Weekly Awareness Fix I

"Act that your principle of action might safely be made a universal law of nature." Immanuel Kant I just got out of Environment 101 and, like all the other times I've gotten out of that horrid class, I find myself deeply depressed and discouraged. What way to make myself feel better than by spending time on Bnet with you lovely people? After devoting a certain amount of my priceless time to gaming culture, however, the depression and discouragement returns. I've deduced that this is due to the fact that I am not doing much about the convictions I develop. Working full-time while being a full-time student leaves little time for other things, like throwing perfectly good vegetables at law-makers' homes (I do not endorse this) or walking the streets with a picket with those damn hippies (depending on the type of damn hippie, I do endorse this). So, starting now, I am going to make one thread every week devoted to a specific problem in our world today, with these three goals in mind: 1. Spreading awareness. 2. Sparking discourse. 3. Inspiring action. In the end, the main purpose is to solve the problems brought to attention, and to remind ourselves that, even when we like to get lost in our fictitious worlds of glory and grander, there are serious problems in the world that need tending to (like Tali's entire race needing to be saved from planetary displacement and xenocidal space machines). While I will only be bringing issues to light, it will be up to you to decide whether you yourself are convicted enough and have enough resources to act. Fret not, the issues brought up will range from economic and humanitarian to environmental and political, so you will have a lot to choose from. In addition, I encourage ideas. If there's something on your heart you would like people to be more aware of, or something you feel needs to be talked about more, shoot me a private message and, depending on the volume of ideas I get, you might just see it in a future Fix. ;) ___________________________ For our first fix, I chose something we talked about in my aforementioned class: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4UK9Yt6A-s]Ocean garbage patches[/url]. These are large, free-floating bodies of trash (sometimes called plastic islands) in the ocean. The largest, the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch]Great Pacific Garbage Patch[/url], can be found in the North Pacific [url=http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/ocean-gyres.html]Gyre[/url] and is proposed to be the size of Texas (yes, there is a massive island of trash over 200,000 square miles large stuck in a vortex in the Pacific Ocean). [b]The Problem[/b] Most of the trash is plastic. Most products made of plastic are made to last (they are not biodegradable and will not go anywhere). Over time the plastics degrade into smaller and smaller pieces, releasing their toxins into the ocean. These pieces are (1) a threat to the acidity level of the ocean, and (2) eaten by fish, thus they enter the food chain, effecting the ecological circle of life (the fish that eat the toxins are effected, as are their prey and, ultimately, us). We do not yet know the extent of the issue, but we do know that it will be at least a thousand years until the plastics decompose beyond a problematic molecular level. [b]The Solution[/b] Most industrialized nations now have legislation regulating waste management. However, some amount of trash still winds up in the ocean, and because the trash doesn't degrade fast enough, any amount of trash dumped into the ocean (a water bottle left in the desert can still wind up in the ocean) only adds to the problem. Therefore, urge your law-makers to pass legislation regulating the biodegradability of new products. [b]Want to get started?[/b] Check out [url=http://5gyres.org/]5 Gyres[/url]. [url=http://news.discovery.com/earth/videos/earth-whats-an-ocean-garbage-patch.htm]Here[/url] is a short video of them at work.