Ocean Clean up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15

Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet

Ocean Clean Up Affirmative

1 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet

Contents

2 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Summary and Glossary Quick overview of the how passive collection works Matthews, consultant, eco-entrepreneur, green investor, 2014

(Richard, “Plastic Waste in Our Oceans: Problems and Solutions”, April 10, http://globalwarmingisreal.com/2014/04/10/ocean-garbage-problems-solutions/)

In 2012, Dutch Aerospace Engineering student Boyan Slat unveiled a concept for removing large amounts of marine debris. He subsequently formed an organization called The Ocean Cleanup. This approach is not only cost effective, it is potentially profitable. His idea involves an anchored network of booms that world work like a giant funnel. Propelled by the ocean’s surface currents, debris would drift into specially designed arms and collection platforms where it would be separated from plankton and recycled. Slat’s calculations suggest that using his methods, 7.25 million tons of plastic can be removed from garbage gyres in as little as five years.

And a video on how they plan to fix the problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Nh6lkv1udb0

3 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet

GLOSSARY biodegrade- a substance or object capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms.

biodiversity- the diversity, or variety, of plants and animals and other living things in a particular area or region. For instance, the species that inhabit Los Angeles are different from those in San Francisco, and desert plants and animals have different characteristics and needs than those in the mountains, even though some of the same species can be found in all of those areas.

cetaceans - marine mammals commonly known as whales, dolphins, and porpoises

ecosystems- a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

endocrine system- the collection of glands of an organism that secrete hormones directly into the circulatory system

gyre- a circular pattern of currents in an ocean basin.

“There are five massive garbage gyres, one is located in the Indian Ocean, two in the Pacific Ocean and another two in the Atlantic Ocean. Garbage gyres come together as the trash gets caught in circular ocean currents. This causes stray garbage to move until they collide and merge with one another.” Matthews, 2014

invasive species- an organism that is not native and has negative effects on the environment it is introduced to

logistical – the planning, implementation, and coordination of the details of a business or other operation.

4 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet photodegradation describes the effects of sunlight on the tons of plastic floating out at sea. Essentially, the sun's rays dry the plastic to the point that it shatters

5 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet 1AC

6 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Inherency Current efforts are not sufficient; debris continues to accumulate.

California Coastal Commission, 2014

(“Plastic in the Ocean is bad. The Problem With Marine Debris” http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/marinedebris.htm)

Marine debris is defined as "any manufactured or processed solid waste material that enters the marine environment from any source." Debris is everywhere—found around every major body of water on the planet, and below water as well. Marine debris is a global pollution problem that impacts human health and safety, endangers wildlife and aquatic habitats, and costs local and national economies millions in wasted resources and lost revenues.¶ ¶

HOW DOES TRASH BECOME MARINE DEBRIS?¶ Many people assume that if trash exists in the ocean, it must be that the fishing and shipping industries are to blame. But in fact, only 20% of the items found in the ocean can be linked to ocean-based sources, like commercial fishing vessels, cargo ships (discharge of containers and garbage), or pleasure cruise ships.¶ ¶

The remainder (80%) is due to land-based sources, like litter (from pedestrians, motorists, beach visitors), industrial discharges (in the form of plastic pellets and powders), and garbage management (ill- fitting trash can lids, etc).¶ ¶

TRASHING CALIFORNIA'S BEACHES¶ California residents and tourists love our coast and ocean, making more than 150 million visits to California beaches each year. The effort to keep our shorelines clear of marine debris comes at a significant cost. A 2012 study determined that 90 west coast communities spend a total of more than $520,000,000 each year to combat litter.¶ ¶

In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that ocean-based sources, such as cargo ships and cruise liners, dumped 14 billion pounds of garbage into the ocean. In 1988, the U.S. signed onto MARPOL Annex V, joining 64 other countries that signed the international protocol that regulates ocean dumping and made it illegal to dump plastic into the ocean. Even so, plastic pollution is still a major problem. A 2001 study found an average of 334,271 pieces of plastic per square mile in the North Pacific Central Gyre, which serves as a natural eddy system to concentrate material. And debris in the marine environment means hazards for animals and humans. Plastic marine debris affects at least 267 species worldwide, including 86 percent of all sea turtle species, 44 percent of all sea bird species, and 43 percent of marine mammal species.

7 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet 1AC Ecosystems Advantage We are poisoning our oceans with a galaxy of trash islands that kill fish, coral and threaten the health of the oceans themselves.

Weishar, news and political reporter and founder of Quiet Mike, 2014

“The Ocean Size Problem of Ocean Pollution”, Quiet Mike, http://quietmike.org/2014/04/07/ocean- size-problem-ocean-pollution/

Our oceans cover approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface and contains 97% of the Earth’s water. With those kind of numbers, you’d think it would be hard for us humans to pose a threat to it. Well, humans are capable of anything when we put our destructive minds to it.

While the media has under reported the threat of climate change, it has completely ignored the state of our oceans. From oil spills to plastic bags to random sea junk, our oceans may soon resemble some of our dead lakes. The situation is more desperate than you think.

Most people think oil spills do the most harm to our waters. It certainly does damage to be sure, however plastic is far worse than oil. There is currently seven million tonnes of plastic floating around in our oceans.

Your may have heard of the Pacific and Atlantic garbage patches. They are not large trash islands in the middle of the ocean as some believe. They are more like galaxies of garbage, populated by millions of smaller trash islands that may be hidden underwater or spread out over many miles. These garbage patches are made up of mostly plastic. Unfortunately, plastic breaks down into smaller particles (or micro-plastics) and is then consumed by marine life. This is what makes plastic so bad and difficult to clean up.

A lot of it can’t be seen, and therefore the size of these patches are almost impossible to estimate. I’ve heard they are as little as the size of Texas (if you can call that small) or as big as the continental United States. I imagine the truth lies somewhere in between.

Plastic uses up only 8% of the world’s oil supply, but we use it now more than ever. In fact, we’ve produced more plastic in the last ten years than the previous hundred years combined. Our addiction to plastic isn’t going away anytime soon and because plastic is not biodegradable, it is not going away either.

According to Captain Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, if we don’t change our ways, all the world’s fisheries will collapse by 2048. He also believes that all our coral reefs may be gone by as early as 2025. Pretty scary.

8 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Survival becomes harder as invasive species ride trash islands to new ecosystems, destroying their balance and threatening all life in the oceans.

Newitz, editor in chief of io9 and PhD in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley, 2012(Annalee, “Lies You've Been Told About the Pacific Garbage Patch, 5-21, http://io9.com/5911969/lies-youve-been-told-about-the-pacific-garbage-patch)

The "plastisphere" is a term coined by marine biologist Erik Zettler to describe the creatures — like water skaters — who thrive in an environment with hard surfaces in the water. They are similar to creatures who cling to piers or the hulls of ships. Before human-made hard surfaces were everywhere, they would have lived on rocks or flotsam. The problem with the plastisphere is that it's radically changing the balance of a sea ecosystem that was once mostly just open ocean creatures.¶

"One thing that people worry about is that hard surfaces can transport invasive species," Goldstein said. "Some animals are good at hitching a ride and they can be destructive. By adding big chunks of plastic these species can move around better, and could be introduced to places like the Northwest Pacific Islands, where there are some of the best coral reefs in the world." In other words, the plastisphere isn't destroying the ocean ecosystem — the creatures who ride on the plastic are. We're witnessing an ecosystem that is slowly falling off balance.¶

For now, the open ocean is still mostly inhabited by lantern fish. "There's one lantern fish for every cubic meter of ocean," Goldstein explained, noting that these fish are probably more common than the pieces of plastic her team has sampled. But if trends continue, we're going to see more plastic than fish. And with that plastic will come more invasive species, more water skaters, and more creatures to eat the water skaters' eggs. The danger is that this could alter the open ocean forever — and destroy all the native life there that has kept the oceans healthy for thousands of years.

9 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Plastic debris introduces cancerous chemicals into the food chain which affect every species including humans.

