amazing, would be funny, liter? no nuclear submarine
Monitoring marine litter from space
81–90 of 91 posts
Re: Monitoring marine litter from space
#82The thought of this relentless deluge of plastic entering the seas is heartbreaking.
Re: Monitoring marine litter from space
#83One thing I find interesting is how much more traction the problem of litter in the ocean has gained, compared to litter everywhere else, or any number of the other problems we have. I wonder why this is. Perhaps people can still see the ocean as a wilderness, where litter doesn't belong, whereas we are very used to seeing highways etc lined with rubbish?
I think indeed the ocean is often seen as one of the last frontiers of untouched wilderness
Re: Monitoring marine litter from space
#84I wonder if this can discern for fishing nets pollution, called ghost nets, which entangle and ensnare marine animals. The scale of harm for these animals is unthinkable. Edit: the ghost nets come from ships. We need to pinpoint the “fishing vessels who continue to dump their old nets into the sea with impunity.” https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/plastic-problem/pla... .
Ghost nets are haunting reminders of human impact, silently ensnaring marine life and disrupting ocean ecosystems.
Re: Monitoring marine litter from space
#85I wonder if this can discern for fishing nets pollution, called ghost nets, which entangle and ensnare marine animals. The scale of harm for these animals is unthinkable. Edit: the ghost nets come from ships. We need to pinpoint the “fishing vessels who continue to dump their old nets into the sea with impunity.” https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/plastic-problem/pla... .
The scale of harm seems miniscule to me: it seems unlikely that discarded fishing nets would entangle more animals than when they're actually used to fish, and they're presumably used more than once before being discarded.
Re: Monitoring marine litter from space
#86Waste is a huge problem, clearly human made, clearly responsibility to address in every current generation. Cost of products sold must include recycling and waste management costs. Otherwise, the manufactures will keep making devices/items with built-in-obsolescence to make it 'fashionable' for consumers to replace them at the first opportunity.
When I buy packaged groceries I often decide whether I'll buy it again based on the packaging used. And I feel like from my perspective things are getting better slowly. Lots more paper where plastic used to be, good stuff. Now the other day I went to my ethnic neigborhood store that I usually only buy veggies from but this time I got some imported roti breads and good lord, the amount of plastic they use is just ins…
I’ve seen rotis sold in grocery stores and they look almost nothing like you’d typically get in the actual country they’re imported from. I wonder if the plastic is added on to appeal to our sensibilities?
Re: Monitoring marine litter from space
#87One thing I find interesting is how much more traction the problem of litter in the ocean has gained, compared to litter everywhere else, or any number of the other problems we have. I wonder why this is. Perhaps people can still see the ocean as a wilderness, where litter doesn't belong, whereas we are very used to seeing highways etc lined with rubbish?
Ocean trash has interests groups supporting it. Plenty of groups taking money to deal with it (or not) and part of that is to advertise the issue to ensure more money keeps coming into this industry. There is are no large international organizations or government efforts going out there to remove all the trash outside the more commercial or industrial parts of town, no ones buying ads about it, so its not in the publ…
None?
Ohio has a pretty well-established Adopt-a-Highway program that ultimately exists to help with removing litter, and it works mostly in places that are absolutely not "in town" at all.
It has been operating for decades and is advertised on signs alongside these highways.
Elsewhere in Ohio, I've seen ODOT employees picking up trash -- and I assure you that they aren't doing this [or anything else] for free.
(But the state of Ohio only maintains ~49,000 miles of roadways, so maybe none of this can combine to equal a "large effort".)
Re: Monitoring marine litter from space
#88One thing I find interesting is how much more traction the problem of litter in the ocean has gained, compared to litter everywhere else, or any number of the other problems we have. I wonder why this is. Perhaps people can still see the ocean as a wilderness, where litter doesn't belong, whereas we are very used to seeing highways etc lined with rubbish?
Most of the places I've lived, litter isn't much of an issue. There's certainly more than I'd like, but you've got to go looking for it other than around overflowing public trash cans and such. Vegetation near highways has a pretty high carrying capacity for litter, too.
I've visited places where it's much worse. And have heard it used to be very commonly a lot worse throughout the US. But anti-littering campaigns with slogans such as Don't Mess With Texas and Litter and It Will Hurt and penalties seem to have had at least reasonable success.
Re: Monitoring marine litter from space
#89It's good to see how to track it, but what's more important is knowing how to clean it up. Additionally, dumping nuclear wastewater might pose an even greater threat.
Re: Monitoring marine litter from space
#90it does take a non-profit effort to be able to monitor the seas. iirc most image satellites make trips on land masses and the seas and oceans are just approximated in commercial settings.