Continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific Ocean

[China]

Continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific Ocean

At the start of the Academy Award-winning movie "American Beauty," a character videotapes a plastic grocery bag as it drifts into the air, an event he casts as a symbol of life's unpredictable currents, and declares the romantic moment as a "most beautiful thing."

To the eyes of an oceanographer, the image is pure catastrophe.

In reality, the rogue bag would float into a sewer, follow the storm drain to the ocean, then make its way to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a heap of debris floating in the Pacific that's twice the size of Texas, according to marine biologists.

The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5 million tons, say oceanographers - floats where few people ever travel, in a no-man's land between San Francisco and Hawaii.

Marcus Eriksen, director of research and education at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, said his group has been monitoring the Garbage Patch for 10 years.

"With the winds blowing in and the currents in the gyre going circular, it's the perfect environment for trapping," Eriksen said. "There's nothing we can do about it now, except do no more harm."

The patch has been growing, along with ocean debris worldwide, tenfold every decade since the 1950s, said Chris Parry, public education program manager with the California Coastal Commission in San Francisco.

Ocean current patterns may keep the flotsam stashed in a part of the world few will ever see, but the majority of its content is generated onshore, according to a report from Greenpeace last year titled "Plastic Debris in the World's Oceans."

The report found that 80 percent of the oceans' litter originated on land. While ships drop the occasional load of shoes or hockey gloves into the waters (sometimes on purpose and illegally), the vast majority of sea garbage begins its journey as onshore trash.

That's what makes a potentially toxic swamp like the Garbage Patch entirely preventable, Parry said.

"At this point, cleaning it up isn't an option," Parry said. "It's just going to get bigger as our reliance on plastics continues. ... The long-term solution is to stop producing as much plastic products at home and change our consumption habits."

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific Ocean

At the start of the Academy Award-winning movie "American Beauty," a character videotapes a plastic grocery bag as it drifts into the air, an event he casts as a symbol of life's unpredictable currents, and declares the romantic moment as a "most beautiful thing."

To the eyes of an oceanographer, the image is pure catastrophe.

In reality, the rogue bag would float into a sewer, follow the storm drain to the ocean, then make its way to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a heap of debris floating in the Pacific that's twice the size of Texas, according to marine biologists.

The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5 million tons, say oceanographers - floats where few people ever travel, in a no-man's land between San Francisco and Hawaii.

Marcus Eriksen, director of research and education at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, said his group has been monitoring the Garbage Patch for 10 years.

"With the winds blowing in and the currents in the gyre going circular, it's the perfect environment for trapping," Eriksen said. "There's nothing we can do about it now, except do no more harm."

The patch has been growing, along with ocean debris worldwide, tenfold every decade since the 1950s, said Chris Parry, public education program manager with the California Coastal Commission in San Francisco.

Ocean current patterns may keep the flotsam stashed in a part of the world few will ever see, but the majority of its content is generated onshore, according to a report from Greenpeace last year titled "Plastic Debris in the World's Oceans."

The report found that 80 percent of the oceans' litter originated on land. While ships drop the occasional load of shoes or hockey gloves into the waters (sometimes on purpose and illegally), the vast majority of sea garbage begins its journey as onshore trash.

That's what makes a potentially toxic swamp like the Garbage Patch entirely preventable, Parry said.

"At this point, cleaning it up isn't an option," Parry said. "It's just going to get bigger as our reliance on plastics continues. ... The long-term solution is to stop producing as much plastic products at home and change our consumption habits."

Click on the link for the full article

[panel]

This reminds me of the "scare mongering" global warming thread.

[panel]

This reminds me of the "scare mongering" global warming thread.

[Predicto]

This reminds me of the "scare mongering" global warming thread.

Why? Because you don't want to believe this either?

[Predicto]

This reminds me of the "scare mongering" global warming thread.

Why? Because you don't want to believe this either?

[DeanCollins]

Why? Because you don't want to believe this either?

Anything that might cost money to remedy must be burried quickly as a hoax :doh: unless money can be made by a campaign contributor

[DeanCollins]

Why? Because you don't want to believe this either?

Anything that might cost money to remedy must be burried quickly as a hoax :doh: unless money can be made by a campaign contributor

[Chump Bailey]

It's disgusting how some companies, cruise ship companies are especially notorious for this, treat the ocean's.

[Chump Bailey]

It's disgusting how some companies, cruise ship companies are especially notorious for this, treat the ocean's.

[twa]

Seems like a great opportunity for generating energy, hell the ocean collects it.

Go scoop it up and burn it.

[twa]

Seems like a great opportunity for generating energy, hell the ocean collects it.

Go scoop it up and burn it.

[Enter Apotheosis]

Seems like a great opportunity for generating energy, hell the ocean collects it.

Go scoop it up and burn it.

Because as we are all aware, nothing burns as cleanly and efficiently as plastic. :yes:

[Enter Apotheosis]

Seems like a great opportunity for generating energy, hell the ocean collects it.

Go scoop it up and burn it.

Because as we are all aware, nothing burns as cleanly and efficiently as plastic. :yes:

[jwpanic]

mmmm...i love stew:hungry:

[jwpanic]

mmmm...i love stew:hungry:

[twa]

Because as we are all aware, nothing burns as cleanly and efficiently as plastic. :yes:

You obviously have never burned plastic,it burns very well and the technology is available to control the clean issue.

Check out some of the waste to energy projects.

[twa]

Because as we are all aware, nothing burns as cleanly and efficiently as plastic. :yes:

You obviously have never burned plastic,it burns very well and the technology is available to control the clean issue.

Check out some of the waste to energy projects.

[DeanCollins]

tow the thing to china and let them recycle it. It probably has a ton of dead fish caught in it baking in the sun emitting methane gas. they can make soup with the fish heads

[DeanCollins]

tow the thing to china and let them recycle it. It probably has a ton of dead fish caught in it baking in the sun emitting methane gas. they can make soup with the fish heads

[edgun88]

I say we send a missle at it....you know...just to see what happens.

[edgun88]

I say we send a missle at it....you know...just to see what happens.

[mjah]

Bushco has it on good authority that al-Qaeda is using the Garbage Patch as training grounds for navigating the waterways of New York.

Fire up the spin machine, find some shady informants, rename the region Trashistan, and slap some water wings on the Humvees. It's time to go snorkeling for WMDs!

[mjah]

Bushco has it on good authority that al-Qaeda is using the Garbage Patch as training grounds for navigating the waterways of New York.

Fire up the spin machine, find some shady informants, rename the region Trashistan, and slap some water wings on the Humvees. It's time to go snorkeling for WMDs!

[hokie4redskins]

Why? Because you don't want to believe this either?

We're supposed to believe it because it's on the Internet? I'd like to see a satellite picture of a trash heap twice the size of Texas floating between Hawaii and San Francisco.