Cho, staff blogger for the Earth Institute, 2011

(Renee, “Our Oceans: A Plastic Soup”, Earth Institute, 1-26, http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/01/26/our-oceans-a-plastic-soup/)

A recent study found that plastics take up and accumulate persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as carcinogenic and endocrine-disrupting polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and organochlorine pesticides such as DDD, a derivative of DDT. Over 50 percent of the plastic samples studied contained PCBs, and over 75 percent contained PAHs. According to Moore, plastic debris can attract and concentrate POPs up to a million times their levels in the surrounding seawater, and when consumed by marine animals, the POPs endanger both the creatures that ingest them and humans higher up on the food chain, especially infants. Moore has said, “No fish monger on Earth can sell you a certified organic wild-caught fish.”

10 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Ocean biodiversity loss will result in a domino effect resulting in extinction. McCarthy 11(Michael McCarthy , award winning environmental journalist & editor, “Oceans on the brink of catastrophe,” The Independent, June 21, Online: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/oceans-on-brink-of-catastrophe-2300272.html) The world's oceans are faced with an unprecedented loss of species comparable to the great mass extinctions of prehistory, a major report suggests today. The seas are degenerating far faster than anyone has predicted, the report says, because of the cumulative impact of a number of severe individual stresses, ranging from climate warming and sea-water acidification, to widespread chemical pollution and gross overfishing. ¶ The coming together of these factors is now threatening the marine environment with a catastrophe "unprecedented in human history", according to the report, from a panel of leading marine scientists brought together in Oxford earlier this year by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).¶ The stark suggestion made by the panel is that the potential extinction of species, from large fish at one end of the scale to tiny corals at the other, is directly comparable to the five great mass extinctions in the geological record, during each of which much of the world's life died out. They range from the Ordovician-Silurian "event" of 450 million years ago, to the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction of 65 million years ago, which is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. The worst of them, the event at the end of the Permian period, 251 million years ago, is thought to have eliminated 70 per cent of species on land and 96 per cent of all species in the sea.¶ The panel of 27 scientists, who considered the latest research from all areas of marine science, concluded that a "combination of stressors is creating the conditions associated with every previous major extinction of species in Earth's history". They also concluded the speed and rate of degeneration of the oceans is far faster than anyone has predicted; ¶ * Many of the negative impacts identified are greater than the worst predictions; ¶ * the first steps to globally significant extinction may have already begun.

11 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet 1AC Reefs Advantage Oceans are acidifying 10 times faster than the last extreme acidification event. Iacurci, BS in Allied Health Sciences @ Uconn 14 (Jenna, 6/3/14, Nature World News, “Ocean Acidification Rate 10 Times Faster than Ancient Upheaval”, http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/7379/20140603/ocean-acidification-rate-10-times-faster-than- ancient-upheaval.htm, 6/25/14, KM)

These days the ocean is acidifying at a rate 10 times faster than it did during a similar upheaval 56 million years ago. ¶ During those ancient days, researchers estimate that ocean acidity increased by about 100 percent in a few thousand years or more, and levels didn't bounce back to normal for another 70,000 years. Some species were able to adapt and evolve to such radical environmental changes, while others perished and died off. Also during this time, a wave of carbon dioxide (CO2) surged into the atmosphere, raising global temperatures, and scientists have long suspected that ocean acidification caused the crisis. ¶ For the first time, researchers are using the chemical composition of fossils to reconstruct surface ocean acidity at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a period of intense warming on land and throughout the oceans due to high CO2. ¶ "This could be the closest geological analog to modern ocean acidification," study co-author Bärbel Hönisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said in a statement. "As massive as it was, it still happened about 10 times more slowly than what we are doing today." ¶ Since the Industrial Revolution, oceans have absorbed about a third of the carbon humans have pumped into the air, helping to cool the Earth. Consequentially, chemical reactions caused by that excess CO2 have made seawater grow more acidic, depleting it of the carbonate ions that corals, mollusks and calcifying plankton need to build their shells and skeletons. ¶ "We are dumping carbon in the atmosphere and ocean at a much higher rate today - within centuries," said study co-author Richard Zeebe, a paleoceanographer at the University of Hawaii. "If we continue on the emissions path we are on right now, acidification of the surface ocean will be way more dramatic than during the PETM." ¶ The studied fossils - ancient plankton taken from Japanese waters - reveal that the ocean pH has indeed dropped, and will continue to do so. ¶ Researchers still aren't sure what caused the upheaval of CO2 into the atmosphere so long ago. They speculate that the Earth's warming may have sent methane from the seafloor into the air, triggering the aforementioned events.

12 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Coral Reefs are key to ocean acidification – they regulate pH levels in the ocean

Montagna, member of the National Research Council, 12 (Paolo, 4/1/12, Nature Climate Change, “Coral resilience to ocean acidification and global warming through pH up-regulation”, http://shadow.eas.gatech.edu/~kcobb/ocean_acid/McCulloch%20et%20al%202012.pdf, 6/29/14, AEG)

Rapidly rising levels of atmospheric CO2 are not only causing ocean warming, but also lowering seawater pH hence the carbonate saturation state of the oceans, on which many marine organisms depend to calcify their skeletons1,2. Using boron isotope systematics3, we show how scleractinian corals up- regulate pH at their site of calcification such that internal changes are approximately one-half of those in ambient seawater. This species-dependent pH-buffering capacity enables aragonitic corals to raise the saturation state of their calcifying medium, thereby increasing calcification rates at little additional energy cost. Using a model of pH regulation combined with abiotic calcification, we show that the enhanced kinetics of calcification owing to higher temperatures has the potential to counter the effects of ocean acidification. Up-regulation of pH, however, is not ubiquitous among calcifying organisms; those lacking this ability are likely to undergo severe declines in calcification as CO2 levels increase. The capacity to up-regulate pH is thus central to the resilience of calcifiers to ocean acidification, although the fate of zooxanthellate corals ultimately depends on the ability of both the photosymbionts and coral host to adapt to rapidly increasing ocean temperatures4.

13 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet However coral reefs are on the decline – without action they may soon collapse allowing acidification to continue Science Daily, 13

(Science Daily, 5/9/13, Science Daily, “Coral reefs suffering, but extinction not inevitable”, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130509123414.htm, 7/1/14, JW)

Coral reefs are in decline, but their collapse can still be avoided with local and global action. That's according to findings reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 9 based on an analysis that combines the latest science on reef dynamics with the latest climate models. "People benefit by reefs' having a complex structure -- a little like a Manhattan skyline, but underwater," said Peter Mumby of The University of Queensland and University of Exeter. "Structurally complex reefs provide nooks and crannies for thousands of species and provide the habitat needed to sustain productive reef fisheries. They're also great fun to visit as a snorkeler or diver. If we carry on the way we have been, the ability of reefs to provide benefits to people will seriously decline." To predict the reefs' future, the researchers spent two years constructing a computer model of how reefs work, building on hundreds of studies conducted over the last 40 years. They then combined their reef model with climate models to make predictions about the balance between forces that will allow reefs to continue growing their complex calcium carbonate structures and those such as hurricanes and erosion that will shrink them. Ideally, Mumby said, the goal is a carbonate budget that remains in the black for the next century at least. Such a future is possible, the researchers' model shows, but only with effective local protection and assertive action on greenhouse gases. "Business as usual isn't going to cut it," he said. "The good news is that it does seem possible to maintain reefs -- we just have to be serious about doing something. It also means that local reef management -- efforts to curb pollution and overfishing -- are absolutely justified. Some have claimed that the climate change problem is so great that local management is futile. We show that this viewpoint is wrongheaded." Mumby and his colleagues also stress the importance of reef function in addition to reef diversity. Those functions of reefs include the provision of habitat for fish, the provision of a natural breakwater to reduce the size of waves reaching the shore, and so on. In very practical terms, hundreds of millions of people depend directly on reefs for their food, livelihoods, and even building materials. "If it becomes increasingly difficult for people in the tropics to make their living on coral reefs, then this may well increase poverty," said the study's first author, Emma Kennedy. It's in everyone's best interest to keep that from happening.

