenno ru