Relevant: George Carlin - Saving the Planet
A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the Arctic
11–20 of 83 posts
Re: A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the Arctic
#12We're continually creating our own demise. As much as technology has been intended to extend our life, it's more often just used to extend someone's wallet, and trash everything else.
As hard as it seems to acknowledge, but i think you are right. Greed and individual(or corporate) growths always had the biggest influence on the planet. We are indeed doomed should this trend continue. I see no signs this trend will stop.
I think it's less greed and more simple population growth. These technologies were invented in the name of efficiency. We all have a bit of the burden to share here.
For example, fishing line. What would happen if we banned this? I think there might be dire consequences for cultures that depend on seafood for sustenance.
Re: A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the Arctic
#13I think when people imagine these "garbage patches" they picture a floating garbage dump you could set a lawn chair on. The reality is that they are regions of slightly increased concentration of plastic. Here, the worst areas are between 100-500 grams of plastic per square kilometer. That is 5 empty water bottles in a square kilometer. This doesn't mean that having this debris is a good thing but it's important to g…
I mean, even when put in the terms of 5 empty waterbottles per square kilometer is still an astounding amount of pollution.
Re: A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the Arctic
#14On the plus side: covering the ocean with white plastic garbage will reflect solar radiation and thus combat global warming. In fact we should be dumping as many plastic bags and styrofoam cups in the ocean as possible, as well as producing billions of white plastic buoys and just dumping them in the ocean.
There are definitely no possible downsides or unintended consequences to this idea.
Re: A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the Arctic
#15I think when people imagine these "garbage patches" they picture a floating garbage dump you could set a lawn chair on. The reality is that they are regions of slightly increased concentration of plastic. Here, the worst areas are between 100-500 grams of plastic per square kilometer. That is 5 empty water bottles in a square kilometer. This doesn't mean that having this debris is a good thing but it's important to g…
200,000 pieces per square kilometer in the North Atlantic garbage patch.
4 particles per cubic meter in the Great Pacific garbage patch.
Re: A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the Arctic
#16I think when people imagine these "garbage patches" they picture a floating garbage dump you could set a lawn chair on. The reality is that they are regions of slightly increased concentration of plastic. Here, the worst areas are between 100-500 grams of plastic per square kilometer. That is 5 empty water bottles in a square kilometer. This doesn't mean that having this debris is a good thing but it's important to g…
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Re: A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the Arctic
#17I think when people imagine these "garbage patches" they picture a floating garbage dump you could set a lawn chair on. The reality is that they are regions of slightly increased concentration of plastic. Here, the worst areas are between 100-500 grams of plastic per square kilometer. That is 5 empty water bottles in a square kilometer. This doesn't mean that having this debris is a good thing but it's important to g…
Exactly right. I skimmed the link looking for photos of trash island until I thought critically about it. Especially embarrassing as I majored in geography and remote sensing and know exactly what these studies are like :)
Re: A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the Arctic
#18Let's talk personal responsibility and what we can change.
What percent of readers of this site drank water from a plastic bottle in the past, say, 24 hours? ... in places with potable tap water making bottles unnecessary... Or nalgene containers... Or soda, juice, etc in bottles...
I recycle what I can, but I've taken to treating recyclables as landfill garbage, since most of it ends up there, which means I avoid consuming it as much as practicable. The more I do it, the easier I find consuming less without any loss of happiness.
Actually, less stuff has increased my happiness.
Someone will inevitably write that consuming less won't make much difference. Well, why not do it to improve your life anyway?
Re: A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the Arctic
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
As hard as it seems to acknowledge, but i think you are right. Greed and individual(or corporate) growths always had the biggest influence on the planet. We are indeed doomed should this trend continue. I see no signs this trend will stop.
I think it's less greed and more simple population growth. These technologies were invented in the name of efficiency. We all have a bit of the burden to share here. For example, fishing line. What would happen if we banned this? I think there might be dire consequences for cultures that depend on seafood for sustenance.
Was it solely population growth that led oil concerns to hide their own research into greenhouse gases and also fund research to undermine efforts to restrict emissions?
Re: A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the Arctic
#20I visited the beautiful pacific recently and even on very remote tropical islands there were plastic bottles in the water and on the beaches everywhere. Very sad - hopefully one day the world will come to see plastic as the scourge that it is.
I read a whole lot of posts by a Russian world traveling photo-blogger a few years back, and one of a few consistent themes was that most remote Pacific islands kinda look like garbage dumps, if anyone lives on them. Others included: former French colonies are usually way worse off than former British colonies, and that the US (and Australia a bit, though less) has like 100x as many posted instructions and regulation…
> US (and Australia a bit, though less) has like 100x as many posted instructions and regulations as anywhere else.
I'm guessing he did not visit Japan then.