Limited Oceans, Limitless Actions

The ocean is an intriguing thing; it is so immensely expansive, yet one still so shrouded in mysteries and great unknowns. Yes, a ship confines you to a small slab of floating metal that follows a preordained route, but when I look beyond its railings it is when I feel the freest. Yes, ocean documentaries are weakly received compared to sweet sitcoms, but looking at the ocean charted and exposed through time lapses, panoramas, and birds’ eye views it is when I feel the most overcome with wonder. The ocean almost feels limitless. This is why the existence of global garbage patches is a debilitating wake-up call.

It is easy to think that garbage just disappears when it loses your sight, that it won’t last and will eventually disintegrate or end up recycled by some guy, but unfortunately this is not the case. Discovered by oceanographer Charles Moore way back in 1997, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest marine trash vortex: twice the size of Texas, and roughly four times larger than our own country. This grotesque dump site is typically composed of non-biodegradable filth, particularly synthetic plastic which was first produced in 1907. This means that a measly ninety years was all it took for an estimated 1.9 million microplastic bits to fill a single square mile of the patch, according to the National Geographic. This is not counting five other garbage patches, and possibly other undiscovered ones. The numbers are overbearing.

And, it is frightening to think that the earth has been existing as it is throughout periods and eras, creation and extinction, for millennia, as something that is generally the same. Sure, Pangaea may have diverged into continents and a thousand or so islands, deserts may have shifted into wetlands and oceans into dry lands, valleys into volcanoes and fields into mountains, but these are all natural processes. The Great Pacific Patch is chillingly different because it is unnatural; it is a man-made problem.

The human race claimed the earth as their own, bringing along with this an insane number of developments and changes that threaten the very world it chose to settle down in. Without a hint of remorse, we proceed with our pursuit for innovation and greatness without stopping to turn and look back at the mess we’ve made in the process. It is unsettling to think that this earth that has been standing for so long, undisturbed – all it would take for it to fall in the end was us and our wild ambitions, self-centered motions, and lack of accountability.

We pride ourselves for our synthetic creations but fail to look back at our tracks and the messes we’ve made. Even the man who invented plastic probably didn’t think his very own creation would end up becoming such an abhorrent, grotesque thing – contaminating water supplies, eating up oceans, suffocating creatures, ruining homes.

We are quite literally swimming in our own problems and we ought to do something about it. For starters, ditch single-use plastics and switch to more sustainable materials such as bamboo straws, organic soap, and reusable cups. Or, start collecting your plastic waste and build ecobricks out of them. Purchase in bulk instead of taking part in the sachet economy of our country, volunteer to assist in eco-friendly programs and activities, read up on environmental conservation and preservation, and share what you have learned to others for this is what propels us towards a minimum waste lifestyle. There are limitless ways to help curb the plastic garbage problem.

Plastic and other non-biodegradable items do not just disappear off the face of the earth, and the oceans no matter how incomprehensibly vast they are, have their ends and bounds as well. In the end, our world is not a limitless dump site, it is home.