Brave New World in the Middle of the Pacific Ocean

It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel doesn't it, an island of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean being turned into a habitable island, but a project is in the pipeline to do just that with the Pacific Vortex.

Knowledge of the Pacific Vortex is becoming more widespread, but many people are still not aware of this amazing phenomenon, that was discovered just a handful of years ago.

If you are not aware of this, the ocean currents all around the world interact with each other, and anything that is left floating in the ocean, will eventually end up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Believe it or not, as a result of this natural phenomenon, floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is a Garbage Dump that is twice the size of the State of Texas, or the combined size of Spain and France.

It is just unbelievable isn't it, a floating island this size that is comprised of plastic, chemical sludge, plus goodness knows what else.

Well now a company in the Netherlands has obtained funding to try and convert this island of hazardous waste into an island that is habitable.

According to the company that is working on this project, WHIM Architecture, the proposal has three main aims:

1. Cleaning our oceans from a gigantic amount of plastic waste
2. Creating new land
3. Constructing a sustainable habitat.

Recycled island is looking at the possibilities of recycling the plastic waste on the spot and to turn it into a floating entity, resulting in a sea worthy island.

The plastic waste that exists in our oceans is deadly for both fish and birds. If we look at birds like the Albatross, these find the plastic attractive and end up eating it. The plastic remains in their stomachs, which fill up, preventing them from eating, and as a result they die with a body full of plastic.

If plastic has been in the ocean long enough, it will break into smaller pieces, which are eaten by fish. The larger fish eat the smaller fish, and as we know the amount of pollutants the fish digest ends up in the human digestive system when we end up eating the fish.

To try and clean up this humongous mass of floating toxic waste would be a costly and virtually impossible task. Just transporting the waste to a land based recycling facility would be prohibitively costly, however if a recycling facility could be built on site, and the materials used to create an island, this just might be the best way to clean up the oceans.

It just sounds like something from the movie Waterworld doesn't it, but the pictures of what the recycled island could look like make it seem as if they are looking to create a new floating paradise.

The project will be looking to make the island self sufficient for food and energy, creating fertile ground from compost toilets. It would also be non-polluting, recycling it's own waste, as well as any new waste that comes it's way.

The initial plan is to create an island with an area of 10,000 square kilometers, or about the size of the main island of Hawaii.

I don't know about you, but as far fetched as this sounds, it does sound like a very realistic approach to a mammoth pollution problem that our planet is facing.

Not only would this provide more dwelling space, but with it being a floating island, it would not be affected by any rise in sea level due to Global Warming, and the plan is to make this not only self sufficient in resources, but to be profitable too, exporting recycled materials and also medicines and chemical products from seaweed farms.

It's a whole new world that faces us, a brave new world of the 21st century and beyond.

Sources:

Slashdot

Green.Blorge.com

Green.Blorge.com (2)

Recycled Island

WHIM Architecture

Wikipedia