14 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet They key internal link to decline is the growing amount of plastic in the world’s oceans NOAA 12 (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, How Pollution Affects Coral Reefs, http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/visions/coral/side.html, Revised July 19th 2012, JKE)

Marine debris also affects reefs in many areas. Marine debris is any human-made object that is discarded, disposed of, or abandoned that enters coastal and ocean waters. Debris may enter directly from a ship or indirectly when washed out to sea via rivers, streams, and storm drains. Hundreds of human-made items end up as marine debris, including plastics (from bags to balloons, hard hats to fishing line), glass, metal, rubber (millions of tires!), and even entire vessels.

Plastic debris kills several reef species. Derelict (abandoned) fishing nets and other gear—often called "ghost nets" because they still catch fish and other marine life despite being abandoned—can entangle and kill reef organisms and break or damage reefs. Even remote reef systems suffer the effects of marine debris. The Northwestern Hawaiian Island reefs are particularly prone to the accumulation of marine debris because of their central location in the North Pacific gyre. From 2000 to 2006, NOAA and partners removed over 500 tons of marine debris from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

15 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Without a change ocean acidification will lead to mass extinction Romm, Senior Fellow at American Progress, 12

(Joe, 3/2/12, Ph.D. in physics from MIT, Founding Editor of Climate Progress, Climate Progress, “Science: Ocean Acidifying So Fast It Threatens Humanity’s Ability to Feed Itself,” http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/03/02/436193/science-ocean-acidifying-so-fast-it-threatens- humanity-ability-to-feed-itself/, 6/29/14, SM)

The world’s oceans may be turning acidic faster today from human carbon emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years, when natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring, says a new study in Science. The study is the first of its kind to survey the geologic record for evidence of ocean acidification over this vast time period.¶ “What we’re doing today really stands out,” said lead author Bärbel Hönisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “We know that life during past ocean acidification events was not wiped out—new species evolved to replace those that died off. But if industrial carbon emissions continue at the current pace, we may lose organisms we care about—coral reefs, oysters, salmon.”¶ James Zachos, a paleoceanographer at University of California, Santa Cruz, with a core of sediment from some 56 million years ago, when the oceans underwent acidification that could be an analog to ocean changes today. That’s the news release from a major 21-author Science paper, “The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification” (subs. req’d).¶ We knew from a 2010 Nature Geoscience study that the oceans are now acidifying 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred. But this study looked back over 300 million and found that “the unprecedented rapidity of CO2 release currently taking place” has put marine life at risk in a frighteningly unique way:¶ … the current rate of (mainly fossil fuel) CO2 release stands out as capable of driving a combination and magnitude of ocean geochemical changes potentially unparalleled in at least the last ~300 My of Earth history, raising the possibility that we are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change.¶ That is to say, it’s not just that acidifying oceans spell marine biological meltdown “by end of century” as a 2010 Geological Society study put it. We are also warming the ocean and decreasing dissolved oxygen concentration. That is a recipe for mass extinction. A 2009 Nature Geoscience study found that ocean dead zones “devoid of fish and seafood” are poised to expand and “remain for thousands of years.“¶

16 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet 1AC Plan Text The United States federal government should develop a system of passive ocean plastic clean up arrays as proposed by the Ocean Clean Up Project.

17 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Solvency The Ocean Cleanup Array would cost only 2 million dollars and prevent the build up of plastics in our oceans.

Business Week, 2014

(Caroline Winter, “This 19-Year-Old Is Ready to Build an Ocean Cleanup Machine”, http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-10/this-19-year-old-is-ready-to-build-an-ocean- cleanup-machine

The world’s oceans contain millions of tons of trash, much of it collected into vast gyres of plastic and debris. Even if humanity stopped putting garbage in the water today, researchers project that these garbage patches would continue growing for hundreds of years. One such trash vortex, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, already spans hundreds of miles.

How do we get all that garbage out? Boyan Slat, a 19-year-old Dutch aeronautical engineering student, is raising $2 million to build an ocean cleanup contraption he designed to passively funnel garbage to specific collection points. Working with a team of over 100 people, he recently released a 528-page feasibility study (PDF) detailing how the complex technology works and grappling with questions of legality, costs, environmental impact, and potential pitfalls.

Slat’s plan, expressed simply, is to deploy several V-shaped floating barriers that would be moored to the seabed and placed in the path of major ocean currents. The 30-mile-long arms of the V are designed to catch buoyant garbage and trash floating three meters below the surface while allowing sea life to pass underneath. “Because no nets would be used, a passive cleanup may well be harmless to the marine ecosystem,” he writes in the feasibly study.

Over time, the trash would flow deeper into the V , from which it would then be extracted. The report estimates that the plastic collection rate would total 65 cubic meters per day and that the trash would have to be picked up by ship every 45 days. Slat hopes to offset costs by recycling the collected plastic for other uses.

18 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet A passive collection system design would work, just needs to be implemented on a broader scale.

Slat et al, founder and lead designer The Ocean Cleanup Project, 2014

(Boyan, “A Feasibility Study”, http://www.theoceancleanup.com/fileadmin/media- archive/theoceancleanup/press/downloads/TOC_Feasibility_study_lowres.pdf, p. 29)

Proof of concept

A first proof-of-concept test performed at the Azores Islands validated the capture and concentration potential of a floating barrier with a skirt depth of 3 m, in moderate environmental conditions. In addition, qualitative data suggested that the barrier does not catch zooplankton as the net behind the boom appeared to have caught an equal amount of zooplankton as the net next to the boom.

19 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet 2AC Inherency

We are currently and actively creating the world’s largest garbage dump in the middle of the Pacific ocean.

Layton, staff writer for Discovery Communications, 2010

(Julia, “Could we clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?” http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/clean-up-garbage-patch.html, January 7, 2010)

About a thousand miles off the coast of California floats one of mankind's dirtiest little secrets. Or at least it was a secret before the late '90s, when a seafaring scientist stumbled upon it in horror. It's a floating dump in the ocean, big enough to hold one or two Texases or maybe all of North America, depending on who you ask [sources: Stone, Silverman, SSF].¶

The discrepancy in size estimates may be due to the fact that since most of the trash is below the surface, the borders are almost impossible to see from above the water. Plus, the trash moves around with the currents, and there's more than one of these patches. At least one more lies in the Pacific, and they dot the entire globe. Most often, "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" refers to the one extending from Hawaii to San Francisco. That patch of trash is supposed to be the biggest, sporting an impressive 3.5 million tons (3.1 million metric tons) of watery garbage [source: SSF]. And at least 80 percent of it is plastic [source: Berton].¶

For decades, we've been told plastic doesn't degrade -- that it sits in landfills forever and ever and therefore it is very, very bad. (Unless you're going to Mexico and need to provide your own water so you don't get the runs -- then, it's also pretty handy. But still, very, very bad.) The truth is, plastic does degrade. It just doesn't biodegrade.¶

Plastic will photodegrade, a process by which it ultimately ends up breaking into countless tiny bits of the same substance. In a landfill, this may not make a huge difference. But when that plastic is seaborne, it makes all the difference in the world. And there's the rub: An ever-increasing amount of the world's ever-increasing amount of plastic refuse is ending up in the ocean.¶

In fact, the Pacific Ocean now hosts the largest trash dump on Earth. It's called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and it's not a pretty picture. Waste dumped both on land and at sea has made its way into a swirling vortex of oceanic trash that threatens sea life, aquatic ecosystems, fishing industries and the safety of the human seafood supply. In some coastal areas, a day at the beach is becoming a day at the sandy trash heap.¶

20 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Ecosystems Advantage

21 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Yes Extinction Biodiversity poses an imminent threat to human survival Raj 12 (Dr. P.J. Sanjeeva Raj, consultant ecologist and the Professor and Head of the Zoology Department of the Madras Christian College (MCC), “Beware the loss of biodiversity”, September 23, 2012, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/beware-the-loss-of- biodiversity/article3927062.ece) Professor Edward O. Wilson, Harvard visionary of biodiversity, observes that the current rate of biodiversity loss is perhaps the highest since the loss of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago during the Mesozoic era, when humans had not appeared. He regrets that if such indiscriminate annihilation of all biodiversity from the face of the earth happens for anthropogenic reasons, as has been seen now, it is sure to force humanity into an emotional shock and trauma of loneliness and helplessness on this planet. He believes that the current wave of biodiversity loss is sure to lead us into an age that may be appropriately called the “Eremozoic Era, the Age of Loneliness.” Loss of biodiversity is a much greater threat to human survival than even climate change. Both could act, synergistically too, to escalate human extinction faster.

