> Items found included 115 drinking cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags and two flip-flops.
How many straws though?
Dead sperm whale found in Indonesia had ingested '6kg of plastic'
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Re: Dead sperm whale found in Indonesia had ingested '6kg of plastic'
#52> pieces of string (3.26kg)
Over half of it was string? Is this from fishing or something?
Re: Dead sperm whale found in Indonesia had ingested '6kg of plastic'
#53Over the past few months I have been trying to figure out a solution for environmental issues in developing countries (like India where I'm from). Conclusion is, because of the democracy, the change is not possible from inside, some external force has to be there. Here governments take decision for the short term because they have to please the common (& uneducated) men for the next election. Hence the agenda of envi…
At the bottom most level it really does boil down to education and awareness. One could argue they go hand in hand. Even in western nations being educated is not enough, you must be aware of your actions. This is why I always point at legislation as the most effective means of getting anything done. Lead by example through innovation, investment into sustainable tech, methods and living and pass legislation that does…
Coming from someone who agrees with supports environmental initiatives on e.g. plastic management and climate change, I always find it condescending and insensitive when people assume political differences will be resolved by "educating" the other side.
It's difficult to know how Indians would behave in an alternate universe where environmental awareness was a higher priority, but I don't find it hard to believe at all that an Indians (or Chinese, or Americans...) would knowingly pollute the environment even if they were aware of that effects. For developing countries especially, the economic gains of dirty industrialization are very attractive even despite the environmental costs. I could certainly understand many people in developing countries understanding both the benefits and the costs and going on to choose the same path that they're already on.
Re: Dead sperm whale found in Indonesia had ingested '6kg of plastic'
#54Just for comparison 6kg of plastic in a 60 ton animal is the same as 6g of plastic in a 60kg organism (or a little above one teaspoon of plastic ingested by a teenager).
If I cut your fingers from both hands is about 100g of your anatomy, but the distress for your life is enormous. Even being less than 0.1% of your body mass. So the question here is not about the toxicity vs. body mass. Is about the amount of material in your digestive system.
Re: Dead sperm whale found in Indonesia had ingested '6kg of plastic'
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I say all of this as a thought experiment. But: > Sad thing is, the vast majority of people are oblivious or flat out don't care. I mean, if we're making mental jumps to wiping out billions of people - I'd argue that, does it even matter? Ie, in your example human life largely doesn't matter. Human survival maybe, but clearly not billions of lives. I'm not saying this negatively either, just acknowledging what topic…
>So if we're throwing away cultural norms on what we consider valuable, such as human life, why even care about nature? Our species? Other species? The planet? We have no issue eradicating mold that enters our homes, bacterial infections, viruses but people don't hesitate to create 800,000 something tons of plastic a day that mostly ends up in the trash, we don't mind pumping 40 gigatons of carbon in the atmosphere,…
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Re: Dead sperm whale found in Indonesia had ingested '6kg of plastic'
#56Reasons to switch from oil based plastic to hemp oil based plastics.
Re: Dead sperm whale found in Indonesia had ingested '6kg of plastic'
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
82% of people who quote statistics get them wrong. From your article: > A recent study estimates that more than a quarter of all that waste could be pouring in from just 10 rivers, eight of them in Asia. The 93% stat relates to just rivers as a source of plastic pollution. > rivers collectively dump anywhere from 0.47 million to 2.75 million metric tons of plastic into the seas every year, depending on the data used…
You’re right about that article — however when looking at all marine plastic pollution, the countries responsible are the same: most notably China and South East Asia. https://www.wsj.com/articles/which-countries-create-the-most... https://www.statista.com/chart/12211/the-countries-polluting...
Claiming that China and South East Asia are "responsible" for all the plastic pollution they output is seriously misguided (no offense intended=) given that the region is "the plastic factory" for the whole world.
Re: Dead sperm whale found in Indonesia had ingested '6kg of plastic'
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Generally we measure how lethal something is by using an LD 50 that looks at mass of chemical per mass of body. There are exceptions to this, but as a first assumption it seems reasonable.
I don't think toxicity (LD 50) is relevant for plastic consumption. This sort of stuff packs into the gut and doesn't move or decompose. So the animal has to vomit it up or get surgery because it won't move down. I think the relevant comparison is ratio of pyloric sphincter between two species (the exit of the stomach). I'd be curious to know what that ratio is and it might be surprisingly close to one almost certain…
To the same extent, the weight or mass of the plastic may not be relevant as well. The shape, density, and strength of the plastic would probably matter much more than the weight.
Re: Dead sperm whale found in Indonesia had ingested '6kg of plastic'
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, it seemed a trivial quantity for such a large animal.
>Agreed, it seemed a trivial quantity for such a large animal. Go swallow 6 grams of plastic. Let me know how that works out for you.
To add to your point, a plastic grocery bag weighs in under 6 grams. I don't want that in my body.
Re: Dead sperm whale found in Indonesia had ingested '6kg of plastic'
#60Just for comparison 6kg of plastic in a 60 ton animal is the same as 6g of plastic in a 60kg organism (or a little above one teaspoon of plastic ingested by a teenager).
what are you saying...? that whatever toxicity of ingesting plastic is proportional across all living things by weight?
Plastic is effectively nontoxic. The hazard is mechanical (digestive blockages)