How our population is responsible for the trash which has accumulated within the Pacific Ocean and an investigation to the affects which it has caused. 

The ocean is an important aspect of our world and I feel as though there is not enough attention given to the issues happening within it. There are many problems arising in our seas, such as the affects of global warming or overfishing, that humans have been blind to due to how these issues do not directly affect us. Through this paper I hope to not only spread knowledge about the issue of trash within our oceans but also to link it to the entire environment along with our community in order to invoke a want to help fix the issue.

I am a marine science major which I believe qualifies me to look into this topic. In my marine science classes, we discuss many things pertaining to the ocean and the issue of trash within our oceans was one that really interested me due to the amount of change it is causing in the environment. The way which the oceans circulates allows for pieces of plastic to gather and stay at the surface of our oceans for hundreds of years, allowing the trash to become apart of the ecosystem or possible creating an ecosystem of its own. It is my passion to keep the oceans and animals within them healthy so this issue is very close to my interests. 


The central claim made in this TED talk is that society's wasteful mindset has caused the ecosystem of the ocean to change entirely. Through videos and photos showing his findings and research, Charles Moore visually shows how plastic has accumulated in the oceans and the negative affects it has had on the environment. 

The major values and interests of this article are to influence people to reduce their plastic output in order to help the health of the oceans. This talk centers around the health of the environment and its inhabitants and hope to guilt the audience by showing the damage which society has caused. 

Charles Moore is a credible speaker for this topic because he is one of the top researchers in the field. He presents aspects of his research in this talk which helps to not only show that he is doing research, but to also show his research to the audience. 


The growing amount of plastics in the oceans is not only causing harm to the environment, but it has also changed the oceans to the extent where a new field of study was created to study only the affect of trash in the oceans specifically. The scientists looked into the amount of plastic being added to the oceans each year and if it would ever be possible to clean it up and the potential harm which could come from removing it. 

Within this article the values and interests addressed are focused on society and our wasteful habits. The article shows studies which looked into the amount of plastic being released into the ocean yearly and how we should work to decrease the amount in order to help the environment.

This piece is seen to be credible due to the fact that it is found within the National Geographic webpage, which is accepted as a knowledgeable source for environmental information. Yet bias can be assumed because National Geographic often times tries to influence environmental change so they might over exaggerate the issues. 


Plastics have made lives easier within society but at a risk to the environment. While plastics decompose they release toxins into their surroundings. These toxins have been found to alter hormones and have potential health effects to animals in its surroundings and even to humans. There is not enough information about the affects which plastic has on humans and this report calls for more in depth research looking into the affects of the toxins in order to better understand the aftermath of plastic. The article also goes on to give ways of how we can better use plastics to reduce our footprint on the earth instead of cause further damage. 

This is a review looking at a study done to evaluate the toxins in plastics and their affects. This is a research based article which makes it dependable and fact based. There are many references to a study conducted which helps the Ethos of the article.  

Reflect

The different perspectives of the sources have simply strengthened my knowledge on the topic of trash within the oceans along with throughout the environment because most of the sources are arguing the same thing, that the world's oceans have become infested with trash and in order to invoke change we need to stop trash from entering waterways at the source on land. The sources have also expanded upon this by giving knowledge about how plastics are bad for the environment and why they cause damage.

My research question is not arguable because it mainly focuses on spreading knowledge about the topic. I should work to revise my research topic in order to make it arguable. I would do this by possibly placing blame for the plastics in our oceans or by attempting to link it to another issue. I may need to edit my topic in order to include a more controversial issue along with just trash in oceans. I will do this by connecting the trash in oceans to the harm and death of marine animals and rephrase my research question as: "How the trash within our oceans not only harms marine animals, but also coming back to hurt society". 

With this new research question I can focus my research on how the plastics within the ocean have affected the marine food web and how this will in turn affect us through the fish we eat. Or I can take a new direction which I have started to think and look into the affect of plastics on the whole environment such as "The long life of plastic is causing a shortened lifespan of the earth" suggests.