Biodiversity is so indispensable for human survival that the United Nations General Assembly has designated the decade 2011- 2020 as the ‘Biodiversity Decade’ with the chief objective of enabling humans to live peaceably or harmoniously with nature and its biodiversity. We should be happy that during October 1-19, 2012, XI Conference of Parties (CoP-11), a global mega event on biodiversity, is taking place in Hyderabad, when delegates from 193 party countries are expected to meet. They will review the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which was originally introduced at the Earth Summit or the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is the nodal agency for CoP-11. Today, India is one of the 17 mega-diverse (richest biodiversity) countries. Biodiversity provides all basic needs for our healthy survival — oxygen, food, medicines, fiber, fuel, energy, fertilizers, fodder and waste-disposal, etc. Fast vanishing honeybees, dragonflies, bats, frogs, house sparrows, filter (suspension)-feeder oysters and all keystone species are causing great economic loss as well as posing an imminent threat to human peace and survival. The three-fold biodiversity mission before us is to inventories the existing biodiversity, conserve it, and, above all, equitably share the sustainable benefits out of it. Loss of biodiversity has the capacity to cause human extinction – now is key Buczynski 10 (Beth Buczynski is the author of Sharing is Good (Fall 2013, New Society Publishers), a practical guide to collaborative consumption that includes hundreds of tips and resources to help you participate in the growing sharing economy. She received a BA in creative writing from the University of Tennessee and a MS in public communication and technology from Colorado State University, “UN: Loss Of Biodiversity Could Mean End Of Human Race”, http://www.care2.com/causes/un-humans- are-rapidly-destroying-the-biodiversity-ne.html#ixzz2ZXlGvUz0)

UN officials gathered at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Japan have issued a global warning that the rapid loss of animal and plant species that has characterized the past century must end if humans are to survive. Delegates in Nagoya plan to set a new target for 2020 for curbing species loss, and will discuss boosting medium-term financial help for poor countries to help them protect their wildlife and habitats (Yahoo Green). “Business as usual is no more an option for mankind,” CBD executive secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf said in his opening statements. “We need a new approach, we need to reconnect with nature and live in harmony with nature into the future.” The CBD is an international legally-binding treaty with three main goals: conservation of biodiversity; sustainable use of biodiversity; fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources. Its overall objective is to encourage actions which will lead to a sustainable future. As Djoghlaf acknowledged in his opening statements, facing the fact that many countries have ignored their obligation to these goals is imperative if progress is to be made in the future. “Let us have the courage to look in the eyes of our children and admit that we have failed, individually and collectively, to fulfill the Johannesburg promise made to them by the 110 Heads of State and Government to substantially reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010,” Djoghlaf stated. “Let us look in the eyes of our children and admit that we continue to lose biodiversity at an unprecedented rate, thus mortgaging their future. “Earlier this year, the U.N. warned several eco-systems including the Amazon rainforest , freshwater lakes and rivers and coral reefs are approaching a “tipping point” which, if reached, may see them never recover. According to a study by UC Berkeley and Penn State University researchers, between 15 and 42 percent of the mammals in North America disappeared after humans

22 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet arrived. Compared to extinction rates demonstrated in other periods of Earth’s history, this means that North American species are already half way to a sixth mass extinction, similar to the one that eliminated the dinosaurs. The same is true in many other parts of the world. The third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook demonstrates that, today, the rate of loss of biodiversity is up to one thousand times higher than the background and historical rate of extinction. The Earth’s 6.8 billion humans are effectively living 50 percent beyond the planet’s bio capacity in 2007; according to a new assessment by the World Wildlife Fund that said by 2030 humans will effectively need the capacity of two Earths in order to survive .

23 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT Plastics Don’t Kill Plastics alone kill hundreds of thousands of animals in the earth’s oceans.

Common items like fishing line, strapping bands and six-pack rings can hamper the mobility of marine animals and cause injury. Once entangled, animals have trouble eating, breathing or swimming, all of which can have fatal results. Plastics do not biodegrade and may continue to trap and kill animals year after year. Marine debris entanglements have been documented for 135 species of animals. An estimated 300,000 cetaceans die each year from entanglement in fishing gear. (Read summaries of some recent whale entanglements in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.)

¶ ¶ Ingestion¶ ¶

Birds, fish and mammals can mistake plastic for food. Debris may cause choking and injuries, and with plastic filling their stomachs, animals may have a false feeling of being full and may die of starvation. Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, one of their favorite foods. Even gray whales have been found dead with plastic bags and sheeting in their stomachs. A recent study of harbor seals in the Netherlands found that more than 12% had plastic in their digestive system. 95% of Northern Fulmars studied in the North Sea between 2007 and 2011 were found to contain plastic, on an average 0.38 grams. This could equal as much as 8.4% of the bird's body weight.¶ ¶

24 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Plastics kill millions of animals each year and could destroy entire species. Slat et al, founder and lead designer The Ocean Cleanup Project, 2014

(Boyan, “A Feasibility Study”, http://www.theoceancleanup.com/fileadmin/media- archive/theoceancleanup/press/downloads/TOC_Feasibility_study_lowres.pdf)

Every year we produce about 300 million tons of plastic, a portion of which enters and accumulates in the oceans. Due to large offshore currents, plastic concentrates in vast areas called gyres, of which the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between Hawaii and California is the best known example.

The damage to sea life is staggering: at least one million seabirds, and hundreds of thousands of marine mammals die each year due to the pollution. Even worse, the survival of many species, like the Hawaiian Monk Seal and Loggerhead Turtle, is directly jeopardized by plastic debris.

Marine species often become entangled in larger debris, leading to “injury, illness, suffocation, starvation, and even death” (NOAA, 2014). Smaller fragments can be mistaken for food and eaten, causing malnutrition, intestinal blockage and death. When marine animals eat plastic, harmful chemicals move up the food chain. Ingestion of and entanglement in marine debris by marine animals has increased by 40 percent in the last decade. Furthermore, plastics can transport invasive species and toxic substances over great distances.

25 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Floating plastic islands can introduce invasive species that wreck the local ecosystem and destroy biodiversity.

Floating marine debris can provide a new and increased method of transport for species across vast ocean distances, which may cause trouble for biodiversity if the introduced species prove to be invasive. A 2002 study of 30 remote islands throughout the world showed that marine debris more than doubled the "rafting" opportunities for species. In 2005 and 2006, surveys of marine debris in the Seychelles Islands showed that on some beaches more than 60% of debris items carried non-native species.¶

26 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT Food Chain not Protected by Clean Up Our technology would remove microplastics. Passive collection booms will extend 3 meters down to catch most particles and microplastics make up a very small amount of the pollution.

Slat, founder and lead designer The Ocean Cleanup Project, 2014

(Boyan, “Responding to Critics”, The Ocean Cleanup, http://www.theoceancleanup.com/blog/show/item/responding-to-critics.html)

“Perhaps one of the worst assumptions evident in this design is that the plastic will be on the sea surface. Researchers have shown that plastic suspends in the water column at 100-150 meters due to wave action and sea state.”

