These days, the environment is having a hard time. It is almost daily news, and everybody is talking about it because if we talk about the environment we talk about the world. From forests that are on fire to polluted oceans. But is what you see and hear on the news, the true story? Are the pictures that you see from a forest on fire the real photos? Are people telling the real story of what they saw without taking pictures?
That’s right, I am talking about fake news about our own planet, our environment, the earth we live on. Not everything you see or hear is true, these days people are easy to manipulate through horrible pictures on social media or people who make up stories just for fun and excitement. I am going to tell you something about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Do you believe it is as great as it sounds, or is it just a myth?
The story about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch started in 1999, when Charles J. Moore, who is an environmental activist, went sailing home after a race. He said “It was unbelievable, plastic debris was floating everywhere. As far as the eye could see, he saw the sight of plastic”. In another interview to the New York times Moore said; “dozens of plastic buoys used in oyster aquaculture that had solid areas you could walk on”. Some people, not Moore, had the strange idea that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could walk on. Mr. Moore predicted that it would grow 20-30x from 2008 to now. In the first place, people said it was trash from the eastern garbage patch and later-on the Americans and the other developed nations were the bad guys. The story went viral and people were saying that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was twice the size of Texas.
Surprise! All the stories about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch were fake! Just a myth. The island on the ocean where people can walk doesn’t exist. It was never proven with pictures that Charles J. Moore was right about what he saw at that time, it was not even visible on satellite images. He just told the story and it immediately went viral.
Although, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a real thing and a huge environmental issue. The Ocean Clean Up, which is a non-profit organisation, built a system to clean the ocean and has already fulfilled their task of cleaning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch of 50% of the garbage in 5 years. They developed their technology and wanted to clean up to 90% of the ocean by 2040. They want to save the ocean, our ocean, our planet. That is called a real story, real news, not the fake ones people swing into the world like it is nothing.
Jordey Buitenhuis
Medi(a)broad
References
https://theoceancleanup.com/technology/
https://fabiusmaximus.com/2018/12/19/plastic-ocean-armageddon/
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/opinion/choking-the-oceans-with-plastic.html
Medi(A)broad 
Fake news is a big problem nowadays. Thank you for illustrating it with an example!
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Thank you for sharing this example.
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Terrifying how many fake news exist – thanks for this post!
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Sad to hear that people use such a crucial topic as marketing purpose to boost their own sensation. Good to make aware of this.
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Excellent. All of your posts are intelligent, informative, and interesting. Great job to the whole team! You should be proud.
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