Plastic 'toxic soup' bigger than US., page 1

According to one sailor, there is an ocean filled with our plastic waste that exceeds the size of the continental United States.

Described as being twice the size of the US, the 'Great Pacific garbage patch' was discovered by Charles Moore, an oceanographer in 1997.
After sailing for day after day and seeing nothing but plastic floating on the surface, estimates of over 100 million tonnes of plastic in the seas are now emerging.

there is about 100 million tons of debris floating, drifting, and swirling in the Pacific Ocean approximately 500 miles off the coast of California, stretching past the Hawaiian Islands, and extending almost to Japan.

Translucent, it lies just below the surface of the ocean and is undetected by satellite photography. The only way it can be seen is by ships sailing through it.

Plastics as old as 50 years have been recovered from the ocean. Approximately one-fifth of the plastic soup comes from trash discarded from ships and oil platforms. The remaining four-fifths come from land. It is estimated that plastic makes up 90% of all refuse floating in the ocean and the UN Environment Programme estimated recently that each square mile of ocean water contains 46,000 pieces of floating garbage.

www.naturalnews.com...

This plastic soup will of course break down in time and end up in the food chain. I can only imagine what effects this will and is having on us right now.
I dread to think of the amount of ocean going wildlife that has been killed by our disposal methods and our 'advancements'.

Like a lot of other things we take for granted, the overall outcome of using new materials and technologies is not fully tested and theorised before it is let loose onto the markets for public use. Plastic was a revolution for lots of people, yet it is now becoming one of our most hated products.

The same type of thing came from asbestos. Great for buildings and ships and many other uses, yet completely hazardous to all living things.

The greatest problem is having the time to do a full scale investigation into all new products.

Asbestos must be disposed of properly.. where?
In the ground by all accounts. The seas seem to be the right place for plastics it would appear.

Either way, we are seriously damaging any future for this planet, its wildlife and ourselves.

There's actually quite a lot of reports on this on the net.

This one ask Why is the worlds largest landfill in the Pacific ocean?.

and if it's pictures you want, then i've found a few showing the impact a bit clearer.

www.treehugger.com...


www.johnbutlertrio.com...


There's a rather "in-depth" (excuse the pun) report on this site;
www.cdnn.info...

And on a recycling note...

" The highest point in Ohio is "Mount Rumpke," which is actually a mountain of trash at the Rumpke sanitary landfill!"

www.greentechnolog.com...


crusader2007-youngblood.blogspot.com...

Plague of Plastic Chokes the Seas
On Midway Atoll, 40% of albatross chicks die, their bellies full of trash.
Swirling masses of drifting debris pollute remote beaches and snare wildlife.
KENNETH R WEISS / Los Angeles Times 2aug2006

www.mindfully.org...

If all that's not enough, then how about something closer to 'home'??
Reality bites...

Could We Handle Real Reality on TV?

blogs.salon.com...

Good post, I posted something on this a while ago...didn't get much interest then, but glad to see this issue still in the news.

Related link:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Trance Optic

---

I think the reason they said it was impossible was because the amount of trash they could physically remove in a certain amount of time would be replaced by new trash. So basically they would get nowhere. Maybe they could keep it from growing any larger, but that's about it.

Peace

Originally posted by Dr Love
reply to post by Trance Optic

---

I think the reason they said it was impossible was because the amount of trash they could physically remove in a certain amount of time would be replaced by new trash. So basically they would get nowhere. Maybe they could keep it from growing any larger, but that's about it.

It might be impossible to clean it up completely, but if a profitable means of harvesting the flotsam could be found, it would at least fuel an industry and put these materials back into the recycling chain.

Almost everything that humans do on this planet it impossible, when you really think about it.

We fly about in gigantic machines, extract oil with deep sea drilling platforms, bounce signals off man-made satellites that can tell where we are to within a few meters, visit the moon, send robots to Mars, turn sewage into drinking water, etc.

reply to post by Dr Love

---

Perhaps it's more of a black eye for humanity and what we're making of this place.


Peace.

reply to post by an0maly33

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Originally posted by an0maly33
"can't we just have any ships that happen to sail through those areas cast a net and at least fill up that net once? it wouldn't be much added cargo and it could be disposed of a little bit at a time. it would take a while, but i wold argue that it's better than nothing."

After reading some of the articles apparently ships do not regularly pass through this region.


[edit on 11-3-2008 by 2 cents]

[edit on 11-3-2008 by 2 cents]

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