Boyan: This is misleading. It is true that the mixed layer can stretch to these depths during winter months, and it’s true that very small amounts of plastic can be found throughout the water column, but as our past 3 expeditions to the gyres have shown, the vast majority of plastics can be found in the top 1-3 m (depending on wind and sea state). This explains why researchers (as well as 5Gyres themselves) sample the surface layer of the oceans to measure plastic pollution. When we conservatively look at the data taken in winter months only, the surface layer contained 10x more microplastics than the layer at 4.5 m of depth. Hence our barriers stretch down to 3 meters, to capture the most of plastic. And in fact, here I am only addressing the small particles. The large plastics (that make up over 80% of the plastic in the gyres) are all at the sea surface. (feasibility study, chapter 2.2, 2.3)

27 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Harmful chemicals enter the food chain and can disrupt the endocrine systems of humans. Matthews, consultant, eco-entrepreneur, green investor, 2014

(Richard, “Plastic Waste in Our Oceans: Problems and Solutions”, April 10, http://globalwarmingisreal.com/2014/04/10/ocean-garbage-problems-solutions/)

According to UNEP, at least 267 species worldwide are impacted by plastic debris in the oceans. As the plastic disintegrates, it ultimately becomes small enough to be ingested by a wide range of life forms. Plastics are deadly to a number of species including marine birds and sea turtles. Various investigations including research by Charles Moore found that in some places the overall concentration of plastics was seven times greater than the concentration of zooplankton. Plastics enter the food chain when ingested by aquatic organisms and the impacts go all the way up the chain to humans.

Researchers have discovered that floating debris can also absorb organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs. When consumed, plastic has both toxic effects and disruptive impacts on the endocrine system.

28 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT Clean Up Kills Plankton Downward current of skirt system will minimize bycatch of plankton. Slat et al, founder and lead designer The Ocean Cleanup Project, 2014

Because the boom skirts are designed to generate a downward current, most phytoplankton is expected to escape capture by the booms. The fraction of phytoplankton captured in front of the booms might also be consumed by zooplankton, leading to a (partial) recycling of nutrients within the ecosystem. However, the phytoplankton that is drawn directly into the platform by the slurry pump is assumed to be removed from the ecosystem entirely.

29 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Plankton won’t get caught in the system. Slat, founder and lead designer The Ocean Cleanup Project, 2014

“The definition of plankton is an organism that can’t swim against a current; plankton have no control where they go and the assumption that they’ll somehow avoid the current that is taking the plastic into the processing thinga-ma-jiggy is a bad one.”

Boyan: Plankton indeed comes from the Greek word Planktos, meaning ‘wanderer’ or ‘drifter’. This is exactly why they won’t get caught. The ocean current passes underneath the floating barriers, taking all neutrally buoyant sea life (including both phytoplankton and zooplankton) with it, while positively buoyant plastics remain in front of it. Down to a certain particle size of course, where the force downward (the current) equals out the force upwards (the buoyancy force of the plastic). In collaboration with the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies, we simulated this hypothesis using Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations (CFD software and code used were LEMMA ANANAS, Comsol Multiphysics, and ANSYS CFX, if you’re interested), which confirmed our expectations; plastic gets caught, neutrally buoyant organisms do not. (feasibility study, chapters 3.3 and 3.4). So there is no centrifuging needed; plankton does not accumulate, while plastic does. But in the hypothetical case that all plankton that passes underneath these barriers would be damaged, the time it would take to restore that biomass is less than 7 seconds in a year. And that’s the worst-case scenario. (feasibility study, chapter 6)

30 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT Clean Up Kills Sea Life Bycatch will be minimal. Plankton can float under our system and larger animals will be deterred by sound systems.

Because they are effectively neutrally buoyant, both phytoplankton and zooplankton are likely to pass underneath the barriers along with the current. But even assuming the worst - The Ocean Cleanup Array would harvest all the plankton it encounters - this would constitute a maximum loss of 10 million kg of planktonic biomass annually. Given the immense primary production of the world oceans, it would take less than 7 seconds to reproduce this amount of biomass.

With regard to vertebrates, harm caused by the barriers seems unlikely because non-permeable barriers are used, although some bycatch may occur in the near vicinity of the platform’s extraction equipment. To prevent the possible impact on vertebrates, active deterrent techniques could be implemented near the extraction equipment.

31 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet The Ocean Cleanup Array floats and does not use nets so sea life can swim around it while plastics and debris stay in it.

Ian Somerhalder Foundation, 2012

(“The Ocean Cleanup Array: An Amazing Environmental Invention”, http://www.isfoundation.com/news/ocean-cleanup-array-amazing-environmental-invention)

The Ocean Cleanup Array would be located at the sites of the five largest trash islands—also known as gyres—which include the Indian Ocean, the North and South Atlantic, and the North and South Pacific. Slat believes that the ocean current is the biggest advantage to help solving the garbage problem. As such, "an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms will span the radius" of each gyre with the "booms acting as giant funnels" to push the debris in the processing platforms. When the plastic and other debris enters the processing platform, it would then be filtered from the water and stored in containers until it is picked up to be recycled on land.¶ ¶

Another very positive aspect of the Ocean Cleanup Array is that absolutely no nets will be used, so there is no chance of marine life getting harmed. In addition, the booms will only move along with the ocean current and not any faster, so marine life can also escape the plastic being pushed towards the processing platforms. To substantiate these claims, Slat is currently testing his methods as part of the project’s feasibility studies.¶ ¶

32 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Plastics Stay for 100s of Years Plastics floating in the oceans provide a unique problem since they break down into tiny pieces but take hundreds of years to disappear.

Cho, staff blogger for the Earth Institute, 2011

(Renee, “Our Oceans: A Plastic Soup”, Earth Institute, 1-26, http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/01/26/our-oceans-a-plastic-soup/)

The lightness and durability that make plastic such a useful and versatile material for manufacturers also make it a long-term problem for the environment. Trash Travels estimates that plastic bags can take 20 years to decompose, plastic bottles up to 450 years, and fishing line, 600 years; but in fact, no one really knows how long plastics will remain in the ocean. With exposure to UV rays and the ocean environment, plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller fragments. The majority of the plastic found in the ocean are tiny pieces less than 1 cm. in size, with the mass of 1/10 of a paper clip.

33 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT Ecosystems Resilient Their adaptation evidence is flawed – views ecosystem disruption one event at a time rather than as a collective disturbance Hughes et al 05 (Terrence P. Hughes and David R. Bellwood Centre for Coral Reef Biodiversity, School of Marine Biology & Aquaculture, James Cook University, Australia AND Carl Folke Department of Systems Ecology, Stockholm University, and Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden AND Robert S. Steneck School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine, Darling Marine Center, AND James Wilson School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine, “New paradigms for supporting the resilience of marine ecosystems” TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution Vol.20 No.7 July 2005 http://eaton.math.rpi.edu/csums/papers/Ecostability/hughesparadigms.pdf)

The importance of scale Developing marine policy and managing natural resources requires multi-scale ecological and social information. Traditionally, most ecological studies are brief and localized. However, the need for advice on how to cope with the impacts of environmental degradation, climate change and widespread overfishing is a major driver of an accelerating trend for the scaling-up of marine ecological studies. For example, the history of ecosystems (i.e. how they got to be in their current condition) is an important aspect of temporal scale that has far-reaching consequences for research and resource management [1,8,46–49] . If we ignore history and are unaware of trajectories of change, then a system is more likely to be falsely perceived as being stable and pristine [40] . In recent years, ecologists have focused increasingly on the cumulative and interactive effects of sequences of events, rather than concentrating solely on the most recent insult that leads to ecosystem collapse [1,15,16,20] . Nonetheless, most researchers still view resilience in terms of recovery from the most recent single disturbances, such as a storm or hurricane, to a single equilibrium. By contrast, social– ecological resilience focuses on absorbing recurrent perturbations , and on coping with uncertainty and risk, recognizing that disturbance and change are an integral component of complex SESs [21,22,50] . Consequently, the timeframe for understanding and managing SES resilience is often much longer than the conventional one – three years of most ecological studies. For example, it is sobering to consider that, in the timeframe required for comprehensive regeneration of fish stocks in coral reef NTAs ( O 20 years), the human population size of developing countries is likely to double [51] .

