Inspiration!
A Generation of thinkers, Really?
This young man is brilliant and inspiring. He brought tears to my eyes to see him talk about his vision for cleaning up our oceans. It definitely brings more than a ray of hope for our environment, but many kudos to our younger generation as well!
This is what I call thinking four dimensionally.
Leading one of the most ambitious ocean cleanup efforts ever, is a young Dutch man.His name is Boyan Slat, and he's come up with a very creative and imaginative way to reduce by half the amount of plastic debris floating in the Pacific within a decade.
He wants the ocean to “clean itself,” instead of thinking linearly and trying to pick it up in the conventional sense.
As the years go by millions of tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans. Slat’s plan is to place enormous floating barriers in rotating tidal locations around the globe (called gyres), and let the plastic waste naturally flow into capture. These barriers aren’t nets—sea life gets tangled in those. They’re big, V-shaped buffers anchored by floating booms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROW9F-c0kIQ
The Ocean Cleanup is Slat’s nonprofit, he says the current will flow underneath those booms, where animals will be carried through safely. The buoyant plastic is funneled above and concentrates at the water’s surface along the barriers for easy gathering and disposal.
Slat leads a team of 100 oceanographers, naval engineers, translators, designers, and others. He’s also getting support from key political figures, like the mayor of Tsushima and the mayor of Los Angeles.
The Ocean Cleanup started with a crowdfunding campaign last year that raised $2 million. Pretty incredible for a 20-year-old with a big idea.
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Recent Comments
27
Great news for the floating "Trash Islands" in the Pacific! I'm not a "greenie" by any stretch, but that really bugs me.
I'm just wiping the tears from my eyes now too.....so very inspirational; who says today's youth are spoilt and without vision - I am continually amazed and inspired by them. Tragically, there are dangerous pitfalls for them and enormous material pressures, and they don't have the "sanitised" role models we had (speaking for myself) so who to inspire them to greatness? However, they are not afraid to be themselves and look beyond what is fed to them, so there is hope for the future after all.
Katharina
Excellent to hear someone is applying their gray matter to the problem! Anyone who has seen pictures of the gyres has to be appalled by their presence - and their size!
I understand Mother Nature is on it as well. There are new breeds of plastic digesting microbes that have come into being - see http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110328/full/news.2011.191.html
Hopefully the plastics are well and truly broken down into nutrients, and not just passed up the food chain.
Pass the plastic, please!
Dennis
Good point Dennis-I have heard about the efforts to work with plastic eating bacteria, lets hope that turns out to be another viable option.
Absolutely brilliant....I also read about generating electricity from garbage, relative to barges just floating around...it is overdue cleaning up behind ourselves and recycling
Good for you Rosie, we all need to stay informed and do what we can. Educational blogging about specific new ideas and technology can go a long way to bring awareness to these critical issues!
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It does seem like an ingenious plan. They collected 2$ mil. How much is actually needed . $2 million sounds like a lot but it really doesn't goes very far.
Hi Larry-I am not sure on the final figure, however eventually the plastic will be recycled and resold generating (according to them) enough revenue to cover costs.
That would be a great thing for our Earth.
Yes indeed!