Oceans clean up affirmative



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Affirmative Case 2/7




Plastics floating in the oceans provide a unique problem since they break down into tiny pieces but take hundreds of years to disappear.



Cho, staff blogger for the Earth Institute, 2011

(Renee, “Our Oceans: A Plastic Soup”, Earth Institute, 1-26, http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/01/26/our-oceans-a-plastic-soup/)


The lightness and durability that make plastic such a useful and versatile material for manufacturers also make it a long-term problem for the environment. Trash Travels estimates that plastic bags can take 20 years to decompose, plastic bottles up to 450 years, and fishing line, 600 years; but in fact, no one really knows how long plastics will remain in the ocean. With exposure to UV rays and the ocean environment, plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller fragments. The majority of the plastic found in the ocean are tiny pieces less than 1 cm. in size, with the mass of 1/10 of a paper clip.
Despite the huge amount of trash involved, most pieces concentrate in gyres or giant circuits located in each of the earth’s oceans.
Surfrider Foundation & UCLA School of Law’s Environmental Law Clinic, 2013

(“Federal Actions to Address Plastic Marine Pollution, http://law.ucla.edu/~/media/Files/UCLA/Law/Pages/Publications/CEN_EMM_PUB%20Surfrider%20UCLA%20-%20Plastics%20Solutions.ashx)


Marine litter tends to accumulate in a limited number of sub-tropical convergence zones known as gyres or garbage patches. Currently, there are five gyres: North Pacific, South Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Indian Ocean. Studies have shown that marine litter deposited in coastal areas tends to accumulate in the gyres within two years of entering the ocean. The litter remains cycling within these gyres for many years, with more than 200,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer in some areas. The sizes of the gyres are difficult to determine because they are constantly expanding and moving, but the gyres are estimated to contain 100 million tons of marine litter.

Affirmative Case 3/7




Contention 2 is the Danger of Ocean Plastics




Ocean debris effects marine life by trapping, choking or poisoning animals that it comes in contact with. Plastics kill millions of animals each year and could destroy entire species.



Slat et al, founder and lead designer The Ocean Cleanup Project, 2014

(Boyan, “A Feasibility Study”, http://www.theoceancleanup.com/fileadmin/media-archive/theoceancleanup/press/downloads/TOC_Feasibility_study_lowres.pdf)


Every year we produce about 300 million tons of plastic, a portion of which enters and accumulates in the oceans. Due to large offshore currents, plastic concentrates in vast areas called gyres, of which the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between Hawaii and California is the best known example.
The damage to sea life is staggering: at least one million seabirds, and hundreds of thousands of marine mammals die each year due to the pollution. Even worse, the survival of many species, like the Hawaiian Monk Seal and Loggerhead Turtle, is directly jeopardized by plastic debris.
Marine species often become entangled in larger debris, leading to “injury, illness, suffocation, starvation, and even death” (NOAA, 2014). Smaller fragments can be mistaken for food and eaten, causing malnutrition, intestinal blockage and death. When marine animals eat plastic, harmful chemicals move up the food chain. Ingestion of and entanglement in marine debris by marine animals has increased by 40 percent in the last decade. Furthermore, plastics can transport invasive species and toxic substances over great distances.

Affirmative Case 4/7

For animals not killed by the plastics survival becomes harder as invasive species ride trash islands to new ecosystems and destroying their balance and threatening all life in the oceans.



Newitz, editor in chief of io9 and PhD in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley, 2012

(Annalee, “Lies You've Been Told About the Pacific Garbage Patch, 5-21, http://io9.com/5911969/lies-youve-been-told-about-the-pacific-garbage-patch)


The "plastisphere" is a term coined by marine biologist Erik Zettler to describe the creatures — like water skaters — who thrive in an environment with hard surfaces in the water. They are similar to creatures who cling to piers or the hulls of ships. Before human-made hard surfaces were everywhere, they would have lived on rocks or flotsam. The problem with the plastisphere is that it's radically changing the balance of a sea ecosystem that was once mostly just open ocean creatures.
"One thing that people worry about is that hard surfaces can transport invasive species," Goldstein said. "Some animals are good at hitching a ride and they can be destructive. By adding big chunks of plastic these species can move around better, and could be introduced to places like the Northwest Pacific Islands, where there are some of the best coral reefs in the world." In other words, the plastisphere isn't destroying the ocean ecosystem — the creatures who ride on the plastic are. We're witnessing an ecosystem that is slowly falling off balance.
For now, the open ocean is still mostly inhabited by lantern fish. "There's one lantern fish for every cubic meter of ocean," Goldstein explained, noting that these fish are probably more common than the pieces of plastic her team has sampled. But if trends continue, we're going to see more plastic than fish. And with that plastic will come more invasive species, more water skaters, and more creatures to eat the water skaters' eggs. The danger is that this could alter the open ocean forever — and destroy all the native life there that has kept the oceans healthy for thousands of years.



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