The Marshall Islands can feel like its own world because of how far away from everything it is. It is isolated not only by distance but also by its unique way of life. The Marshall Islands has its own culture and a language only spoken by less than 0.0001 percent of the world.
Though ocean pollution is a pressing issue facing the entire world, some countries are more heavily impacted by it. The Marshall Islands is one of these countries. Millions of pounds of trash have been washed onto the once pristine beaches, like the beach on Gehh cleaned up by our marine science class.
It’s interesting to think about how far each piece of trash must have drifted before getting beached in the middle of the Pacific. How many days, months, or even years did it float through the vast expanse of open ocean, slowly getting broken down and bleached by the sun? A lot of the trash was unidentifiable, but you could tell the origin of some of it by the language on it. There were bottles, ropes, and other pieces of junk inscribed with Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, English ... It all serves as a reminder that we live in the same world. It’s obvious how different people are around the world, but it’s not always obvious that we’re facing the same problems. Regardless of differences in location, language, and culture, we are all connected. We share the same oceans, we face the same problems.