The Deep Blue Sea

As the end of the semester is rapidly approaching, many of us are looking forward to the activities of summer living, which for many include hanging out at the beach on a daily basis. While the beach is a relaxing environment, many beachgoers are unaware of the rising severity of pollution in the world's oceans that is mainly a result of human presence. 

Until recently, I had never really thought about how dirty the ocean actually is. While browsing through different programs provided by VBS.TV, an alternative media source, I came across a video called Toxic: Garbage Island. This film was created in order to investigate what has become known as "Garbage Island," a landmass the size of Texas composed of human trash. This giant pile of trash had been said to be floating freely in the Pacific Ocean, over 2,000 miles from the coast of California. 

Prior to watching this film, I had heard rumors of this floating pile of trash, but I never really thought twice about it. The film provided a seemingly unbiased, eye-opening depiction of this mammoth human footprint being left on Earth. The focus of this film is on non-recyclable plastics, which most tend to throw out guiltlessly. Garbage Island's makeup consists mostly of these very containers.

The team that sets out to investigate this island winds up discovering that there isn't actually a visible floating pile of trash the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean, but there is a large area where the ratio of plastics to living organisms is over 1000 to one. 

What does this mean, exactly? Well, rather than a whole Coke bottle floating in the ocean, all the components of that plastic bottle have been broken down into fragments that have dispersed all over the world. But those microscopic pieces have literally invaded the chemical makeup of the ocean and have become one of its most prominent ingredients. And because these pieces go unnoticed by the human eye, the problem goes unnoticed by the general conscience.

   This discovery makes it apparent that we have a much more catastrophic dilemma on our hands, because it's easier to pick up bottles rather than all the fragments of those bottles that are floating around somewhere in the ocean. 

Overall, this film is incredibly informative and provides a different perspective on the impact of human life. Anyone can view this film by logging on to VBS.TV and typing "Garbage Island" into the search bar.