My heroes are people who seem to have a build in drive for fixing the
larger problems in this world. Those people are not hollywood stars,
and while they can have money they don't seem to be motivated by it.
They are often super smart and...daring.
Elon Musk is
one. Recently another person has been Boyan Slat [it seems there may be
something in having a slightly strange name]. Boyan is 19 years old and
wants to clean the oceans of plastic - you know those giant garbage
patches clogging up our aquatic ecosystems.
Boyan went
scuba diving in Greece a few years ago and found more plastic bags than
fish. It bothered him, but unlike everyone else he decided to do
something about it. Instead of the ship with nets idea he thought
building a stationary structure and letting the ocean move through it
(since the major oceans have gyres - that is they move in a giant
circular motion) this could collect the plastic - then a belt would lift
the plastic out. Well it is a little bit more complicated than that but
that is the general idea.
He postponed his engineering
studies to work on this, crowd funding to work on the feasibility study
with a large group helping him. Now the study is done, it is feasible.
Now into phase II, another round of crowdfunding which is my
contribution this week.
"To reduce the uncertainties, to optimize the design and to prepare for
the actual implementation, The Ocean Cleanup now commences on the second
phase of the project: the pilot phase.
Through a series of up-scaled tests, The Ocean Cleanup will work towards
a large-scale and fully operational pilot in 3-4 years’ time. The
series of tests will generate new data in a range of structural and
physical topics. Furthermore, these up-scaling tests will serve as a
platform for the engineering and oceanographic research groups, enabling
them to immediately implement newly developed technology or testing
equipment in a real-life environment"
https://fund.theoceancleanup.com
