What can we do?

The discoverer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Capt. Charles Moore, once said a cleanup effort "would bankrupt any country and kill wildlife in the nets as it went."

"He makes a really good point there," Bamford says. "It's very difficult."

Still, NOAA conducts flyovers to study the garbage patch, and two research teams recently sailed there to collect debris and water samples. Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography held a press conference after returning from their three-week voyage in 2009, describing the amount of trash as "shocking." They found large and small items as well as a vast underwater haze of photodegraded plastic flakes, and are now analyzing their samples to figure out how the plastic interacts with its marine environment.

Meanwhile, the international Project Kaisei team also recently spent time in the garbage patch, studying its contents in hopes of eventually recycling them or turning them into fuel. And "adventure ecologist" David de Rothschild is pushing on with plans to sail around the garbage patch in a boat made entirely of recycled plastics, taking a test voyage earlier this month after a long delay due to construction trouble. Called "Plastiki," the ship is intended to highlight the connection between plastic trash on land and plastic trash at sea — an increasingly evident link, thanks not only to media attention for the Pacific patch, but also the recent discovery of a similar patch in the North Atlantic.

Ultimately, more plastic recycling and wider use of biodegradable materials is the best hope for controlling these garbage patches, Bamford says, but that's an uphill battle.

"We need to turn off the taps at the source. We need to educate people on the proper disposal of things that do not break up, like plastics," she says. "Opportunities for recycling have to increase, but, you know, some people buy three bottles of water a day. As a society, we have to get better at reusing what we buy."

Words to text:

Garbage – сміття;

Landfill – смітник;

Swirl – водоворот;

To scoop – черпати;

To spread – розповсюджувати;

Biodegradable – біорозкладені;

To float – плавати;

Rubber – гумовий;

Surface – поверхня;

Debris – сміття;

Entanglement – заплутаність;

Photo degradation –фото деградація;

Patch – ділянка;

Jellyfish – медуза;

To swallow – ковтати;

Various – різний;

Sink – сток;

Gyre – кругообіг;

To abandon –відмовлятися;

Frequently –часто.

II Give synonyms to the following words:

Garbage, problem, human, island, animal, effort, organism.

III Give antonyms to the following words:

Clean, underwater, large, unlike, scour, nebulous, recognize.

IV Give definitions:

Garbage, problem, water, pollution, environment, oceanography, toxin.

V Answer the questions:

1. Has the Great Pacific Garbage Patch described as a “trash island”?

2. Is the most of garbage patch made of plastic?

3. How many percents debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from land?

4. Does marine debris threaten environmental health in several ways?

5. Does sunlight eventually “photodegrade” the bonds in plastic polymers, reducing it to smaller and smaller pieces?

6. How many oceanic gyres does our planet have?

7. Is the area of garbage island as same as an area of Texas?

VI Match words to their definitions:

Problem is unwanted or useless materials.

Water is a introduction of contaminants into the

natural environmental that cause adverse

change.

Garbage is the chemical substance with the

chemical formula H2O.

Pollution is a poisonous substances created by

artificial processes are thus excluded.

Toxin is an obstacle, impediment, difficulty or

challenge, or any situation that invites

resolution.

GRAMMAR:

I Put the verbs into the correct tense form:

1. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has sometimes (to be) described as a “trash island”.

2. Maybe if you (to add) them all up it’s the size of Texas, but we still don’t know.

3. It may take several years for debris to reach this area, (to depend) on it’s origin.

4. Marine debris (to threaten) environmental health in several ways.

5. Plastic resin pellets (to be) another common piece of marine debris.

6. (to be) so small and plentiful, they can easily get lost along the way.

7. We (to need) to turn off the taps at the source.

II Fill in necessary prepositions:

1. Not all garbage ends up … the dump.

2. The ducks continue to turn up… beaches around the world … this day.

3. This is bed … a couple … reasons.

4. The upper part … this gyre, a few hundred miles north of Hawaii.

5. We need to turn off the taps … the source.

6. … Fact, Earth’s largest landfill isn’t … land … all.

7. As a society, we have to get better … reusing what we buy.

III Translate into English:

1. Не все сміття закінчується на звалищі.

2. Близько 80 % сміття на Великій Тихоокеанській сміттєвій ділянці приходить від островів.

3. Вільно плаваючі рибальські сіті складають решту 10 % всього морського сміття.

4. Морське сміття загрожує навколишньому середовищу декількома способами.

5. Першовідкривач Великої Тихоокеанської сміттєвої ділянки капітан Чарльз Мур.

6. Нам потрібно вимкнути крани на джерело.

7. Як суспільство, ми повинні краще повторно використовувати те, що ми купуємо.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-31