GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH STEM-STORIES WITH MR. EWING

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  stem stores with Mr Ewing.

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  You know our precious water ways.

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  Our oceans are under attack.

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  71% of the Earth's surface is water.

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  That means only 1/3 of the Earth's surface is all

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  the other habitats are landmasses on earth, 71% is covered

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  in water.

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  It's amazing and that a lot of people talk about

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  space. Our universe are giant universe around us is our

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  final frontier.

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  The places that we have yet discovered, but only 5%

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  5% of our entire oceans have been explored.

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  That means 95% of the ocean has yet to be

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  explored. Part of that has to do with not only

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  the depth but the pressure of the water.

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  As you go, deeper builds and we have yet to

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  discover machines are submarines that can actually go down far

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  enough, and then when sit down there, there's no light.

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  So there's a lot of factors that we're still working

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  on, and every year we get more Maur qualified, educated

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  and how we can do this.

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  But we're still only 5%.

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  That's crazy.

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  And if you think about the magnificence of the water

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  that we have yet to explore.

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  It still blows my mind The things that we will

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  just yet to discover down there because what we have

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  is just a richly, richly beautiful but just filled with

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  all kinds of things.

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  Um, information.

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  So, um, with so little of the ocean explore, you

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  know, not knowing everything that's down there, the riches to

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  be had of the amount of knowledge to be gained,

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  you would think as humans we would work to take

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  better care of it.

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  But we don't.

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  And not every country in the world actually sets up

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  protection laws that protect the waters.

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  And we all kind of treated differently, which is still

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  pretty amazing.

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  And a lot of our oceans are getting littered with

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  a tremendous amount of garbage and trash and pollution and

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  toxins to a point where it's actually becoming a global

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  problem than one that were actually had now trying to

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  figure out how do we fix what we've already damaged

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  and what water will trash and everything it gets dumped

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  out on the ocean, ends up on our beaches and

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  everything as well.

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  So not only are waters become imploded, but then it

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  washes back into the Earth and is polluted.

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  But so why not just go out and clean it

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  up? Really Can't be that big mess well, and actually

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  is. And one of the worst places in all of

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  our oceans is actually something called the Great Pacific Garbage

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  Patch. Now there are five major garbage patch garbage patches

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  in different oceans around the world, but the biggest being

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  the great Pacific garbage patch.

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  Now, to put that into perspective, um, it is this

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  big giant, almost like an island floating in the middle

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  of the Pacific Ocean.

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  It's an estimated that it's what is at 1.15 to

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  2.41 million tons of plastics are entering into our oceans

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  every year through rivers.

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  And a lot of that actually stuff that actually he

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  was thrown on the ground thinking, Who cares about that?

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  It will get picked up, will get put in a

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  trash can.

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  A lot of it goes into our waterways and remember

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  plastic floats so it goes into our water floats along

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  the surface, and that's what actually is creating the Great

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  Pacific garbage patch, now covering a service area of 1.6

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  million square kilometres, an area twice the size of Texas

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  or the size of sorry would was three times the

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  size of France.

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  So if you look at the circled area with the

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  arrow, that actually is the great Pacific garbage patch and

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  that's floating in the water.

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  Now, if you take the size of our state of

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  Texas and double that, that's the size of the actual

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  mass of floating trash and plastics.

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  And it's not just about our water being polluted.

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  Our fish and wildlife and turtles turtles actually eat plastics.

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  They think it smells good.

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  And then it either doesn't digest in, clogs their system

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  or they choke on it, and that can kill them.

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  Now, what does that have to do with us?

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  Well, we're the problem.

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  So I want to challenge you to go out and

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  think about what you're doing with plastics.

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  What could we do without?

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  It's one of the reasons we're getting rid of the

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  plastic bags at the grocery store, and a lot of

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  people think, Oh, well, I'll re use it.

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  I take it home and I I You put other

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  things that it or using his doggie bags well, they

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  still end up in the trash heap and plastic doesn't

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  break down.

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  We also use plastic bottles.

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  Think about other ways that we could carry water around

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  that is in a plastic bottle.

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  So next time you're out and you're buying something.

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  Think about Dean.

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  You really need to buy something that's in plastic.

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  What can we do to change our world so that,

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  you know, we're not adding to a big problem of

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  plastic spending up in her water and polluting.

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  One of the biggest untapped resource is that we we

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  don't even know about because we haven't explored it.

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  So I want you to go out, think about what

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  you use in your house and around your community and

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  think about what changes can we make that can actually

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  do something about this.