If you ask someone their favorite place to vacation, there's a good chance they'll say "the beach." Every summer, millions of Americans make the long drive or short walk to their favorite ocean destination, and every summer our beaches start to look like this.
And this....
And last but not least...
Every time I go to the beach I'm reminded that people don't really "love" it. I see people throw their beer cans in the sand, bury their snack bags, and leave cigarette butts everywhere, yet, still, they "love" the beach.
Why, if everyone loves this magical sandy place where land meets ocean, is it so difficult to keep it clean? Well, it's much the same reason as to why jungles are being burnt down, recycling rates are pathetically low, and climate change has no end in site... nobody cares.
Some call it the tragedy of the commons. This is the social phenomena that occurs when everyone shares "ownership" of something (in this case, Earth) and no one takes care of it. Basically, we're more likely to clean up after ourselves if we had a party in our backyard than if we had a party at a public park. We consider our yard our own and since we possess it we understand that it's our responsibility to take care of it, but when thinking of public park (or a beach) ownership, it is more ambiguous. Is cleaning the beach really our problem? I mean come on don't people get paid to do that for us?
Actually it is our problem. Or, at least, it will be soon enough. Take a look at this bad boy.
See that spiral shape in the ocean? Yeah, that's not a tropical storm. It's the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And when you get to know it, there's nothing "great" about it.
This garbage patch is a giant mass of trash just floating in the Pacific Ocean. It's made up of all the water bottles, plastic bags, and six-pack holders that people were too lazy to throw away, and day by day they made their way into waterways that eventually empty into the ocean. Due to sea currents that spiral into one epicenter the garbage has made itself into this giant mess. The image you see above was taken by a satellite. Yep, that means it's so big you can see it from space. It's actually exploded in size to twice as large as the continental United States.
This is what it looks like from the water.
So why is no one talking about this ever-growing floating dump in our world's largest ocean? Nobody cares.
Of course, when you litter on the beach, the trash doesn't have very far to go before finding its way to the ocean. The worse news here is that there's actually five floating garbage patches in our oceans. Not all of the billions and possibly trillions of tons of trash floating in our oceans are from oblivious beach-goers, but as the images at the top of this article point out, there's a definite problem with our beaches.
This floating trash won't just stay out to sea. Eventually it will all wash up on our beloved shorelines, and there won't be enough volunteers in the world to clean it up.
The big question here is how do we prevent something like that from happening? How do we keep our favorite vacation spots safe and clean.
Perhaps harsher penalties should be enacted against litterers to deter violators. Maybe better education is necessary. I'm sure most people don't know the harm their seemingly small actions can cause. I think the most obvious improvement would be an increase in trash and recycling bins on beaches.
More importantly, people need to realize the consequences of their actions. Nothing happens in a vacuum. When you forget your water bottle on the beach it doesn't just stay there with no further ramifications. If no Good Samaritans come along to clean up after you, that bottle will float out into the ocean to join its polluting, plastic brethren to become a part of one of the (not so) great garbage patches.
When you're on the beach remember not to take it for granted. The beautiful view you see today may be a fantastic view of nothing but miles and miles of trash in the near future if there isn't a major global cultural shift. Remember to bring your trash with you when you leave. Recycle what you can, and if you see others' trash on the ground, be the bigger person and throw it out.
Always ask yourself this simple question: "If you don't make a difference then who will?"
