We Can Do This

 

I got this picture HERE

Our planet is suffering! People are suffering! Animals are dying! We need to DO something! YOU can do something! 

The Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas and 3 times the size of France! There are more than 1.8 TRILLION pieces of trash in this garbage patch. 

LET’S DO SOMETHING! 

What is the great pacific garbage patch:

It is a large patch of garbage. There are two main groups of garbage, The Western Patch, which is located near Japan, and The Eastern Patch, which is located between Hawaii and California. 

Both of these patches are huge problems. They are gathered by the ocean’s currents pushing them into an enormous patch of garbage. The individual pieces of garbage are not just floating plastic bottles or ballcaps. Most of the patch is actually made of microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic that you usually cannot see. 

Why is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch still growing? Because plastic is not biodegradable, it does not decompose. Instead, it just breaks down into smaller pieces.

So, with more plastic gathering, and no plastic decomposing, it is just growing bigger. 

What is happening:

Animals are eating trash, thinking that they are eating food. They then die because they gained no nutrients from the trash. Sea creatures are getting stuck in nets and trash and getting injured and sometimes dying 😭.

I got this picture HERE. 

There is one thing causing this. US!! Before humans existed there was no plastic in the oceans and no animals dying because of plastic! 

We need to fix this mess we got ourselves into. 

I got this picture HERE.

What can we do:

We can do something about this! 

I’m sure you already know the 3 R’s. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. 

But there are lots more! How about Replace? Replace one use plastic and paper cups with reusable mugs and cups. Replace one use paper towels with reusable cloth towels. 

What about Refuse and Reject? 

Refuse to use plastics you can only use one like plastic bottles and plastic cups. 

Reject things you don’t need, reject doing things you know are not good for the earth. 

Practice using all of the R’s in your home!

What is already happening:

People are already doing things to solve this huge problem. The solution I think has the most promise is by The Ocean Cleanup. You can visit their website HERE.

One of their goals is to remove 90% of ocean trash by 2040. Their other goal is to clean 1000 rivers in 5 years. Let’s help them do this!

Did you know that 80% of ocean plastic comes from rivers? A good way to clean the ocean of plastic is to stop it before it even gets to the ocean. They are using a machine called the Interceptor. It collects the plastic in the river and then a ship empties it when it is full. 

It is run by a robot and 100% solar powered. For cleaning the ocean, they are using a giant net that uses the ocean’s currents to push the trash into the net. One it is full, a boat comes to empty it. This net has not entangled or captured any sea animals. When the boat comes to empty the net, the operators are careful to make sure there are no animals in or around the net. I think this solution can work if people work hard to remember their R’s and help not put more plastic into the water. 

I got this picture HERE

What does water mean to me?

Water is a very important part in life. If water wasn’t here, we would not be here. 

I spend a lot of time in the water, swimming, boating, riding and swimming with my pony. Water makes me feel happy! I love the feeling of diving into the water and swimming. 

#WorldWaterDay #Water2Me

Thanks for reading! (and P.S. we can and we will solve this problem TOGETHER!) 

MY Sources!

Great Pacific Garbage Patch. National Geographic Society, 9 Oct. 2012, www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/#:~:text=The%20Great%20Pacific%20Garbage%20Patch%2C%20also%20known%20as%20the%20Pacific,states%20of%20Hawaii%20and%20California. 

“CLEANING UP THE GARBAGE PATCHES.” CLEANING THE GARBAGE PATCHES, The Ocean Cleanup, 12 Feb. 2021, theoceancleanup.com/oceans/.

By Cora

Is This a Landfill or the Ocean

 

    If you didn't notice ocean water pollution has gone OUT of control. People have tried inventing amazing things like the plastic-eating shark drone, The seabin, The world's first ocean clean-up system, and a lot of other projects that take SO long to work on. Some people think that if you made something to help STOP pollution they can still Poulton our planet and keep littering. What is the point of making these incredible inventions if we are just going to keep polluting our oceans? Did you know that the ocean has killed over 100 million marine animals each year from plastic waste alone? I recommend you keep reading so you can find facts about our oceans and what I will try to make to stop ocean pollution.

