We are eating our own plastic garbage
The pacific vortex that is harming marine life and consequently humans is just one of many pressing environmental issues. Gregory Mueller says positive change can be achieved with organised people power.
At 29 after being made redundant from my job as an industrial electrician and seeing the effects of Australia’s Mining Boom on Australia’s outback I came to a realisation I was part of the problem. On my time off I loved the beach, surfing, camping and everything outdoors. Then during my long work hours I was significantly contributing to destroying the environment I love.
I was overworked and depressed and wasn’t being true to myself. I wasn’t working in or on something I was passionate about. Though I was involved in some wind farm projects throughout Australia it wasn’t until a chance conversation with a construction companies’ environmental manager that something in my head clicked and I knew what I wanted to do as a career.
I am currently taking on a Bachelor of Environment at Flinders University and find it so fascinating but in some cases shocking at how humans treat the environment which simply gives us life.
I tried following all the current environmental events but it seems you have to go hunting for even the most significant environmental issues effecting the world. The pacific vortex was my chosen group assignment. In a nut shell a large circular current, or gyre, in the Pacific Ocean is swirling around catching all the plastic waste that makes its way to the ocean, obviously harming marine life when the rubbish is still in its original form. After a long time the plastic finally breaks down but only into a ‘soup’-like consistency. Microscopic organisms which fed on this, have been genetically altered. The fish that eat those smaller organisms are then affected, and obviously we consume those marine creatures.
We are eating our own garbage…. Revenge for our selfishness as human beings?
I am only at the beginning of my learning journey. I don’t class myself as a ‘hippie’ or an extreme environmental activist. But just from a bit of time spent and realising the impact we have as a race, and speaking to my family and friends, they do generally feel the same way. But it’s like it is just too big of a problem. I watch the news nightly and read the paper most days yet there is so little information on these topics which are affecting all of us daily.
International Environmental summits are held here, carbon pricing is now reversed in Australia, China is literally covered in smog – and the list goes on.
I honestly think with enough people power we can get these topics in the face of all governments of all nations. Make the issues brought up daily on news and not just the news but headlining regularly. Pinpoint the areas we are failing in but also promote where positive changes are being made.
Just one thing: It’s a hell of a job to do it on my own… little help anyone? 🙂
Gregory Mueller is a Flinders University Student and is taking on a Bachelor of Environment.
fooker
September 4, 2014 at 2:56 pm
i thought some teenager..
invented a giant solar powered vacuum to suck it all up.. what happenned? http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/teen-invents-device-clean-ocean-garbage-patches.html as for eating our own garbage? whats new? us humans have been shitting in our own nest since we first walked upright.. people power? youre joking right? a million people protested as john howard marched us toward illegal immoral wars of aggression, merely dismissing the protestors as a "mob" you wont change anything writing on a blog friend.. you need torches and pithforks.. let me know when you want to have a go..