34 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Replacements are worse Trick 12’ (Charlie Trick. Charles Trick is a the Beryl Ivey Chair for Ecosystem Health in the Faculty of Science. “Future of oceans”. November 16, 2012. “http://communications.uwo.ca/western_news/stories/2012/November/future_of_oceans.html”)

The revenging of the ocean resources over the centuries has shown we can take from the ocean at a pace far faster than the ocean can replace. And the ecological hole will be filled with an unpredictable ecology. The ocean is not resilient ; it tends not to recover, but heads in a new direction – a new trajectory. The replacements are not always desirable and, usually, of lower quality. Now, that was the running start. Here’s the leap to hope. Oceans will always remain aloof from the hearts of most people. Humanity will be concerned about the margin waters – where we normal people swim and boat. And we will assume beyond the margin nothing damaging will be going on. It’s too big to damage. It’s too large to care about. It’s not resilient. It will not recover; it will transform and dwindle. And it is alone. It needs a global vision of protection. It needs the care of a global community. It is my hope the world will stand up and say it’s time to care for our wastes and adjust our demands. We cannot ask our fragile neighbour to do what we have the ability to do ourselves.

35 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Reefs Advantage

36 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT No Impact to Acidification / Doesn’t Hurt Reefs Ocean acidification is human-induced, occurring now, and represents an existential threat.

Bienkowski 2013

[Brian. Writer at the Daily Climate. “US Effort on Ocean Acidification needs Focus on Human Impacts” The Scientific American, 1/11/13 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/us-effort-on-ocean-acidification-needs-focus-on-human-impacts]

A federal plan to tackle ocean acidification must focus more on how the changes will affect people and the economy, according to a review of the effort by a panel of the National Research Council.¶ "Social issues clearly can't drive everything but when it's possible they should," said George Somero, chair of the committee that wrote the report and associate director at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station. "If you're setting up a monitoring station, it should be where there's a shellfish industry, for example."¶ Acidification is one of the larger problems associated with greenhouse gas emissions, as oceans serve as a giant sponge for carbon dioxide. When carbon dioxide is dissolved in seawater, water chemistry changes and acidity increases. More acidic seawater can hurt ocean creatures, especially corals and shellfish, because it prevents them from properly developing their skeletons and shells. Shrinking coral reefs could dent eco-tourism revenue in some coastal areas. It also could trigger a decline in fish populations dependent on those reefs.¶ Decreasing shellfish populations would harm the entire ocean food chain, researchers say, particularly affecting people who get their protein or paycheck from the sea. Globally, fish represent about 6 percent of the protein people eat. ¶ The acidification blueprint was drafted by nine federal agencies in March 2012. It establishes guidelines for federal research, monitoring and mitigation of ocean acidification. In reviewing the plan, the research council, which advises the government on science policy, recommended that federal research and action be focused on issues with human and economic consequences. ¶ Pacific Northwest¶ The panel cited the Pacific Northwest as an economic example, where high acidity levels have hampered oyster hatcheries, worth about $270 million and 3,200 jobs to coastal communities there. It is unclear if ocean acidification is the culprit, but it could be a harbinger of things to come, according to the report.¶ In 2011, U.S. commercial fishers caught 10 billion pounds of seafood valued at $5.3 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.¶ The panel also suggested the plan should have a clearer mission, prioritized goals and ways to measure progress.¶ "This plan would cost a lot of money so there needs to be priorities and ways to prove impact," Somero said. "The federal budget simply won't allow for everything that needs to be done."¶ In 2009, Congress passed the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act, creating a federal program to deal with ocean acidification. ¶ Somero said the agencies will take the recommendations and "tune up" the plan.¶ Ocean acidification is an "emerging global problem," according to NOAA. Over the past 250 years, about one third of the carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels has ended up in oceans, according to a 2010 study. Over that time, ocean acidity has increased about 30 percent, according to the National Research Council.¶ Ocean advocacy groups supported the panel's recommendations.¶ "Ocean acidification is one of the greatest threats to marine life and fisheries," said Matthew Huelsenbeck, a marine scientist at Oceana. "We are encouraged that the Council has suggested communicating this issue to policy makers and the public to increase awareness and hopefully lead to solutions."¶ Julia Roberson, a director at the Ocean Conservancy, said the original plan was a good first step and she hopes government will use the council's suggestions.¶ Amid recommendations, the panel also offered praise for the federal effort, saying the plan does "an excellent job of covering the breadth of current understanding of ocean acidification and the range of research that will be required to advance a broadly focused and effective National Ocean Acidification Program."

37 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Ocean acidification weakens reefs – lowers their survivability Dien, contributor for Climate Interpreter, 13

(Kevin, 12/18/14, Climate Interpreter, The Effects of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reefs, http://climateinterpreter.org/content/effects-ocean-acidification-coral-reefs, 6/29/14, JW)

Most people are familiar with the concept that compares coral reefs to underwater rainforests. Coral reefs form the most biodiverse habitats in the ocean, and their presence is essential to the survival of thousands of other marine species - many of which we rely on for food. Hard corals are the reef-building corals, and their stonelike structures are composed of calcium carbonate, the same substance found in the shells of many marine organisms including oysters, clams and snails. Like these mollusks, corals must have access to available calcium in the seawater in order to build their hard skeleton. This is especially important in the early stages of a coral polyps's life, when it settles onto a hard substance and starts "building" its skeleton. Some studies have shown a 52-73% decline in larval settlement on reefs that are experiencing lower pH levels. Scientists can also measure the calcification rates of hard corals, and ocean acidification has had a negative impact on the rate at which corals calcify. This means that coral colonies in the future may be more brittle and less resilient to other factors influencing their survival. Ocean acidification is just one more threat to the success of hard corals. Coral reefs are already being affected by many other pressures, some human-related and some natural. Warming ocean temperatures are contributing to coral bleaching and making them more susceptible to diseases. Nutrient and chemical pollution coming into the oceans from rivers is also making suitable coral habitat very scarce. Natural threats impacting coral reefs include predation from urchins and a variety of fishes, and also tropical storms. Coral reefs are naturally very resilient to many of these threats, but now their ability to recolonize and grow sturdy structures is being compromised by ocean acidification. Sometimes, coral habitat is gradually being replaced by non-calcifying organisms, like seagrass, once the coral has been killed off.

38 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Ocean acidification affects coral reef growth Mathews, freelance writer about scientific matters, 11

(James, 10/29/11, Earth Times, “How Ocean Acidification is Affecting Coral Reef Ecosystems”, http://www.earthtimes.org/conservation/ocean-acidification-affecting-coral-reef-ecosystems/1661/, 6/29/14, JW)

Scientists are discovering the truth about the potential fate of coral reef ecosystems in relation to how ocean acidification is affecting them. This has been revealed through observations at Submarine Springs along the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Scientists expect increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to see a low pH in the water and these conditions already naturally exist in the water around Submarine Springs, allowing for the perfect place for research. The research at the springs showed small unevenly distributed colonies of only a few species of coral. These also were not structurally complex as corals in nearby reefs such as the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. This seems to show that the pH level is having a dramatic effect on coral health. The study has occurred over the last three years. The team led by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has published their findings in the journal Coral Reefs. "This study has some good news and some bad news for corals" said Adina Paytan. Paytan is a research professor in the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz and continued, "The good news is that some species of corals are able to calcify and grow at very low pH. The bad news is that these are not the ones that build the framework of the coral reefs. So if this is an indication of what will happen with future ocean acidification, the reefs will not be as we know them today." The lower pH level of the springs has naturally existed for thousands of years but lowering the pH affects the chemical balance of seawater when it comes to calcium carbonate. This in turn reduces the concentration of carbonate ions and therefore makes it much harder for corals to build and maintain their structures. Paytan said, "We need to understand the mechanisms that allow these corals to calcify at these low-pH conditions. We should also make sure that the places where these species occur are protected". The research was funded by the National Science Foundation in order to see how acidification affected marine organisms. The conditions seen at the springs are the same conditions that the scientists expect to see in oceans across the world by the year 2100 due to increases in acidification. The findings have concerned the scientists but have also simply confirmed what they had already expected. The increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to higher acidification in seawater which is now proven to affect the corals growth as well as other organisms.