Some people also think that if we keep polluting our oceans and our world that nothing is going to happen and that the whole world is going to be the same but really their consequences. Not only for animals but for humans too. Restaurants that serve seafood have to kill sea animals and if those animals you have killed eat little pieces of microplastic which means you would be eating little pieces of plastic too and that means you can get many diseases like...          Pulmonary cancer due to inhalation of poisonous gas, Liver damage, Nerve and brain damage, Kidney diseases, Asthma. Also, animals would die because of… entangled in or ingest plastic debris, and could cause suffocation, starvation, and drowning. This can affect us because some people leave off seafood and if the animals died that wouldn't be good for some people.  

If you are a person who wants to do something to STOP polluting our ocean here are some things you can do ( there are a lot of others you can do but here are some major things you can do to help)...  

  1.           Pick up litter and throw it away in a garbage can.

 (Picking up litter is a big way to help the environment. When you litter most of your plastic blows around and will eventually clutter around drains and enter rivers and the sea this way).

 2. Stop littering 

(When you throw garbage and plastic out on streets and anywhere  the wind will eventually blow it into streams and rivers, and through drains. The drains lead to the ocean).

 3.   Always recycle.

(you should always recycle because your plastic may end up underneath all of your trash or other people's trash. After a while, the bad chemicals will soon soak up into the ground and will find the chemicals way into the potentially contaminating drinking water supplies, rivers, streams, and eventually the ocean).

4. Use Less Plastic (obviously)

( You might be thinking everything is wrapped in plastic like… meat, chips, cookies, milk, and a lot of other things. I am not saying completely stop using plastic I am just saying use less plastic. If we use less plastic more marine sea animals will be still living and 

recycling plastic water bottles and other things will also help to decrease the amount of pollution in the air and water sources).

I am working on a solution called “The seabin project”.  I am not the only one who has thought about making this! The first creators were Pete Ceglinski and Andrew Turton. They don’t say how they made it but they say that the bin is made out of recyclable plastic and that they made a mesh bag that also usings natural fibers and also there is a pump connected to a dock. When they turn the pump on the pump sucks through the mesh bag. Then the clean water gets pumped back into the water. My idea is to make a filter with a battery power waterproof motor. Then make a bin or use a reusable bin that goes into the water. I will also get a type of net with a ring for buoyancy with a pump connected to the bin that will pump out the clean water. This is a link to a video to explain what I am trying to recreate.

            What water means to me... Water to me means life, without water we wouldn't survive or be living. Just imagine not having water animals and humans would die because of dehydration, farmers would stop farming (think about it most people make money off of plants and farming), we couldn't wash clothes, we may not even be able to eat because all the animals might die of dehydration. Also, we wouldn't have power, and without POWER that will really affect people. 

 Bibliography 

https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/how-does-plastic-end-ocean

https://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/What_Will_Happen_if_You_Do_Not_Recycle_Plastic

https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/25-simple-and-easy-ways-to-reduce-water-pollution-now.php

 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/plastics-in-seafood

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/09/24/plastic-pollution-affects-sea-life-throughout-the-ocean#:~:text=Fish%2C%20seabirds%2C%20sea%20turtles%2C,suffocation%2C%20starvation%2C%20and%20drowning.&text=Plastic%20waste%20kills%20up%20to,their%20stomachs%2C%20sometimes%20causing%20starvation.

http://samanthagouldson.com/how-does-the-seabin-work/

By: Gracie S

                                                

Another Day, Another Refreshing Drink

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hdptcar/797326075

( I built upon this image )

What is it?

