First assignment of group n°038
1.What Problem do you want to solve ?
The "Seventh Continent" also called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an island made of plastic, dirt and waste, 6 times larger than France and 30 meters deep. This pollution, invisible from space, is found in five large oceans : in the North Pacific, the South Pacific, the North and the South Atlantic and the Indian ocean.
This continent of plastic involves major environmental issues as well as health issues for animals or even for humans. According to the report “green peace”organization, they found at least 267 kinds of marine life dead due to eating oceans garbage.
We are aware that this problem will be a "bigger problem" in A few years, this is the reason why, as responsible citizens, we want to stop the expansion of the 7th continent by cleaning up beaches and to raise awareness towards this issue.
2. Why does this problem exist?
This problem exists for several reasons :
Firstly, this continent is mainly due to the huge amount of garbage on the beaches. Indeed, 80% of wastes come from beaches, rivers ... And only 20% come from boats. Until then, floating debris was destroyed by micro-organisms, but this is no longer the case with the advent of plastics, mainly polyethylene, polypropylene and PET, which constitute 90% of marine waste. However, these amounts continue to grow. It is estimated that 300 million tons of plastic are produced each year worldwide, with almost 10% end up in the oceans. By 2050, the world population will reach 9,6 billion person. Those, consumption and production of plastic will be a problematic issue in the future, as sustainable solution doesn't exist yet.
Secondly, it is a political reason. Governements are aware of this big issue but are not able to do anything for now because all the solutions proposed were a way too expensive. Also the 7th continent doesn't belong to Ancône, so it is hard to agree on who should clean it up.
Finally, people are not aware enough of this issue. If we do anything right now, problem and will be worth in a few years due to the increase of people's growth end consumption of plastic.
3. What breakthrough are you commited to creating?
We are committed to creating way to limit the growth of the 7th continent that will tackle 3 problems:
- The first one, is to preserve the environment by taking part of the ecological issue that comes from the continent.
- The second one, is to raise population awareness towards this major issue that is the 7th continent. People have to understand that the problem exists and have to comprehend that being careful with waste/recycling is very important for today, but also for the next population.
- At the very end, it will permit, thank to our solution(s), to give ideas to 'energy producer' to use the garbage from the continent to create new kind of energy.
Experts :
- The Ocean Clean Up is an association which develops technologies to extract, prevent and intercept plastic pollution. The Ocean Cleanup’s goal is to fuel the world’s fight against oceanic plastic pollution by initiating the largest cleanup in history. They use crowd funding and succeed to get 2.2 million dollars.
http://www.theoceancleanup.com/about.html
- La fondation Shell, (oil and gas company). This company invests a lot in sustainable development. So, it might interested to invest in our project. The company would invest in a sustainable development project lead by students. This company could be one of our expert as well as our future investors.
- Expédition 7° continent. Patrick Deixonne - Head of mission. It is an association with aimes to understand and reduce pollution plastic for an unspoiled planet.
http://www.septiemecontinent.com/actualites/
Resources used by the team[modifier | modifier le wikicode]
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qcIllBI9iE
http://information.tv5monde.com/info/le-7eme-continent-un-monstre-de-plastique-1863
http://www.septiemecontinent.com/
http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/2014/07/05/roman-ecolo-pollution-septieme-continent-253461 | |
Videos:
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/How-the-oceans-can-clean-them-2
http://www.ted.com/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_plastic
http://www.livescience.com/47050-pacific-garbage-patch-citizen-science-nsf-bts.html
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/great-pacific-garbage-patch-is-destroying-the-oceans/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/opinion/choking-the-oceans-with-plastic.html?_r=0
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/23/pacific-ocean-plastic-trash-mapping-mission
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Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=xc6LvdsyJ4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwTDvqaqPlM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZEIYuuJodg
http://theglobaloyster.com/2013/09/14/a-seventh-continent-called-pacific-trash-vortex/
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Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEMLqrgEwbg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qcIllBI9iE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a4S23uXIcM
http://theglobaloyster.com/2013/09/14/a-seventh-continent-called-pacific-trash-vortex/
http://www.whatagreenlife.com/seventh-continent-3-43-million-km2-waste-floating-pacific/
http://www.kisskissbankbank.com/es/projects/expedition-7e-continent-2015?ref=category
http://www.domusweb.it/en/search.html?type=tag&key=The+Plastic+Garbage+Project
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Videos:
http://www.notre-planete.info/actualites/4228-film-expedition-7e-continent
http://information.tv5monde.com/info/le-7eme-continent-un-monstre-de-plastique-1863
http://www.septiemecontinent.com
http://www.unmondedaventures.fr/le-septieme-continent-de-plastique/
http://www.rfi.fr/europe/20120619-penurie-dechets-suede
http://www.septiemecontinent.com/
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Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROW9F-c0kIQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwTDvqaqPlM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en4XzfR0FE8
http://www.unep.org/regionalseas/marinelitter/publications/docs/plastic_ocean_report.pdf
http://hubpages.com/hub/Pacific-Ocean-Garbage-Patch-
http://ww.greenrock.org/images/stories/new_york_times_article.pdf
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Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io1wo8LoV6E&app=desktop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WrtQUqkQcw#action=share
Book : Gyre: The Plastic Ocean , Julie Decker Harry N. Abrams, 8 avr. 2014 - 211 pages
http://livingcircular.veolia.com/en/did-you-know/seventh-continent-plastic
http://www.plasticgarbageproject.org/en/plastic-garbage/problems/plastic-garbage-gyre/
http://www.whatagreenlife.com/seventh-continent-3-43-million-km2-waste-floating-pacific/
https://www.quora.com/Can-plastic-rubbish-be-removed-from-the-worlds-oceans
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