I watched the “Oceanography” series The Great Courses: Oceanography and was absolutely amazed by the complexity of our oceans. (It was a mere coincidence that I was researching William Whewell at the time– that is, if you believe in coincidences.) One of the lectures mentioned the issue of plastics in the oceans, especially how little bits of the stuff have become ubiquitous throughout ocean waters, and how no one knows what effects they’re having on ocean life.
Today, I learned of a quick way anyone can help with this. All you have to do is look at a picture, draw rectangles around the bits of garbage in it, and choose the best label for the garbage you found. You don’t even have to sign in. I just did one, and it was super-easy. Here’s the site: The Plastic Tide
What you’re doing is teaching computers how to spot plastic debris. That way, scientists will be able to track how plastic moves through our earth’s systems, and we’ll have good information to make smart, effective choices about how we deal with plastic in the environment. I learned about this project in this article: The Nature Conservancy
Alex Drevessa 
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