Speech 8: Get Comfortable With Visual Aids — Welcome to Plastic Island
Welcome to Plastic Island
Good evening fellow Toastmasters, it is a pleasure to be with you all on this joyous period. I just want to take a moment for us to look around this room, look at the Pens you grasp in your hands, the bottles and cups on the table, and even the laptop this presentation is on. The commonality between these Everyday items are that they are made from cheap and ever abundant plastic. The durability of plastics has made it into one of the most widespread products in the world, but it has also become one of the most polluting. These products that go into our everyday lives end up not only in landfills, but also find their way into oceans. And tonight I want to address this great mass of plastics and garbage forming in our ocean known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Many of us may not know about this, but The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is estimated to be 700,000 km2 or 1000 times the size of Singapore. It swirls through the ocean between the continental US and Japan, and contains all forms of floating garbage from plastic bags to Legos to footballs. This mass is located in an ocean gyre, which is an area of circular ocean current formed by the Earth’s rotation and prevents garbage and other materials from escaping. The immensity and size of this floating island, reminds us of the toll our careless buy and throw culture is taking on the environment. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that at this rate, by 2050 there will be more mass of plastic in the sea than fish.
Why has this mass of garbage grown so large over the years? Nearly every piece of plastic created by man still exists today. Plastics which are exposed to the sun do photodegrade into smaller pieces and polymers. However it takes many centuries for this to happen. This plastic bag takes over 20 years to degrade, this plastic cup takes an estimated 50 years and this plastic bottle takes over 450 years which goes over many generations into the future. However the story does not end there after photodegrading, the micro-plastics pollute the oceans for centuries and are consumed by marine life leading to starvation and malnutrition. According to Ocean Cursaders, they estimate that up to 1million marine mammals and sea turtles die each year from eating plastic. This should be a point of concern to us as well, as we are also part of this food chain and the micro-plastics are getting into our diets are resulting in plastic poisoning of DDT and PCB in people.
According to a study by Science Magazine, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka are the five main contributors in plastic pollution. Due to their lack of systematic disposal systems, plastic objects in these cities make it into the sewers and are then released straight to the sea. Over the years there have been various global measures to control the amount of waste going into the oceans. In 1986 MARPOL, an International legislation binding 122 countries. To control marine pollution from both land and sea based sources and set universal rules and understandings between countries.
There have also been modern inventions in trying to clean up plastics from the ocean. On the small scale is the Sea Bin, which is a passive way to collect waste in ports and harbours. The Seekuh which is a waste ship designed to collect floating waste around countries and seas. And the largest scale of all projects to date is the Ocean Cleanup project. This proposal is for a 100 km V shaped barrier which would use the sea currents to funnel rubbish into a collection unit and is currently undergoing testing
But in the end, the ultimate solution lies in our hands. Firstly we can reduce our own individual consumption, secondly we can also volunteer our time and energy in things like shoreline cleanups and thirdly to spread the awareness of this pollution to our social circles. We as a collection of individuals have the power to change consumer behavior and prevent waste from entering the system. The future of the marine world needs our awareness and our help
Commentary:
For this speech I wanted a topic that was impactful visually and could highlight something that we often take for granted. Plastic pollution was also a new topic for me, but the more I looked into it, the more I began to get interested in the immensity of the problem. This global issue highlights the dangers of our globalized society, and the pollution that we can spread many thousands of miles away. For me this issue is also a symptom of the “Tragedy of the Commons”, where it is a contribution from everyone, and yet nobody takes responsibility of this problem.
Through visual aids, I was able to bring across the immensity of the issue and give context to many of the astounding figures. I learnt a lot from my research of this topic and will be more conscious of my material wastage in daily life. But through this I have also learnt the importance of every slide and image, and to have a message for each visual.
Originally published at qpskpii.wordpress.com on August 6, 2017.
