There is a plan to work on the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’

Pollution on Kamilo Beach, Hawaii, from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Are you familiar with the great accumulations of plastics in the oceans? Someone is implementing a plan to see if the plastic can be collected and removed from the Pacific Ocean:

September 8, 2018

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which covers more than 600,000 square miles between California and Hawaii, contains roughly a third of the plastic debris floating in the oceans. It’s one of the world’s five major ocean gyres — huge regions where circular currents gather trash.

Slat’s system is essentially an autonomous boom that floats around the ocean powered by wind and currents. “The ocean is a very challenging environment to engineer for,” he says.

The team eliminated mechanical parts and kept the boom structure flexible to help it contour to waves. (It should survive waves up to 20 meters high.) A skirt that hangs from the boom to 3 meters below the surface is a screen, not a net, to keep animals from getting entangled. The designers factored in extra buoyancy to cope with plants, algae and other organisms that will attach themselves to the system. There are sensors to track it and estimate when it is full of plastic so a vessel can go empty it. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ocean-cleanup-plastic-waste-collection_us_5b925b0be4b0162f472c3896

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A ship on Saturday will start towing a long device from Northern California more than 1,000 miles out to sea to begin scooping up a massive heap of trash that’s estimated to weigh 88,000 tons. It may look like a giant pipeline, but the 2,000-foot-long contraption will soon be cleaning up what’s known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” made up of an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of floating plastic.

“This area is twice the size of Texas. If you were to skim that with boats and nets, it would take around 79,000 years,” said Boyan Slat. …

Once it’s towed to the garbage patch, the collection system floats freely with ocean current and forms a “u” shape to corral the trash. A skirt about 10 feet deep will catch the plastic, and a ship will then collect it for recycling into products like sunglasses.

Ultimately, Slat hopes to deploy 60 of the systems.

“we expect to remove half of the area pacific garbage patch every five years,” Slat said.

Ocean experts are hopeful.

“It’s very much an idea worth testing, but if we clean that up and don’t stop the plastics at the source, we have an even bigger problem,” said Dr. Jerry Schubel, president and CEO of Aquarium of the Pacific.

For now, Slat is focused on this first full-scale test. When asked if he’s sure it will work, he said no, but added, “That’s what we’ll see in the coming months.” 09/07/18 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/great-pacific-garbage-patch-inventor-tries-to-conquer-floating-plastic/

Here is a map of the general area where this plastic garbage is accumulating:

There is also something similar near India (see The Great Indian Garbage Patch?).

The amount of plastic refuse being dumped in the oceans is both staggering and harmful. There are also plastic garbage patches in the Atlantic Ocean.

Consider also the following:

Once waterborne, debris becomes mobile. Flotsam can be blown by the wind, or follow the flow of ocean currents, often ending up in the middle of oceanic gyres where currents are weakest. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one such example of this, comprising a vast region of the North Pacific Ocean rich with anthropogenic wastes. Estimated to be double the size of Texas, the area contains more than 3 million tons of plastic. The gyre contains approximately six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton. The oceans may contain as much as one hundred million tons of plastic. Islands situated within gyres frequently have coastlines flooded by waste that washes ashore; prime examples are Midway and Hawaii. (Marine Debris. Wikipedia, viewed 02/13/15)

No one should be putting plastic trash into the oceans. Plastics become toxic as they break down.

As far as how Christians should view the environment, going to the book of Genesis is a good place to start.

Notice:

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. (Genesis 2:15)

Humans were to be stewards over God’s creation.

Now notice something else about it:

24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. (Genesis 1:24-31)

Pollution is not good. Christians and others should not dump plastic trash into the oceans.

While I am pleased that an effort is being started to collect and remove plastic from the oceans, overall, it should be clear that humans are not properly tending the Earth. They are destroying it. And they will be judged for it:

18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth. (Revelation 11:18)

Pollution, which tends to be caused by greed and/or ignorance (which is not always intentional), is destroying the Earth.

But I am glad some efforts to clean up the environment are being made.

Ultimately, however, it will take the return of Jesus and the establishment of the Kingdom of God to truly clean up planet Earth.

That is the real plan to fix, not only plastic pollution, but other problems that are on the Earth.

Some items of related interest may include:

The Bible, Christians, and the Environment How should Christians view the environment? Does the Bible give any clues? What are some of the effects of air, water, and land pollution? Is environmental pollution a factor in autism and death? Do pollutants seem to double the autism risk? What will Jesus do? Here is a link to a related sermon: Christians and the Environment (there is also YouTube video available titled Air Pollution, Autism, and Prophecy).
GMOs and Bible Prophecy What are GMOs? Since they were not in the food supply until 1994, how could they possibly relate to Bible prophecy? Do GMOs put the USA and others at risk? Here is a related YouTube video GMO Risks and the Bible.
Chimeras: Has Science Crossed the Line? What are chimeras? Has science crossed the line? Does the Bible give any clues? A video of related interest is Half human, half pig: What’s the difference?
Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? Does God have 7,000 year plan? What year may the six thousand years of human rule end? When will Jesus return? 2027 or 20xx? There is also a video titled 6000 Years: When will God’s Kingdom Come? Here is a link to the article in Spanish: ¿Tiene Dios un plan de 6,000 años?
When Will the Great Tribulation Begin? 2018, 2019, or 2020? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? Is this the time of the Gentiles? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord? Who are the 144,000? Here is a version of the article in the Spanish language: ¿Puede comenzar la Gran Tribulación en 2018 o 2019? ¿Es el Tiempo de los Gentiles? You can also see the English language sermon videos: The Great Tribulation from the Mount of Olives and Can the Great Tribulation begin before 2020? A shorter video is: Can the Great Tribulation begin in 2018?
The Times of the Gentiles Has there been more than one time of the Gentiles? Are we in it now or in the time of Anglo-America? What will the final time of the Gentiles be like? A related sermon is available and is titled: The Times of the Gentiles.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. Here are links to three related sermons: The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.