"Hub Cap + Candy Wrapper"
Maisy (Illinois), Zoey (Wisconsin), & Sydney (Wyoming) /// Protecting the Pacific International Students /// Bahía Ballena, Costa Rica
1. What was one item you found on the beach that surprised you?
MAISY: I found a hub cap on the beach today. I was really surprised that this item meant for land was on the beach next to the surf. I think a driver who wasn't really paying attention lost it off of their car OR someone saw it wasn't on correctly and just threw it off their car and into the ocean without thinking.
ZOEY: An item that I found on the beach today was a candy bar with a bunch of strange markings all over it. I feel like it was from somewhere in Asia because of the writing, which is very sad because I am all the way in Costa Rica... I think a little kid was eating it and without thinking, like the rest of the world, he or she just threw it on the ground and it washed into the sea.
SYDNEY: One thing I found on the beach today was a hub cap from a car. I think it might have come from somone on the land and it just broke so the person left it on the roadside and now the rains have pushed it into the sea.
2. What was one thing you learned from the film?
MAISY: I learned that people can be very honest. While often a good think, it was surprising to hear that many people were very aware of the Earth's issues and were therefore not very optimistic about the future. However, I think this honesty is necessary (both with others and ourselves) in order to solve any of our planet's problems, especially the Texas-sized (WHAT?!) garbage island in the Pacific Ocean.
ZOEY: From the video, I learned that plastic is becoming a huge epidemic and has no positive longterm affects. It is getting into our oceans and us.
SYDNEY: The video was really impactful because I did not even know about the Pacific Garbage Patch. It is as big as Texas... that is a lot of trash.
3. Are you optimistic about the future?
MAISY: This is tough... In no way do I believe that doing work to solve Earth's problems is not worthwhile or useless. However, I think that when a majority of humans agree on problems and decide on a way to work together to try and solve them, it may be too late. I'm upset that we're forever lost a lot of our biodiversity on this planet and that things like garbage islands exist... but I don't think that anything will be solved if we are not positive and optimistic (there we go...) about the solution. Okay... so that was sort of all over the place... I am trying to say that I want to be more and more optimistic but that it is difficult and I want to be realistic at the same time.
ZOEY: I am trying to be optimistic about the future but I believe theat since the garbage is in international waters, no country will step forward to take responsibility for it because the country that does, will go in debt. The future does not look bright but we can change that, and need to.
SYDNEY: I am not optimistic about the future. I feel like the problem is way too big... people need to realize that we have a problem before we can clean up the mess.