39 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Reefs Solve Acidification Coral Reefs Offset Ocean Acidification Through Biogeochemical Responses

Andersson, Assistant Professor- Geosciences Research, 14 (Andreas, 2014, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, “Partial offsets in ocean acidification from changing coral reef biogeochemistry”, http://scrippsscholars.ucsd.edu/aandersson/content/partial-offsets-ocean-acidification-changing-coral- reef-biogeochemistry-0, 6/29/14, AEG) Concerns have been raised about how coral reefs will be affected by ocean acidification(1,2), but projections of future seawater CO2 chemistry have focused solely on changes in the pH and aragonite saturation state (Omega(a)) of open-ocean surface seawater conditions surrounding coral reefs(1-4) rather than the reef systems themselves. The seawater CO2 chemistry within heterogeneous reef systems can be significantly different from that of the open ocean depending on the residence time, community composition and the main biogeochemical processes occurring on the reef, that is, net ecosystem production (NEP = gross primary production autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration) and net ecosystem calcification (NEC = gross calcification gross CaCO3 dissolution), which combined act to modify seawater chemistry(5-7). On the basis of observations from the Bermuda coral reef, we show that a range of projected biogeochemical responses of coral reef communities to ocean acidification by the end of this century could partially offset changes in seawater pH and Omega(a) by an average of 12- 24% and 15-31%, respectively.

40 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT SQuo Solves and No Impact Oceans at highest acidity now, and acidification threatens extinction Harvey, Environment Correspondent for the Guardian, 13

(Fiona, 10/2/13, The Guardian, “Rate of ocean acidification due to carbon emissions is at highest for 300m years,” http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/03/ocean-acidification-carbon- dioxide-emissions-levels, 6/27/14, SM)

The oceans are becoming more acidic at the fastest rate in 300m years, due to carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, and a mass extinction of key species may already be almost inevitable as a result, leading marine scientists warned on Thursday.¶ An international audit of the health of the oceans has found that overfishing and pollution are also contributing to the crisis, in a deadly combination of destructive forces that are imperilling marine life, on which billions of people depend for their nutrition and livelihood.¶ In the starkest warning yet of the threat to ocean health, the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) said: "This [acidification] is unprecedented in the Earth's known history. We are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change, and exposing organisms to intolerable evolutionary pressure. The next mass extinction may have already begun." It published its findings in the State of the Oceans report, collated every two years from global monitoring and other research studies.¶ Alex Rogers, professor of biology at Oxford University, said: "The health of the ocean is spiralling downwards far more rapidly than we had thought. We are seeing greater change, happening faster, and the effects are more imminent than previously anticipated. The situation should be of the gravest concern to everyone since everyone will be affected by changes in the ability of the ocean to support life on Earth."¶ Coral is particularly at risk. Increased acidity dissolves the calcium carbonate skeletons that form the structure of reefs, and increasing temperatures lead to bleaching where the corals lose symbiotic algae they rely on. The report says that world governments' current pledges to curb carbon emissions would not go far enough or fast enough to save many of the world's reefs. There is a time lag of several decades between the carbon being emitted and the effects on seas, meaning that further acidification and further warming of the oceans are inevitable, even if we drastically reduce emissions very quickly. There is as yet little sign of that, with global greenhouse gas output still rising.¶ Corals are vital to the health of fisheries, because they act as nurseries to young fish and smaller species that provide food for bigger ones.¶ Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed by the seas – at least a third of the carbon that humans have released has been dissolved in this way, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – and makes them more acidic. But IPSO found the situation was even more dire than that laid out by the world's top climate scientists in their landmark report last week.¶ In absorbing carbon and heat from the atmosphere, the world's oceans have shielded humans from the worst effects of global warming, the marine scientists said. This has slowed the rate of climate change on land, but its profound effects on marine life are only now being understood.¶ Acidification harms marine creatures that rely on calcium carbonate to build coral reefs and shells, as well as plankton, and the fish that rely on them. Jane Lubchenco, former director of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a marine biologist, said the effects were already being felt in some oyster fisheries, where young larvae were failing to develop properly in areas where the acid rates are higher, such as on the west coast of the US. "You can actually see this happening," she said. "It's not something a long way into the future. It is a very big problem."¶ But the chemical changes in the ocean go further, said Rogers. Marine animals use chemical signals to perceive their environment and locate prey and predators, and there is evidence that their ability to do so is being impaired in some species.¶ Trevor Manuel, a South African government minister and co- chair of the Global Ocean Commission, called the report "a deafening alarm bell on humanity's wider impacts on the global oceans".¶ "Unless we restore the ocean's health, we will experience the consequences on prosperity, wellbeing and development. Governments must respond as urgently as they do to national security threats – in the long run, the impacts are just as important," he said.¶ Current rates of carbon release into the oceans are 10 times faster than those before the last major species extinction, which was the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum extinction, about 55m years ago. The IPSO scientists can tell that the current ocean acidification is the highest for 300m years from geological records.

41 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Coral reef extinction is likely in the status quo and will occur in the next few decades.

Plumer 7-7

[Bradley. “Caribbean coral reefs could disappear "within a few decades” 7/7/14 http://www.vox.com/2014/7/7/5876909/caribbean-coral-reefs-could-disappear-within-a-few-decades]

Coral reefs in the Caribbean are on track to "virtually disappear within a few decades," a major new report warns. But there's also a way to slow decline. Protecting just a single fish — the brightly colored parrotfish — could help save the reefs from doom.¶ There's little doubt that the Caribbean's coral reefs have declined sharply since the 1970s, under heavy stress from invasive pathogens, overfishing, coastal pollution, tourism, and now global warming that's heating up the oceans.¶ It's reached the point that many conservation groups have given up hope for the Caribbean and are shifting their attention to protecting coral reefs elsewhere.¶ But it may be too early to give up altogether. The new report, from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, takes an in-depth look at the decline of the Caribbean coral reefs between 1975 and 2012. While the authors find that the situation is indeed bleak, they also outlines a series of steps that could halt the destruction.¶ Crucially, the report recommends new protections for the region's parrotfish, which has long played a vital role in eating up algae that threatens to overrun the reefs (the parrotfish's feeding habits also help replenish coral sand). In recent decades, the parrotfish has been a victim of overfishing — and coral reefs have suffered as a result.¶ Reversing that trend, the report notes, would be a crucial step, not least given the central role that reefs play in the region — from supporting tourism to nurturing fisheries to protecting against hurricanes and other storms.

42 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Solvency

43 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT Fails – Ocean Conditions Design elements have been tested and will survive in ocean conditions. Slat, founder and lead designer The Ocean Cleanup Project, 2014

“The problem is that the barriers to gyre cleanup are so massive that the vast majority of the scientific and advocacy community believe it’s a fool’s errand”

Boyan: We have now engineered a new floating barrier, that can span the 100 km that is needed to collect almost half the plastic within 10 years. To be sure it stays in one piece, we used a safety factor of 2.5x to 3x, which is much higher than the offshore standard of 1.82x, to be able to accommodate the weakening of the materials due to fatigue. (feasibility study, chapter 3.6). The new design furthermore enables the buoyancy element to move with the waves, which prevents plastic from splashing over or underneath the boom. This has been confirmed with scale model tests. These scale models also showed that this new design can potentially reduce the loads on the tension-carrying element of the barrier by 60%, making our dimensioning even more conservative.

44 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet The collection platform is based off of technology that is already employed worldwide to withstand ocean conditions.

My home state of Oregon has been trying to create North America’s first offshore wave energy farm. The first test buoy that was launched, just about 2.5 miles offshore, sank after just a few months. That buoy had a ‘100 year survivability’ rating, and wasn’t just an idea on an Ipad.”

Boyan: According to the spokesperson of the wave energy test, the object in question was actually designed to survive only a couple of months. He mentions to Renewable Energy World: “So when people say - Oh there's this device and it sank. How do you expect it to last 20 years or even five years in a real commercial development? It wasn't designed for that,". In The Ocean Cleanup concept, there is also a need for a platform. As some may have noticed, the design of this processing platform has changed from the concept design. We chose for a spar design, which is proven technology, having been used through decades of ocean engineering. Its specific design has been made in collaboration with a Belgian engineering company. (feasibility study, chapter 4.3) The working principles of the system did not change since I presented the concept 1.5 years ago, must be noted.

