The Great Pacific Garbage Patch & ‘The Ocean Cleanup’

Washington (GGM) Analysis | October 2, 2019
by Noreen Wise

The simple fact about cutting carbon, and saving our civilization and returning to 350 PPM, is that if everyone does their little part now, we’ll succeed. And if not, we won’t. It’s that basic.

Knowing this, it becomes super exciting to see individuals, families, groups, corporations and innovators dive in and act, and quite infuriating when corporations that I love from a consumer perspective, do nothing. In fact, I feel extremely disappointed with the “do nothing” sector, and if it’s a corporation, quickly search to see whether their top competitor is moving more quickly with climate action.

Saving our civilization is going to take grit and sacrifice, two vital traits that require practice to make perfect. Both become charged when inspired. The story of 25-year-old Dutchman Boyan Slat, and his seven year journey of bringing a dream to life, drawing a diagram on a napkin while in high school, and having his boat The Ocean Cleanup set sail from San Francisco, CA on September 9, 2019, is quite dazzling. He’s young, lives across the globe, yet he was the one who became so infuriated with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that he moved into high gear and took action.

The Ocean Cleanup is testing it’s theory that the ship can use ocean currents along with a massive boon and skirt to collect the plastic from the garbage patch — that’s twice the land mass of France — and harvest it. Slat had to make the huge personal sacrifice of foregoing his studies in aeronautical engineering to follow through with his vision. But his sacrifice paid off. And we’ll be able to follow the success of this determined humanitarian. Mr. Slat recently became the youngest winner ever of the UN’s greatest environmental honor, The Champion of the Earth award. Congratulations!