A New Continent Discovered On Earth
In this age when the existing land space is not enough to keep up with the increasing
population, what if we say that there is a new continent found in the Pacific Ocean?
Woah, that’ll be like a dream come true- so many resources and space for the overflowing
population!
But you may not want to move in there or even go there for a vacation.
That sounds weird, right?
The filth can be cleaned, infrastructure can be developed and some resources can be pooled
from other parts.
In short we can make it livable, so there shouldn’t be any problem now!
Anyway, do you know how much plastic is produced every year?
Mass production of plastic in the past 6 decades has created 8.3 billion metric tons, most
of it in disposable products with currently at an approximate rate of 300 million tons
of plastic created every year.
Out of this, only 10% is recycled and of the trashed plastic, an estimated 8 million tons
ends up in the sea each year.
That is the equivalent to five grocery bags of plastic trash for every foot of coastline
around the globe!
We have all known that plastic production has increased exponentially in the recent
decades but actual quantification of the numbers has left us shocked!
500 billion plastic cups are used and disposed every year.
More than 14 million tons of plastic foam polystyrene are manufactured every year and
about 25 billion Styrofoam cups are trashed in a year by Americans, that’s not a small
number.
As for all the coffee lovers, you guys use 16 billion disposable coffee cups every year!
And do you know how much bubble wrap is produced in a year?
Well, it would be enough to cover our planet around the equator, that too not once but
10 times!
Globally humans buy a million plastic bottles per minute and 91% of all plastic is not recycled.
On top of that, it is estimated that over half a trillion plastic bottles will be sold
in 2020.
Now plastic bottles take 400 years to naturally decompose, which isn’t too much time on
geologic timescales and hence we can wait till the plastic naturally decomposes.
Simple?
Well, no!
That’s because there are no signs of decreasing plastic use, hence the plastic decomposition
clock will constantly be reset.
Plus this increase in plastic waste globally will impact other systems and their function.
Okay now why the hell are we boring you with plastic and its harmful effects when we were
supposed to be solving housing problem by moving people to the new continent?
It’s because this new continent is rich in only one resource and that is plastic!
Wow, so much plastic to fulfill our need of about 1 trillion single use plastic bags that
we throw away every year.
That would also help to bottle drinks, about 480 million bottles a year!
And what about our demand for half a million plastic straws every day, that will also be
taken care of!
Are you happy that now you will have more plastic for bottled water or our lecture about
plastic waste has moved you?
We’ll stop beating around the bush, the truth is that there is no landmass that we
are offering you in the middle of Pacific Ocean, because there wasn’t any land there!
So why did we lie about another continent?
This will sound weird but the continent that we told you about is actually a huge dump
of garbage and plastic waste!
It is called GPGP or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, not a glamorous name like we were expecting!
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean.
Located roughly between 135°W to 155°W and 35°N to 42°N, the GPGP is not the only marine
trash vortex but it is definitely the biggest.
The Atlantic and Indian Oceans both have trash vortexes.
Even shipping routes in smaller bodies of water, such as the North Sea, are developing
garbage patches.
The Great Pacific garbage patch was formed gradually as a result of ocean or marine pollution
gathered by ocean currents.
The garbage patch occupies a large and relatively stationary region of the North Pacific Ocean
bound by the North Pacific Gyre.
The gyre's rotational pattern draws in waste material from across the North Pacific Ocean,
including coastal waters off North America and Japan.
As material is captured in the currents, wind-driven surface currents gradually move floating debris
toward the center, trapping it in the region.
The mass of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) was estimated to be approximately
80,000 tons, which is 4-16 times more than previous calculations.
If it is hard for you to imagine, let’s compare it to the weight of 500 Jumbo Jets!
If we are really quantifying things then, a total of 1.1 to 3.6 trillion plastic pieces
are estimated to be floating in the patch - a plastic count that is equivalent to 250
pieces of debris for every human in the world.
But what is garbage made of?
Well, most pieces are tiny particles of plastic which are smaller than 1/10 of an inch and
they make for approximately 8% of the total mass.
But the most shocking thing is that such pieces can now be found in bottled water as well!
This is not the only problem, sea birds, fish and marine animals munch on these tiny particles
and then their bodies become home to a lot of plastic.
Studies suggest that 44% of sea birds and sea turtles have plastic in and around their
bellies, that’s too much!
Since a lot of plastic material can be toxic, these animals often lose their life.
About 100,000 marine animals and more than a million seabirds die each year because of
ingesting plastic!
It is estimated that by 2050, the total mass of the waste will be equal to the total mass
of fish and this is not a good news!
You have already visualized the extinction of a lot of birds and animals who eat plastic
but this also hampers the food chain and the bigger animals are also affected but do you
realize what effect this has on humans?
Well, to all the sea food lovers- cooking a fish that has plastic in its body is not
a good idea because plastic has a tendency to absorb poisonous substances like mercury
and trust us, you wouldn’t want that in your body!
Your dinner table toxic seafood can cause cancer, hamper immune system and provoke birth
defects.
We are sure you aren’t looking forward to this!
We know what the problem is but the solution isn’t that easy to come by!
Using biodegradable plastic can be a great step because it will take only about 5 years
to turn into dust if the conditions are right.
But you could head to the larvae of the wax moth for an astounding solution!
You could surround this larvae with loads of plastic because in less than 40 minutes,
it can eat away a sizeable hole in a plastic bag.
Scientists are yet to figure out how the larvae can decompose plastic so easily but perhaps
Mother Nature is trying to pull us out of this garbage situation!
Whatever it is, the need to look for solutions is at its peak now and we gotta do something
RIGHT NOW!
Are you happy with the discovery of this new continent in North Pacific Ocean?
Tell us in the comment section below.
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