Paige Yang , G10, RDF International School When an island in the Pacific Ocean is mentioned, you must think of coconut trees, sunshine, and soft ocean breeze. But you might also be stunned to find a tremendous “island” of floating garbage. The largest moving garbage dump in the world is over 3.5 million tons and more than twice the size of France. Moreover, it will double in size every 10 years. That is terrible enough, but it is not the only garbage dump; it is estimated that there are at least four other similar garbage dumps in the world! Scientists proved that 20 percent of this garbage comes from sailing ships, and 80 percent from inland sources. The most harmful and direct effect of these garbage damps is that they endanger marine animals’ lives. As examples, some garbage can entangle the animals, and some animals wrongly eat the garbage. As a result, the animals will feel full, and they stop eating the food they actually need. In some cases, some fish that have eaten plastic garbage will be harvested as food by people. In the end, people are punished for what they have done. Realizing the severe consequence caused by these terrible garbage dumps, I ask myself: What can I do about the “island?” Since these garbage dumps are far away from land, transportation needs a large amount of fuel, which will cause massive carbon emissions, and ultimately lead to another type of pollution in the air. Therefore, there is no doubt that the cleaning of these dumps must be costly and difficult. But as a high school student, I want to make my own efforts for environmental protection. As the “Incentive Measures of Shenzhen Municipality on Classification Work of Domestic Waste” has already been implemented in Shenzhen in September 2020, I pay close attention to the garbage sorting in my home. Additionally, I ask my family to reduce the daily use of disposable plastics, which can be replaced by environmentally friendly products. As long as we start from the simple things around us to help protect our living environment, I believe we can gradually prevent the garbage dumps’ growth! | 