Wonder if this will have an impact on plastic straw bans on land. It was always a feel-good hi-viz, low-impact measure given little evidence behind the measures.
Siri, what is marginal utility?
Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
91–100 of 309 posts
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see people talking about reducing packaging. It was all about prohibiting shopping bags, and after that failed they got that turtle video and changed into prohibiting straws. What is doomed to fail again. You won't save the planet by focusing at the least effective, most demanding action one can do.
There's definitely a huge shift to reducing plastic packaging. Even large TVs now come packaged without polystyrene padding.
> There's definitely a huge shift to reducing plastic packaging.
On the consumer side. You now no longer see the packaging as it arrives to your house. Do an image search for Pallet Deliveries (I don't want to point fingers) and look at just how much plastic wrap comes on the "reduced waste" packaging, when it's delivered to your supermarket/department store. It's utterly astonishing.
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
So your proposal is what, New York City should somehow ban ocean fishing, instead of controlling plastic waste in it's jurisdiction?
i think banning ocean fishing would be a disaster actually. what we need is responsible fishing with proper management of the fishing nets (i.e. huge penalties for mismanaging/dumping/abandoning the fishing nets) also the elephant in the room is that an individual in the US has little to no control over huge sources of pollution apart from feel good activism (look at this! i'm using a paper straw! I saved 2 turtles t…
The individual in the US could choose to not purchase tuna.
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#94I've traveled the entire coastline of Vietnam and much of Cambodia. It is entirely covered in plastic trash. There is even plastic in all the rivers way up in the mountains. I can't imagine this just being Chinese ships.
Nobody in the comments read the article but all this is claiming is that land waste is a smaller percentage of deep sea plastic waste. It's still the vast majority of coastal waste
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#95Anyone that lives in a city next to a river/lake/sea knows that all the small pieces of trash on land end up in the water.
Yes, but "in the water" includes both shallow water near shore and deep water far out in the ocean. The OP is about one. You're talking about the other, which might not even be relevant, so the "anyone knows" condescension is misplaced.
What do you mean might not even be relevant?
Is there some hidden reason we should be focusing on deep sea plastics only?
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#96Most of this comes from a single type of ship waste: "Half of the great Pacific garbage patch is made up of fishing nets, by weight, according to a report published last year in Scientific Reports."
So the ocean is being overfished and is being polluted by fishing. The clear answer is to ban fishing. Though, as someone who dislikes all seafood, this is easy for me to say.
The ocean is interconnected commons though so nobody really has a whole domain over it.
Banning non-biodegradable nets and lines would be far more sensible and even that would have compliance issues.
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. It's pollution that we directly benefit from, it's not fair to think our countries are better at the protecting the environment when everything we buy is made there instead of having the dirty factories/industries in our own countries.
It's interesting seeing how the Right is changing it's rhetoric as public opinion changes. A few years ago it was "this isn't happening" now it's "these other people do it far worse than we do."
True, the right has been in outright denial of the facts, but the left has also been in denial about the contribution its policies have to the problem - they after all have been the cheerleaders for globalisation. No one is going to come out of this smelling of roses.
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#98Extensive air pollution from China or India that surpasses the West also doesn't seem to get much attention, e.g. [1] [2] Greta visited the US and gave some compelling speeches. Will she visit China and India and do the same? [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2018/07/01/china-emits-... [2] https://qz.com/india/1581665/indias-carbon-emissions-growing...
What aboutism is all well and good. But climate change is a much bigger planet wide threat compared to local air pollution in India and China, which mostly affects locals in India and China. On a per capita basis the western world, especially USA, contribute the most co2 emissions. So that is where the climate protests should start. And dumping all kinds of what aboutism criticisms on a 16 year old is not a good look…
Why are per capita statistics more important than total emissions? Are the glaciers going to reform because China also has a billion people? China produces more than double the raw amounts of CO2 than the USA. Though I am willing to shift some of the blame to countries who outsource their manufacturing to China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
And here you are creating a straw man argument. Reducing straws won’t “save the planet” on its own. We will improve the planet by doing multiple things. Reducing plastic use (less packaging, fewer straws, reusable shopping bags) all play a role in a much bigger effort.
I don't see people talking about reducing packaging. It was all about prohibiting shopping bags, and after that failed they got that turtle video and changed into prohibiting straws. What is doomed to fail again. You won't save the planet by focusing at the least effective, most demanding action one can do.
I don't know where you think that failed - I've seen an enormous transition away from plastic bags in the three cities I've lived in
Re: Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
#100I mean one thing does not take away from the other, it's necessary to stop wasting so many fish nets, AND reduce single-use plastics, AND fish less, etc. It's not OR it's AND.
This leads to reasoning like "it's fishing nets the actual issue, I might as well continue throwing a full trash can full of packages every 3 days".
It's not true, fishing nets is actually only 45%, the other 55% we can still work on that's a lot, it's the majority. Another way is to just stop eating fish.
In my local supermarket, if I want to buy 4 peaches they come in a plastic container wrapped in a transparent plastic sheet, not kidding.