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The Ocean Cleanup Project Revisited

2/15/2017

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It’s the beginning of a vacation weekend – yay!  Some of you have a long weekend or the entire week off.  Get lots of sleep and use the time to catch up on various projects, including check out the past entries on this blog.
 

The book Chemistry on a Budget contains inexpensive chemistry labs that are useful with easy to obtain materials.
 
There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report.  This way the teacher has the option!  Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout. 
 
You can buy this lab book for $23 at amazon.com or lulu.com. It will take 1-2 weeks to get to you --
Order Now.  It’s a great resource!
 
http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget

http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html
 
*Some of you have already purchased my lab book – be sure to check out Page 141 !
 
A past blog post on 6/25/2015 was titled “Ocean Clean-Up” about
The Ocean Cleanup Array, conceived by Dutch inventor Boyan Slat. 
 
This TED talk by Boyan Slat provides an 11 minute presentation about the issue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROW9F-c0kIQ
 
This “Ocean Clean-up Project” has it’s own website for your further investigation:

https://www.theoceancleanup.com/
 
“On 3 June 2014, Boyan Slat presented The Ocean Cleanup’s feasibility study… proposing a viable method to clean half of the so-called ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ within ten years’ time. At the same time, a crowd funding campaign was launched, aiming to collect US$ 2 million within 100 days. Within 98 days, the US$ 2 million target had been reached. After completion, US$ 2,154,282 had been raised, making it ‘the most successful non-profit crowd funding campaign in history’, according to crowd funding platform ABN AMRO’s SEEDS, who facilitated the campaign.”

https://www.theoceancleanup.com/press/press-releases-show/item/crowd-funding-campaign-the-ocean-cleanup-successfully-completed/
 
Here is a brief 3-minute video about The Ocean Cleanup Project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IjaZ2g-21E
 
“Last year, nonprofit foundation The Ocean Cleanup hit a milestone en route to its goal of deploying a large, floating structure to pull plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The organization…had completed a reconnaissance expedition that would pave the way for a June 2016 test of its prototype. With the help of $2.2m in crowdfunding, 21-year-old founder Boyan Slat announced his plans to deploy 100 kilometers of passive floating barriers in an effort to clean up 42% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch’s plastic pollution in 10 years.
Despite considerable online enthusiasm for the project, oceanographers and biologists are voicing less-publicized concerns. They question whether the design will work as described and survive the natural forces of the open ocean, how it will affect sea life, and whether this is actually the best way to tackle the problem of ocean plastic – or merely a distraction from the bigger problem of pollution prevention. Many have also expressed concern about the lack of an environmental impact statement prior to such a large push for funding.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/26/ocean-cleanup-project-environment-pollution-boyan-slat
 
“Following years of study, and seven expeditions into the gyres, the project has started to solidify. Drawing on technology found in offshore rigs that have moored to depths of 2,500 meters, the team 
concluded that ‘the tools and methods that are available to the offshore engineering world can readily be applied for the realization of this project.’ It also said that most of the plankton would pass underneath the barrier unharmed. Even in the worst case scenario that the plankton would be harmed, the feasibility study found that it would take ‘less than 7 seconds to reproduce’ whatever had been lost.
Expectations have also lowered slightly. The study — which answered many of the project’s critics, but
stirred fresh ones — found that a barrier that’s 100 kilometers (60 miles) long would clean up 42 percent of all of the plastic in the North Pacific gyre in 10 years.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/02/01/can-the-largest-cleanup-in-history-save-the-ocean/?utm_term=.524bb345d22f
 
Even though  there has been excitement generated about this idea, there has also been criticism.
According to Nicholas Mallos of the Ocean Conservancy, “Cleanups are a Band-Aid to this disease, and what we really need is a cure. And when we take that cleanup from the beach out into the ocean, we’re talking about an even more unfeasible solution. Cleaning up on land prevents debris from entering the ocean in the first place, whereas the Ocean Cleanup is looking to address this issue at the very, very end of this long ocean plastic pollution vector. And addressing this issue at the end of the pipe is not addressing the source.”

https://www.ecomagazine.com/featured-stories/ocean-debris-cleanup-project-makes-progress-battles-critics​
 
It is interesting to see the progress of this endeavor – one idea would be to have your class brainstorm the Pros and Cons of this Project.
 

*This Blog contains several entries that would be helpful to your chemistry classroom.  Check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.
 
Also, 
Write To Me about your successes, challenges, or questions in the Chemistry Classroom.
 

Remember, buying a copy of the lab book Chemistry on a Budget can be very useful to your Chemistry classroom with labs and class article ideas.

Have a great vacation!
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    Marjorie R. Heesemann is a chemistry teacher with 15 years of experience who is now working to develop resources for the Chemistry classroom.

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