Garbage Island Reaches Out to the World – Seoul, South Korea, April 25 2088

For the first time in its short history has the Great Pacific Garbage Patch reached out to the outside world for help. The island build on the huge patch of drifting garbage that gets collected by the North Pacific Gyre in the Pacific Ocean is running out of space. Not only running out of space to build on, but also space for agricultural and energy needs. Most of the food and energy supply is based on the square mileage of drift area available to algae and plankton to settle on the bottom side of the various forms of flotsam and jetsam that get tagged onto the island by the Pacific Trash Vortex. The algae and plankton get collected by the inhabitants and are used either for consumption or to fuel power plants along the continent. The "Continent Council", as the group of worried scientists that has started this initiative has named itself, has send a request to the governments of all the countries that make up the Pacific Rim to stop destroying and recycling their collected waste but to simply dump it into the sea to help grow the island's size and in particular its sea-facing surface. Several countries, including South Korea and New Zealand have shown an interest into this opportunity to rethink their method of national waste management. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has declared this is totally unacceptable and the damage to the Pacific Ocean's fragile environment could be disastrous. They are drawing up a resolution to block the proposed change of waste disposals in these interested countries and to see what measures could be taken to take actions against the small continent to make them retract their potentially damaging request. Garbage Island hasn't recognized any outside authority as of yet, including the United Nations, that on their part has officially recognized it as a continent in 2043. The UN declared that the continent reaching out to nations that are part of the UN has ended their status aparte as a rogue continent and will force them to become part of the family of nations that make up this world. All the countries that have shown an interest in 'helping out' and honoring this request outsource their waste management to poorer countries and is costing them a considerable part of their yearly budget. ----> Previous Post

Garbage Archipelago officially recognized as continent by United Nations - New York, USA, July 19 2043

The United Nations declared the big pile of garbage drifting in the Pacific Ocean, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex that has seen its population skyrocketing over the last five years, as an official continent. Estimates put the population of the new continent at around 16 million people. The United Nations will probably name the continent themselves after representatives of the drifting islands declined the offer by the UN to put out a vote amongst its inhabitants to officially name the floating mass. One of the representatives stated that the island is an anarcho-chaotic free society and does not want any form of government and related institutions, including voting. The big garbage patch, made out of trash from all the countries that make up the Pacific Rim gathered by currents known as the North Pacific Gyre, was first discovered in the early 1980's. The first inhabitants were spotted in 2010. People are living of fish and the vast undergrowth of marine plants and algae. Water is collected from rainfall. The large increase 5 years ago came after the floating mass was proven to be self-sustainable without requiring the import of any products from outside. Although some worry that the island won't be able to keep up with the population explosion, environmental experts say the continent is still growing at a faster rate than the increase in people, allowing for an even faster growth rate than is taking place right now. The United Nations said it could no longer ignore the growing population of the continent. The overall reaction of its inhabitants is that they don't care about the recognition and don't want any involvement from outside.