W2: My Invention To Save Earth

"My Invention To Save Earth"

Throughout the years, Earth has been facing one of the biggest problem yet and that will be plastic waste that leads to pollution. Although there were few ways that can reduce the plastic waste but it is never enough as plastic waste has still been pilling up continuously. There were solutions such as reducing plastic straws and use rice straws which was a pretty smart move but it is never enough as around the world still uses plastic in other ways. According to Derraik (2002), plastics have grown to be a major issue because they are the classic instance of a substance that "does not go away". They can been seen as instinctual reflex because they are inexpensive, common, and used so frequently. Finding anything that one uses or interacts with on a daily basis that is not composed of or contains one or more types of plastic is difficult, if not impossible, in the contemporary environment. Every year, between one and two million tons of plastic enter our oceans, harming ecosystems and species (Ritchie et al., 2023).

Although there are many inventions that helps with controlling the plastic pollution. What if, there is one more invention that can reduce plastic waste. The invention that I thought of is where a life size robot whale that could suck up and collect any type of waste materials such as microplastic, nano plastic, oil, chemicals and etc. But what happens to the waste collected? Well, it turns into energy for the robot whale to move in the ocean continuously. The whale can move both above and deep underwater in search for the waste. It is like a submarine as it can also detect between the marine life and waste in the ocean within 100 radius so it is very sensitive to the waste surroundings. If the marine creatures were accidentally sucked into the whale, there would be a tube where the marine creatures will be directed out of the robot whale's body. 

Other than that, the robot whale looked so real that it would not disturb and harm the marine creatures in the ocean. There would be a thought like why a whale instead of other marine creatures. It is because whale is the largest marine mammals in the ocean and whales have lesser predators as it is too large to be a prey. Moreover, this robot whale can also detect the pH levels of the sea water for the acidification. It will collect the pH levels and record it in the data for it to be sent in signals to the marine biologist as a report every month. Speaking of data report, it can also detect how many waste and rubbish it had collected a month to send it back to the marine biologist to record in the report, in order to inform people about the current situation of waste in the ocean to get empathy and get attention for them to help promote by stop throwing waste in the ocean. 

The name of this waste sucking robot whale is "Moby Dick 3000". It was inspired by the Moby Dick's story. It is a vengeance inspired. In order to protect the marine creatures, Moby Dick 3000 will take vengeance on waste in the ocean. This imaginary invention supports 4 SDGs which are SDG6 clean water and sanitation, SDG7 affordable and clean energy, SDG13 climate action, and SDG14 life below the water. Even though, if this invention does exist, it is still not right to throw and spill waste into the ocean as it will not just kill of the marine creatures in the ocean but us and the Earth as well.  

Reference list:

Derraik, J. G. (2002). The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 44(9), 842–852. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0025-326x(02)00220-5

Ritchie, H., Samborska, V., & Roser, M. (2023, November 1). Plastic pollution. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution