Great Pacific Garbage Patch - bigger by 25 million tons since March.

You think THIS PATCH is bad in the middle of nowhere ocean?

HOW ABOUT THE INDIAN PEOPLE on the ganges river>>?!!



Dead bodies floating, raw sewage pumping directly in, people bath, eat, and drink out of this!!

GET A GRIP!

You people pick and choose what you care about, you don't really give a damn!!

Originally posted by Human0815
Many People try to develop a System to harvest all this Stuff,
there are very huge amounts of Money, floating in the Oceans
and the first one get the biggest part of it!

Who says the profit motive is always a bad thing? But really, I'm pretty sure that one way or the other, it will become increasingly more cost-efficient to re-process petro-chemical based polymers than to produce new plastic. When that happens, we will see harvesting trawlers out there in the Pacific.

Who knows? Maybe the folks who do hop on this opportunity will re-purpose the same trash barges used to dump the **** there in the first place.

Originally posted by hillynilly
You think THIS PATCH is bad in the middle of nowhere ocean?

HOW ABOUT THE INDIAN PEOPLE on the ganges river>>?!!

Dead bodies floating, raw sewage pumping directly in, people bath, eat, and drink out of this!!

GET A GRIP!

You people pick and choose what you care about, you don't really give a damn!!

That is also a terrible situation.

Unfortunately, no has compiled a 200-pg super thread on all the awful ways humans eff around with the water supply.

Most people do care, it just doesn't serve much purpose to try and address everything that's wrong all on one thread. And do most people prioritize what they care about? Absolutely. We couldn't function if we cared about all the awfulness with the same intensity.

Start a Ganges thread, dude, I'll contribute.

The Ganges is not really a problem, everything is organic there
and feed the whole Ganga Vally!

The Ganges not even smell bad,
i know this sounds crazy but is a fact!

Varanasi is typical India, so don't worry.

But that Stuff in the Wheel is dangerous because it get so small
that the Fishes think this is Food.

There is a 90min Documentary about it,
but i forgot the name, sorry!

We can't even take care of our own bodies, people have forgot what's important... As above so below. As our bodies die out due to lack of attention, the earth will also deteriorate right along with us.

reply to post by Human0815

Originally posted by Human0815

Many People try to develop a System to harvest all this Stuff,
there are very huge amounts of Money, floating in the Oceans
and the first one get the biggest part of it!

I just stumbled upon this article, and have not looked into it too much, but just wanted to share. It is from July 2010, so I don't know if they have made any progress, or if they have decided against it. It is an interesting idea, nonetheless.

Netherlands-based Whim Architecture has proposed a plan to build an island the size of Hawaii made entirely from plastic waste. The man-made habitat would use the 44 million kilos of plastic waste floating in the Pacific Ocean as its raw material.

Plastic Island, The Future?
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c76f46bf18f2.jpg[/atsimg]

[color=CFECEC]According to the company, the Recycled Island project has three goals: “Cleaning our oceans of a gigantic amount of plastic waste, creating new land, and constructing a sustainable habitat.”

[color=CFECEC]“The ocean has become our biggest dump. Because of the circular currents, these plastics will never reach land and will stay in the ocean forever,” added Whim Architecture.

DAMN US HUMANS!

Why are most of us so ignorant from bliss that we do not see our faults and the evils we have created?

It does not surprise me that this garbage patch is killing the already sparse marine life we have left (another ocean killer- the fishing industry).

When will this stop? When do we reach critical levels where it will be too late to go back? Fascism extends well beyond the land it seems

Originally posted by TheOneYouFearIsRight
Why don't we nuke it?

I am being serious... Nuke it.

Vaporize the thing. Poof.

If the heat from the blast melts all of that plastic, then even better... we have a SOLID floating island. I would pay for a boat ticket to go stand on something like that!

This all being said, are there any actual pictures of this thing?

I think that is what North Korea did when they were testing their nuclear weapons.

I blame tsunamis man, its basically the ocean leaping out and stealing our stuff. Forget the war on terror, war on drugs... nahhh, we need a war against the ocean to reclaim what is rightfully ours and implement democracy.

Here's a video I found that I thought others may be interested in.

Inside the Plastic Vortex
Scripps Institution of Oceanograpy/UC San Diego

A groundbreaking Scripps voyage led by students helps define a rising environmental threat.

Peace,

-AS-

Originally posted by Sek82
And this will surely have to be addressed at some point in time in the near future. I don't want to be the one that has to go out there and police all of that up somehow, but we will have to do it. Perhaps if we could reallocate some of the money we are spending on pointless wars, and aid to nations that have wronged us in the past, we could put together some sort of co-op mission to clean it up.

Oh wait. We rather go drop bombs and destroy things instead.

So anyway, what're your thoughts on this CeeRZ?

I'm sure seeing such a flotsam island in person must be heartbreaking if one were to care at all about the condition of our planet, and may even conjure up images/thoughts of the movie Idiocracy.

But in the end, Earth will have the final word, and shrug us off when it so chooses, again.

I haven't personally seen this. I live in Utah... no oceans to be found and our ground (not air) pollution rate is decent (probably because we have a massive uninhabitable desert to dump into). I can't say I even know how this has personally affected me. However it makes me sick none-the-less. I had the same question as everyone else about why it wasn't being taken care of.... and bingo - Money. Here is the article I found about it.

If you've spent much time reading about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, you might have started wondering why we aren't out there cleaning it up. Well, barely scratch the surface of that thought and you'll see why. It's a massive effort, and would require some massive carbon emissions from fossil fuel-powered boats and equipment to accomplish it. Plus, it's expensive as all get out. But these issues are being waved aside by scientists who are launching an expedition to see just how possible it is to clean up the floating dump.

