Audio producer, photographer, traveler, musician, activist, parent & lox lover. A collection of sights, sounds & texts.
www.benarnow.net
-
A 6 year old’s solution for cleaning the oceans
So, last week my 6 year old turns to me and proceeds to tell me about a new idea that he came up with for cleaning all of the garbage out of the ocean. My son is very interested in nature. Everything including birds, forests, insects, life cycles, dinosaurs, pollination, worms, minerals, sloths and, of course, ocean life. In order to clean up the ocean waters he said: “We could build a boat and attach a giant net to the back of it which would collect all the garbage floating around in the water. The boat could go all over the ocean catching all of the garbage floating around. Then once the net is full it would be lifted by a big crane and taken away to be thrown out”.
I looked at him and thought for a second. This is a GREAT idea. So simple, so logical. Something that a child’s open, imaginative and nimble mind is so likely to come up with. I told him that we could try to build a little prototype this Fall. Give it a test run. The boat, the net, the crane, the whole thing.
Then, yesterday I receive my daily email from Good and lo and behold, right there in front of me on my computer screen is my son’s invention! The same exact concept. Described in detail with color computer renditions of the ocean cleaning marine drone. The vessel uses a net. And it is lifted out of the ocean with a giant barge crane. Incredible. These are the types of inventions that just might save us all. Ocean cleaning drones. Carbon catching windmills. I showed these pictures to my son and his face lit up. He had come up with the same idea as the “crew of big-thinking designers” behind this wonderfully creative solution to a growing environmental problem.
I hope my son comes up with more ideas like this. We sure could use them. I hope we all start thinking more like this. This Fall we are going to work on our little prototype model and my son can give it a test run. First in the bathtub. Then maybe the lake. Someday, maybe, he’ll make it to the ocean.
(more pictures here!)
