Please stop littering our planet

I just found out about the Great Pacific garbage patch. That's where all solid plastic and junk we litter in the sea end up, circulating endlessly. If you go there (like VICE did ), you'll be able to pick up large chunks of plastic bags and other junk right in the middle of the open ocean. And that's just what's on the surface. 70 percent of the plastic thrown into the ocean sinks to the bottom according to greenpeace. The Great Pacific garbage patch contains 3 million tons of waste in an area of the size of Texas doubled (I might be wrong there but it's still serious nonetheless).

Some plastics contains chemicals harmful for animals and humans. Some or most plastic types aren't broken down or neutralized by nature. Small plastic bits of this type gets eaten by fishes and will eventually end up in your food supply.

So what's the problem with discarding waste wherever?

This won't affect us directly in the coming decades. But as we keep doing whatever caused the current litter, it builds up. That balloon or plastic bag you released into the air ends up somewhere in the ocean. As garbage discarding companies dumps waste into the ocean, or buries it wherever in the country side, the planet gets less and less inhabitable and less of a pleasant place. Future generations will pay for what we're doing with the planet and what those before us has done.

As manufacturing technologies gets more effective, the buildup of garbage only accelerates. But things doesn't necessarily have to get worse, right? We can fix this, can't we? We sure have the knowledge to make great environmental adaptations to our lifestyles. In Switzerland for example, it's illegal to NOT recycle your garbage, and shops may only offer "plastic bags" made of some kind of corn material. Food can become fertilizers and apparently Sweden has some technology that could replace the use of fossil oil. Well, there's just a few problem.

First of all, few actually cares. For every neighborhood recycling their stuff, there are plenty of others doing the opposite. Few seems to have any conscience for outright littering anywhere. If most disposable materials (such as packages) where nice to the environment, it would to at least some extent make people less harmful to the environment in their littering. But what politicians (except in Switzerland) would push such a policy? Even when the people in Italy are demonstrating against the mafia that via political contacts takes care of much of the countries garbage disposal, the politicians are too busy counting their bribes. Few have the power to make global change via laws and policies, but they are full of wealth and doesn't care - there are other priorities, sometimes even conflicting with the well being of those paying their salary.

You can do your part (recycle, shop with a conscience), and you can try to enlighten others about the environmental problems (since it's probably not taken seriously anyway). But I don't think we'll fix any problems until it's overwhelming and affects is directly (and especially affects those in power). So, we're pretty much screwed and any resistance is futile.

What sways our actions and policies are currently greed, laziness and self interests rather than environmental thinking and a consciousness or care for a future sustainable world with well being people. We are all responsible.