      Would you want to drink contaminated water? Well, A Lot of people don't actually know or understand what water pollution is and that's why I am here to tell you. Water pollution mainly comes around when harmful chemicals or microorganisms contaminate rivers, streams, oceans, lakes, or any other body of water. This usually comes as a result of human activity. The sources mainly come from waste water which comes from domestic/industrial processes, leakage from sewer lines, burning fossil fuels, mining activities, oil pollution, river dumping, marine dumping, radioactive substances, and agriculture pollution. Water contamination is also a big deal, about 2 billion people use a drinking water source that is contaminated and this is a big problem we need to fix.

Consequences

   There are numerous consequences that affect your health from your drinking water if it contains unsafe levels of contaminants. It can cause serious health effects like gastrointestinal illnesses, nervous system or reproductive effects, and chronic diseases like cancer. Some of the waterborne diseases you can also get are Typhoid, Cholera, paratyphoid fever, dysentery jaundice, amoebiasis, and malaria. Chemicals in the water have negative effects on our body’s health. Pesticides usually can damage the nervous system and that's what can cause cancer because of the carbonates and organophosphates that they hold. Waterborne diseases are a big problem coming from water contamination. Why? Well, water borne diseases are illnesses caused by microscopic organisms, like viruses and bacteria, which are ingested through the contaminated water.

What can we do?

       Don't you think water pollution is a big problem? Me too, and well it doesn't matter how old you are you can still help just by doing small things such as, picking up litter and throwing it away in the garbage or recycling bin, blow or sweep fertilizer back onto the grass if it gets into paved areas, mulch or compost grass or yard waste, wash your car or outdoor equipment so it can flow to a gravel or grass area instead of the street, and don't pour your motor oil down the storm drain, take it to the nearest auto part store, its free. Keep your water clean, you can sweep sidewalks and driveways to prevent debris from hard surfaces getting into storm drains, leave an unmowed buffer next to streams and lakes to filter the pollutants that get carried away, flush responsibly by only flushing toilet paper and not pill bottles, medicine, auto fluids, etc., use the trash and not the drain, throw out any fats, grease and especially hygiene products to prevent having clogged pipes.

Solution

        I have been thinking about my solution and my idea is to use a paper filter specifically REEVE Angel paper filters. You basically take a plastic water bottle and cut it as if it was a funnel. Then wrap the filter around the lid and pour your contaminated water through. I have tested three filters: a coffee filter, the REEVE filter and the WHATMAN filter paper. As known the REEVE paper won and that's what I used for my experiment. I have several written papers on how I can create my own paper filters too if that's necessary. Here is a link to a video of me and my partner doing our paper filter experiment.

IMPORTANT: World Water day  ( #Water2Me) is a very important day and is on March 22 and began in 1993. This day means alot to me mostly because of how much we are working on for our environment and one of my favorites is valuing our water source. Which means all water is generated by ecosystems and all of the water we take for human use eventually goes back to the environment with the contaminants they have added. It's amazing how much you can do on this day. 

My Sources!

EPA “Drinking Water” Sep 11, 2018

https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/drinking-water#:~:text=If%20drinking%20water%20contains%20unsafe,chronic%20diseases%20such%20as%20cancer.

Melissa Denchak “ Water pollution, everything you need to know” May 14th, 2018

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know

Aria Bendix March 27th, 2020 “Cities with the most contaminated tap water in the US”

https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-worst-tap-water-us-2019-3

Ensia September 15th. 2020 “Across the U.S., millions of people are drinking unsafe water. How can we fix that”

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/drinking-unsafe-water-contaminants-solutions/

Pete Duffy Dec 18th, 2019 “6 Ways to prevent water pollution”

https://raleighnc.gov/SupportPages/6-ways-prevent-water-pollution

Government ( i couldn't find date or author) “Keep water clean”

https://www.dec.ny.gov/public/43661.html

“15 proven ways to stop water pollution” July 20, 2017

https://blog.arcadia.com/15-proven-ways-can-reduce-water-pollution/

By Carina

Help Promote a Business for Cleaning Plastic

 

    It is a nice lovely day and you really want to go to the beach and you really want to go for a swim today. You get to the beach and you see that the water is FILLED with plastic! You know that people are working on cleaning the ocean but they haven't gotten to our beach. You get mad and impatient and you wish that you can fix this.

