Mysterious Island

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Fernand Magellan first crossed the Pacific Ocean, naming an often raging ocean with giant waves, typhoons and tsunamis "Quiet" … But for Magellan, the ocean really turned out to be windless, which greatly complicated his sailing journey. He fell into the so-called south pacific zone of calm … The Pacific Ocean is the largest on Earth, occupying about a third of its surface. In general, nothing stands still in the ocean, there are a huge number of surface and deep-sea currents, winds blow, but, surprisingly, there are zones of stable "stagnation" … Ships dependent on wind have been wary of entering such zones since ancient times. In addition to the absence of wind and currents, such zones are usually not particularly populated with flora and fauna, except plankton and a small number of animals. Due to stagnation in such zones, there is putrefaction, as a result of which the water column is enriched with organic degradation products harmful to animals, in particular hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and carbon dioxide.

All the arguments of today's ecologists about greenhouse gases, which include carbon dioxide, are groundless, since a person with his technological progress emits only a couple of percent, and 98% of CO2 is emitted by the world's oceans. It was in connection with the release of hydrogen sulfide and aromatic gases from decay that travelers, from the time of Magellan, who fell into zones of stable calm, described what was happening in gloomy colors.

Opening

There is such a zone of calm in the north of the Pacific Ocean. As soon as this place is not called today: Pacific Trash Vortex, North Pacific Gyre, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Pacific Garbage Patch.

In 1988, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States predicted that huge amounts of drifting plastic would lead to the accumulation of large amounts of debris in areas free of currents and winds. Therefore, in the northern calm zone of the Pacific Ocean, since the 50s of the last century, after the invention of plastic, the decomposition of which in natural conditions is possible only after a hundred years, a mysterious garbage island has formed. And the island was discovered by Charles Moore.

After passing the North Pacific currents system after participating in the Transpac regatta, Moore discovered a huge accumulation of debris on the surface of the ocean and was so shocked by what he saw that he sold his business and founded the environmental organization Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF), which began to study the ecological state of the Pacific Ocean. …

What is it

It was originally thought to be an island of plastic trash that was almost walkable. But this is not the case. The stain is very similar to a soup made of small pieces of plastic. Therefore, it is not visible from space. However, the garbage island is simply huge - its area is probably twice the size of the United States and contains more than one hundred million tons of garbage.

Today, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is 90 percent plastic, with a total weight of six times that of natural plankton. Every 10 years, the area of this colossal dump is increasing by an order of magnitude.

China and India are the main ocean pollutants. It is considered in the order of things here to throw garbage directly into a nearby body of water. Plastic, acting as a kind of chemical sponge, attracts man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. This dirt then enters the stomachs with food. That is, what enters the ocean ends up in the stomachs of the ocean dwellers, and then on our plate. According to Green Peace, more than 100 million tons of plastic products are produced annually in the world and 10% of them end up in the world's oceans.

The garbage giant lives its own life, sometimes storms tear off large chunks of several tens and hundreds of tons from it and throw them into the nearest beach areas of Hawaii, the Philippines, and Japan. In such "holidays" the work of residents is increased.

Where else?

A similar island can be found in the Sargasso Sea - it is part of the famous Bermuda Triangle. Earlier, there were legends about the island of wreckage of ships and masts, which drifts in those waters, now wooden wreckage has been replaced by plastic bottles and bags, and now we meet a real Sargasso garbage island.

Similar conditions have been created for garbage islands in the southern part of the Atlantic, in the Indian Ocean and in the aforementioned southern Pacific zone of calm, into which poor Magellan fell.

What to do?

Paradoxically, none of the world's leaders is getting involved in the fight against the planet's garbage asphyxiation. Greenhouse gases and global warming are of far greater concern to the leaders of the Earth. Stupid quotas are set on 2 percent of human emissions, and they do not even pay attention to the destruction of fauna by whole species. It is estimated that plastic waste is responsible for the deaths of over a million seabirds per year, as well as over 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, lighters and toothbrushes are found in the stomachs of dead seabirds - all these objects are swallowed by birds, mistaking them for food.

Only you and I can stop the growth of waste pollution by forcing manufacturers to use modern biodegradable plastic that can decompose not in 100 years, but in a year or two.