The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Did you know that our oceans are not clean? In the middle of the ocean, there is a huge patch of garbage.  This is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  The Pacific Ocean has a clockwise circle of currents that traps the garbage in the center where the winds can't get it.  This garbage patch is the size of a continent and goes 100 feet down into the ocean.  It is full of  millions of pounds of garbage.  (See How Stuff Works)

The garbage patch is made up of little pieces of floating plastic.  This creates problems for marine creates and humans.  It effects the entire food chain, because little fish eats the plastic, bigger fish eat the little fish, birds or humans then eat those fish!    Another problem is birds are choking or feeding plastic to their young.  

So where does this trash come from?  80% of this trash comes from land.  

So what can you do?  Recycle, recycle, re-re-re-recycle!  Another way is to stop using plastic bags.  We can also encourage our legislatures to pass laws to keep our environment plastic free.

This problem isn't going to go away.  But, we can keep it from getting worse by encouraging friends and neighbors to do their part.

This is Addison. Signing off.

One Month Anniversary

I have been blogging for one month now.  In that month, I have learned new things.  When I started this blog I wanted to inform my readers about the earth, but it looks like you have informed me about great ideas and new things.

I am grateful for all the things you have taught me with your comments.

Here are some of the things I have learned:

1.  Plastics can be dangerous for sea animals.

2.  There is a great garbage patch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (I'll write more about this later.)

3. Thanks to Aunt Amanda I learned that some dish soaps have petroleum in them.

4. I learned that incandescent light bulbs are harmful.

5. A lot of things we buy have a package - most things in fact!

Thank you for informing me about things you found.  I want to keep writing and learning things about the earth.

This is Addison, signing off.

Packaging Scavenger Hunt

Here is a fun challenge. How much aluminum, cardboard, cellophane, foil, paper, plastic, and styrofoam is used to package the foods you eat?

Look through your cupboards and refrigerator. See how many foods you can find with no wrapping, with one wrapping, with two wrappings, and with three or more wrappings. List the foods you find on a chart. Share with me what you find.

FOODS WITH NO WRAPPING: (example: apples, bananas)

FOODS WITH ONE WRAPPING: (example: bread)

FOODS WITH TWO WRAPPINGS: (example: cereal)

FOODS WITH THREE OR MORE WRAPPINGS: (example: microwave dinners)

Plastic Bags in California

Good news! One of our California State Legistators, Loyd E Levine, is trying to make it so you have to pay to use plastic bags. If that is passed, you will have to pay 15cents to use a plastic bag. This is to encourage people to use paper or bring their own bags. This could really help save tooons of oil! Here is a link to his website so you can write to him and tell him you support the idea.

This is Addison, signing off.

Vegetable-based soap vs. Regular soap

This a very important message. Some regular soaps have PETROLEUM. That's really bad. Vegetable-based soaps do not, so they are better for the earth.

Regular soap uses a precious resource, oil. Oil is a non-renewable resource and it is becoming scare. We use oil on a daily basis. Cars,electricity, airplanes,trains,plastics and many more items use oil. The more oil we save the better we preserve our earth.

Petroleum is also toxic. Imagine using petroleum on your dishes where your food goes! Wouldn't you be a lot better off using vegetable based soap?

My mom, after learning about this, said she would switch to using vegetable based soaps and cleaning products. She was also invited to a "healthy home experience" party. She is going to learn about products that are better for the earth. I'll post again about this after the party.

Here is what one soap making company said:
"If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 25 oz petroleum based dishwashing liquid with our 25 oz vegetable based product, we could save 81,000 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 4,600 U.S. homes for a year!"

Do you want to switch? Tell me if have and how you like it.

This is Addison,signing off until next time. See ya!

Test The Air

Last week my experiment was to test rain water. This week I want to find out what is in the air. You can try this too. Next week we can talk about what we found.

What You Need

A clean wide-mouthed medium-sized jar
Some petroleum jelly

WHAT YOU DO

1. Spread a thin layer of petroleum jelly

2. Take the jar outside and place it in the open air. Make certain that it is away from the sidewalk or playground and at least 3 feet off the ground so dirt will not be kicked into it.

3. Leave the jar outside for 5 days

4. Observe the results and answer these questions:

a. Would you say that the petroleum jelly is slightly dirty, medium dirty, or very dirty?
b. Is most of the dirt you see textile fibers, stone dust, wood-dust, or tire dust?

Acid Rain Experiment

This weekend it rained 3 1/2 inches here in Pasadena. We did an experiment to see if the rain water was acidic or polluted. We had two rain water samples and one river water sample. I tested the pH level of each water sample.

The first night of rain the pH was 6.0.
The second night of rain, the pH was 6.5.
The river water was 7.0 - which is called neutral.
I also tested tapwater which was slightly basic at pH 7.5.

None of the pH levels were harmful.

I think the first night washed some of the pollution out of the air. That's why the second night of rain had a slightly higher pH.