    You actually can fix it! All you have to do is try to help promote the people or businesses that are already getting plastic out of the ocean. One business that is really good called the ocean cleanup (link in bibliography) is trying really hard. You can make a blog or website where it promotes them, you can then buy their recycled plastic so that they get more money to get more plastic out of the ocean. 

    The ocean cleanup puts nets where currents are so that the garbage patches just float right into the nets. A boat comes and empties the net once it is full. They also have a solution to stop garbage from even getting into the ocean. A robot boat called the "interceptor" stops the garbage from leaving rivers, and "intercepts"  it which stops it from even getting into the ocean. Once the boat gets full another boat comes in and takes out the garbage and then makes the plastic into something else and then sells it it (by the way the ocean cleanup is a non profit business.) This is also an example for how you can promote businesses like the ocean cleanup.

    #Water2Me, What does water mean to me? Water means clean water to drink and able to eat because all of the animals use water and we eat them. I also love a bunch of water sports and if there is no useable water then I can't swim or any of that.

                                                                       Bibliography

https://theoceancleanup.com/

https://alansfactoryoutlet.com/7-types-of-plastics-their-toxicity-and-most-commonly-used-for/

By Miles

Water Contamination! Drink it? What do I do?

 Public Service Announcement

Contaminated Drinking Water

 What if your drinking water could cause cancer, would you drink your tap water? There are many infectious microorganisms that may be found in drinking water such as bacteria, viruses, protozoans, pesticides, parasites and more. Which you shouldn’t drink because they can make you sick and some can kill you. By the year 2025 half of the earth’s population will be living in water-stressed places. There're at least 2 billion people in the world with their drinking water that is contaminated with feces. Plastics, pesticides and pathogens go into the list of items that are not safe to drink. People’s water that is contaminated can cause diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio, just to name a few. Waterborne diseases are illnesses caused by the microorganisms in water that haven't been treated. If every single person on this earth had access to safe and clean drinking water these diseases wouldn’t exist. Things that can cause contaminated water are oil pollution, marine dumping, radioactive substances and your sewer lines leaking and getting in the water. All of the things I just told you could be bacteria, diseases, pathogens and more going into the water. The National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWR) legally apply standards and some ways to treat your water but you can still help. Treating the water by following standards protects the public health by putting a limit on the contaminant levels of your drinking water. High levels of exposure to PFAS could suppress your immune system and raise the risk of being infected with COVID-19. So what can you do to help?

Consequences

Consequences of contaminated drinking water are countless such as you becoming ill or dying from something in your water. Contaminants in Public Water Systems could lead to outbreaks of multiple illnesses, parasitic infections, compromised immune systems leading to multiple diseases. The water pollution will come from chemicals and microorganisms contaminating creeks, streams, rivers, oceans, lakes and other water bodies. Pesticide normally causes damage to your nervous system, that’s what will cause cancer from the carbamates and organophosphates. If your drinking water holds unsafe qualities of contaminants, which can cause health issues including cancer, gastrointestinal sickness, nervous system or reproductive system. There is a sizable importance for water especially drinking water, the average American will drink 1-2 liters of water a day. In the United States of America our water comes from fresh surface waters and groundwater aquifers.

We Can Help

How do we help prevent drinking water pollution? You can help prevent drinking water contamination by raising awareness, spacing your septic and well away from each other, filtering your water, packing out what you pack in when in nature, and making inventive solutions. If you are flushing things down the toilet that should go in the garbage change that habit. Help make sure debris is not going into the water from sidewalks and your driveways by going out and sweeping it up, compost rather than putting items in the garbage to go to the dump. If you live near water, toss out any fats, grease and definitely hygiene products so they don’t clog pipes and tubes and burst contaminating the body of water. There is a solution that people did when they found out about some of the things in the water for example the LifeStraw, they came up with this idea because at first there were thousands maybe even hundreds of thousands of people who got sick with the guinea worm in Africa. In 2020 it went down to 27 human cases of guinea worm. You drink water with guinea worm larvae in it, the larvae becomes a worm inside of your body and then it comes out of your foot as a guinea worm. This would happen almost every time someone drank the water. If you want to help prevent drinking water contamination it will take inventive ideas and many people helping raise awareness and being proactive. 