45 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT Fails – Sea Life Bycatch will be minimal. Plankton can float under our system and larger animals will be deterred by sound systems.

Because they are effectively neutrally buoyant, both phytoplankton and zooplankton are likely to pass underneath the barriers along with the current. But even assuming the worst - The Ocean Cleanup Array would harvest all the plankton it encounters - this would constitute a maximum loss of 10 million kg of planktonic biomass annually. Given the immense primary production of the world oceans, it would take less than 7 seconds to reproduce this amount of biomass.

With regard to vertebrates, harm caused by the barriers seems unlikely because non-permeable barriers are used, although some bycatch may occur in the near vicinity of the platform’s extraction equipment. To prevent the possible impact on vertebrates, active deterrent techniques could be implemented near the extraction equipment.

46 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT Economic Viability Multiple options for recycling ocean plastic that do not require sorting by plastic type. Means ocean clean up can still cover its own costs.

“Plastic can only be recycled if it’s clean ocean (…) plastics are about the worst possible feedstock for recycling imaginable”

Boyan: Partly true. Of course plastics degrade (oxidise) when exposed to the marine environment for years to decades. But when we (in collaboration with Universidade de Caxias do Sul) quantified the oxidation rate of ocean plastic using infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, the quality turned out to be much higher than expected (feasibility study, chapter 9.1). Because many people wonder what to do with the plastic once extracted, we included the post-processing into the scope of the report. First we proved ocean plastic can be turned into oil, and is just as suitable as normal waste plastic. There is a large market for oil, but the net value is modest. Hence we then also tried mechanical recycling (both heat pressing and injection moulding), which showed the plastic can actually be turned into new materials. The only pre-processing was washing; the plastic didn’t even have to be sorted into different polymer types. (feasibility study, chapter 9.2) And even if most damage occurs near the coasts, with an estimated 1.27 B USD of annual damages in the APEC region, removing almost half the plastic within the North Pacific Gyre for just 31.7 M euro per year seems like a pretty good deal, even leaving the value of the plastics aside.

47 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Passive collections is the only cost effective option and annual operating costs can be covered by selling plastic recycled from the project.

The Ocean Cleanup Array is estimated to be 33 times cheaper than conventional cleanup proposals per extracted mass of plastics. In order to extract 70 million kg (or 42 percent) of garbage from the North Pacific Gyre over 10 years, we calculated a total cost of 317 million euro.

In the calculations, a limited lifetime of 10 years is applied instead of a general economic lifetime (for most equipment 20 years). This is because projections indicate the mean amount of plastic mass will decrease with time. Thus, the average mass of plastic that will be collected per year will likely be lower than what has been calculated using the 10-year deployment time. As expected with the passive cleanup concept, capital expenditures outweigh the operating expenditures. The total annual estimated operating expenditures is estimated at five million euro.

A break-even cost of €4.53 per kg of plastic collected must be realized in order for The Ocean Cleanup Array to be profitable. This amount falls in the range of beach cleanup costs, estimated to be €0.07 – €18.0 per kg. This is also less expensive than the plastic-caused damage to the maritime industry in the APEC region. ****Cost estimates in the piece of evidence are stated in Euros (€) the type of money used in most of Europe. While the value of currencies fluctuate as a general rule 1 Euro is equal to about $1.33. So operating costs of 5 million € a year would be about 6.65 million $ per year.

48 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT Experts Agree Passive collection method has been tested and supported by experts.

It’s a great story, but it’s just a story. (…) Gyre cleanup is a false prophet hailing from La-La land that won’t work (…) Slat’s project as it stands is in the fairy tale phase…”

Boyan: We have just published a 530-page report, concluding that The Ocean Cleanup Array is a feasible and viable method for large-scale gyre cleanup, marking the successful end of the preliminary engineering phase. Because of its length and diverse nature, a journal won’t publish it. Hence we have asked external experts to do an informal peer review, which the report passed. Furthermore, part of the report (the plastic processing, the vertical distribution and computational fluid dynamics) will be separately published in a journal. We are currently increasing the size of the vertical distribution dataset through new expeditions, in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research.

49 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet AT Size / Depth of the Ocean Passive technology is scalable. Allows for ocean clean up in all 5 oceans for a limited cost.

The main advantage of passive cleanup is that it is scalable. Using conventional ship-and-net methods, it has been estimated that it would take about 79,000 years to remediate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Moore and Philips 2011). And that estimate assumes that vessels cover the entire oceanic area, and that the plastic pollution is spatially static. While the former assumption is perhaps naive or unrealistic, the latter is false. Ship-and net methods are less efficient as the high variability in current directions caused by eddies makes them either repeat their run on the same patch of the sea or to miss some of the plastics.

In contrast, our concept uses the natural movement of the water to its advantage. In combination with the circulation period of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, the cleanup duration could be drastically reduced (a minimum of 5 years).

Due to the passive collection approach, operational expenses can potentially be very low, making the cleanup more cost-effective. Furthermore, converting the extracted plastic into energy, oil or new materials could cover (a large part of) the costs of the execution.

50 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Technology exists to moor the ocean clean up system in 4,000 meters of water.

Boyan: In fact, many small moorings have been placed in over 5000 m of depth by oceanographic institutions like NIOZ and NOAA. The deepest moored oil rig is the Shell Perdido Spar at 2500 m of depth. The Ocean Cleanup will be placed at 3900 m. So we collaborated with the market leader in offshore anchoring systems, who came to the conclusion that “The tools and methods that are available to offshore engineering world can readily be applied for the realization of this project. It is Vryhof Anchors’ professional opinion that with the current knowledge and technology, the mooring of the objects at the given water depths is feasible. The mooring configuration and deployment procedures are similar to proven solutions at 2500 m water depth.” (Senol Ozmutlu, PhD). (feasibility study, chapter 3.7)

Outside experts agree the mooring system for the platform would be less complex than many oil and gas drilling operations.

51 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Slat et al, founder and lead designer The Ocean Cleanup Project, 2014

Keeping the array in position at all times will place substantial demands on a passive mooring system. At the given water depths, a fiber rope mooring system is the only option to use. To ensure integrity of the system, chain and wire rope is used at the bottom and top ends.

A Stevmanta Vertical Load Anchor (surface area 14 m²) is sufficient to withstand the design loads including the safety factor.

“Although it is a new type of floating concept, the size and weight of the object as well as the potential risks (environmental as well as commercial) are less severe than the majority of offshore structures in oil and gas. The tools and methods that are available to offshore engineering world can readily be applied for the realization of this project. It is Vryhof’s professional opinion that with the current knowledge and technology, the mooring of the objects at the given water depths is feasible. The mooring configuration and deployment procedures are similar to proven solutions at 2500 m water depth. The concept is executable regarding anchor and mooring line installation and load transfer from the tension member to the seafloor.”

Senol Ozmutlu, PhD, Projects Director, Vryhof Anchors

52 Ocean Clean Up Affirmative WDCA 2014-15 Novice Packet Most plastics are found near the surface especially the large plastics which make up 80% of the trash in the gyres.

“Perhaps one of the worst assumptions evident in this design is that the plastic will be on the sea surface. Researchers have shown that plastic suspends in the water column at 100-150 meters due to wave action and sea state.”

Boyan: This is misleading. It is true that the mixed layer can stretch to these depths during winter months, and it’s true that very small amounts of plastic can be found throughout the water column, but as our past 3 expeditions to the gyres have shown, the vast majority of plastics can be found in the top 1-3 m (depending on wind and sea state). This explains why researchers (as well as 5Gyres themselves) sample the surface layer of the oceans to measure plastic pollution. When we conservatively look at the data taken in winter months only, the surface layer contained 10x more microplastics than the layer at 4.5 m of depth. Hence our barriers stretch down to 3 meters, to capture the most of plastic. And in fact, here I am only addressing the small particles. The large plastics (that make up over 80% of the plastic in the gyres) are all at the sea surface. (feasibility study, chapter 2.2, 2.3)