Charles Moore, one of our favorite ocean advocates and discoverer of the patch, though, says it's a mission impossible.

From the Times:
Scientists and conservationists on the expedition will begin attempts to retrieve and recycle a monument to throwaway living in the middle of the North Pacific.
“Trying to clean up the Pacific gyre would bankrupt any country and kill wildlife in the nets as it went,” [says Moore].

In June the 151ft brigantine Kaisei (Japanese for Planet Ocean) will unfurl its sails in San Francisco to try to prove Mr Moore wrong. Project Kaisei’s flagship will be joined by a decommissioned fishing trawler armed with specialised nets.

The expedition is supported by Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Brita, which will use unmanned aircraft and robotic surface explorers to explore exactly how big and how deep the vortex is, as well as collect as much as 40 tons of junk as a test for the possibility of cleaning up and recycling the spiraling soup of death into fuel for the vessels.

Project Kaisei's Mission:
Project Kaisei consists of a team of innovators, ocean lovers, sailors, scientists, sports enthusiasts and environmentalists who have come together with a common purpose. To study how to capture plastic waste in the ocean and how to capture, detoxify and recycle it into diesel fuel. This first research Mission, scheduled for the summer of 2009, will be critical to understanding the logistics that will be needed to make a successful clean-up operation possible as some of the technology required for such a feat has never been utilised under oceanic conditions.
The patch is already getting great attention, complete with celebs like David de Rothschild making a trek out to it and highly publicized Earthrace's record-setting trip being slowed down by it. This effort will bring even more needed attention.

If the mission is counted as successful, we'll see more clean-up efforts with larger fleets in 2010. We'll be cheering on the scientists, though we'll also be keeping one foot in reality and acknowledge that this is a really, really big undertaking.

Of course, not all plastic floats. In fact around 70 percent of discarded plastic sinks to the bottom. In the North Sea, Dutch scientists have counted around 110 pieces of litter for every square kilometre of the seabed, a staggering 600,000 tonnes in the North Sea alone. These plastics can smother the sea bottom and kill the marine life which is found there.

The issue of plastic debris is one that needs to be urgently addressed.At the personal level we can all contribute by avoiding plastics in the things we buy and by disposing of our waste responsibly. Obviously though, there is a need to make ship owners and operators, offshore platforms and fishing boat operators more aware of the consequences of irresponsible disposal of plastic items.

But this was back in 2009 and 2010.... and I can't find anything at all updating the cleanup projects. Not even Greenpeace has anything beyond this... and yet it's still growing... It's like all of a sudden, no one cares anymore...

Originally posted by ThisIsMyName
I blame tsunamis man, its basically the ocean leaping out and stealing our stuff. Forget the war on terror, war on drugs... nahhh, we need a war against the ocean to reclaim what is rightfully ours and implement democracy.

www.usnews.com...

What do you think they are doing with it???

Out of sight, out of mind.

reply to post by dawnstar


yes indeed. in the next year or two we will be seeing that thing grow to enormous sizes due to all the left over flotsam from japan. and a lot of it is also suspect to reach our shores.

the bad part is, there's no natural predator for the northern pacific gyre. its just going to keep on growing.

reply to post by AeonStorm


That was a great video, thank you for finding that!

that floating mess should be seeded with mangroves, all those roots will hold it to-gether, eventually it will become firm enough to settle it with all the dregs of society, a new Australia (Sorry Australia, no insult intended).

reply to post by pikestaff
That's actually a pretty damn good idea. Stick all the child molesters out there.

Bad ideas about turning the garbage patch into an island IMO.
No offense,but as that amount of plastic and other compounds floats,it gradually breaks down and enters the food chain.
Not a good base for an island-as its always decaying,and certainly not good for the food chain.

Someone said nuke it...Hmm no need to create further radiation I think-why not just a MOAB or FOAB(the Russian version).
These giant fuel air explosives could be used at high altitude,enough to melt just the top couple of metres of this garbage patch.
The whole melted lump could then be towed to shore over a year or so by many huge ships,where it would be dealt with/recycled.

The media could jump on the event as the "Saviour of the Oceans" or something.
Thats what I think should be done anyhow..
just my 2 cents.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse
You're right, of course. I got swept up in the idea of it.

Originally posted by Silcone Synapse
Bad ideas about turning the garbage patch into an island IMO.
No offense,but as that amount of plastic and other compounds floats,it gradually breaks down and enters the food chain.
Not a good base for an island-as its always decaying,and certainly not good for the food chain.

Someone said nuke it...Hmm no need to create further radiation I think-why not just a MOAB or FOAB(the Russian version).
These giant fuel air explosives could be used at high altitude,enough to melt just the top couple of metres of this garbage patch.
The whole melted lump could then be towed to shore over a year or so by many huge ships,where it would be dealt with/recycled.

The media could jump on the event as the "Saviour of the Oceans" or something.
Thats what I think should be done anyhow..
just my 2 cents.

I think I am seriously on the right track with the melt it/vaporize it idea.

Vaporize it and it is gone.

Melt it, and you can either tow it as a solid or climb on board and surf on the thing.

Originally posted by Human0815
Many People try to develop a System to harvest all this Stuff,
there are very huge amounts of Money, floating in the Oceans
and the first one get the biggest part of it!

Capitalism to the rescue. Environmentalists would force us to spend money we don't have to clean this up. Capitalists will spend their own money and make a profit while doing it.

Awesome!

reply to post by B.Morrison


What a funny video. Animals eating the crap, just another proof there's no intelligence with animals and they're completely stupid

It's not good to put all this junk out there, but i think at the moment we have a lore more and bigger problems, because so far thise garbage doesn't affect us really.