My solution

My idea to help prevent drinking contaminated water is a filtration water bottle. It will filter out lead, metal, microorganisms, pesticides, protozoans and other contaminants in the water, so that the water is clean and safe to drink without becoming sick. You will be able to use the water bottle to filter your water in your daily life, when you go on camping trips, hiking, and other places that you need to filter your water. The filter will be made of creped paper. The turbidity level of grade 202 of the reeve angel creped paper filter is 62 NTUs (Nephelometric Turbidity Unit).

Meso Paper

Meso paper is something else that filters water into a cup. Meso paper filters out microorganisms, lead, metal and toxins. It uses natural fiber that is biodegradable, you are able to use it multiple times and it is not harmful. It makes it so that there is safe water, filtering out the contamination. Meso paper is made of bamboo fiber and ceramic. Meso paper is safe because it passed the NSF international safety test. The hole size is 40-50 nanometers. Meso Paper will make water that is unhealthy, clean and safe to drink. 

World Water Day!

World Water Day #Water2Me

World water day is on March 22 . There are many ways that we can think about water and how we can appreciate water. I enjoy going to the lake, and going boating because I get to Wakeboard, surf and play on the water. On December 22, 1992 they declared world water day to be on March 22. So ever since 1993 world water day has been on March 22 and that was also the year that world water day started.

My Sources

“Cities with the most contaminated tap water in the US” Aria Bendix Mar. 17, 2020

https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-worst-tap-water-us-2019-3#residents-of-brady-texas-are-worried-about-radium-in-their-water-supply-7

“Across the U.S., millions of people are drinking unsafe water” Lynne Peeples, Great Lakes Now   Sep. 15, 2020

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/drinking-unsafe-water-contaminants-solutions/

“Microorganisms that may be found in drinking water” Environmental Health  2021

https://www.mecknc.gov/HealthDepartment/EnvironmentalHealth/GWS/Pages/Learn%20About%20Contaminants.aspx#:~:text=The%20principle%20bacteria%20pathogens%20that,fever%3B%20Shigella%20dysenteriae%2C%20S. 

“Drinking water” World Health Organization  June 14, 2019

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water#:~:text=785%20million%20people%20lack%20even,water%20source%20contaminated%20with%20faeces.

“Waterborne diseases” Lifewater 2021

https://lifewater.org/blog/7-most-common-waterborne-diseases-and-how-to-prevent-them/#:~:text=Waterborne%20diseases%20are%20illnesses%20caused,these%20diseases%20would%20not%20exist.

“National Primary Drinking Water Regulations” EPA  January 5, 2021

https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/national-primary-drinking-water-regulations

“Waterborne diseases and preventing them” CDC April 24, 2019

https://www.cdc.gov/ncezid/dfwed/waterborne/index.html

“Contamination on Public water systems” CDC April 7, 2014

https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water_diseases.html

“Contamination affects” EPA  Sep. 11, 2018

https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/drinking-water#:~:text=If%20drinking%20water%20contains%20unsafe,chronic%20diseases%20such%20as%20cancer.

“Guinea worm Information” LifeStraw 

https://www.lifestraw.com/pages/guinea-worm-eradication

“Water pollution” NRDC May 14, 2018

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know

"Water filter" Meso Paper 2018

http://mesofilter.com/mesopaper-fact-sheet 

http://mesofilter.com/mesopaper

My Picture

Ildar Sagdejev “Dirty water spilling from a bottle.” Sep. 20, 2008.

Dirty water spilling from a bottle

Here is data from a google form that I did for Sixth Grade to find out information from the people in my grade and what they think. Also to see what they would think of Contaminated water.

By Breanne