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Ocean Cleanup Project Completes Great Pacific Garbage Patch Research Expedition
hypnosec writes: The reconnaissance mission of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, dubbed the Mega Expedition by Ocean Clean, has been concluded. The large-scale cleanup of the area is set to begin in 2020. The primary goal of the Mega Expedition was to accurately determine how much plastic is floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This was the first time large pieces of plastic, such as ghost nets and Japanese tsunami debris, have been quantified. “I’ve studied plastic in all the world’s oceans, but never seen any area as polluted as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” said Dr. Julia Reisser, Lead Oceanographer at The Ocean Cleanup. “With every trawl we completed, thousands of miles from land, we just found lots and lots of plastic.”
"Ocean Cleanup Project..."
:D"
:D :D :D"
...
...
- "Was about time. Good news!"
"...Completes..."
- "Already done?!. Great news!
"...Great Pacific Garbage..."
- "OMAIGOD!
"...Patch Research Expedition..."
*deadpan*
What is this idea that we can only work on the biggest problem? Yes there are bigger problems, should we all move to Syria to solve that problem?
Ocean debris is a huge problem, it kills lots of animals suffering a painful and unnecessary death.
Even more so, this project can pay for itself, the plastic can be sold for recycling.
If you're worried about people wasting their time, go to a weapons manufacturer or a church, don't bs people who are actually trying to make the world a better place.
Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
Actually the developed world tends to ship their garbage to these parts of the world, and then pretends to be surprised when it ends up in the ocean.
If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
See The Five Gyres
They claim to have found a way to clean it up in ten years or less. I'm skeptical, but if it works, great!
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
"Completes Great Pacific Garbage Patch Research Expedition"
Go back to doing nothing about any problem. Like you were before hearing about people doing something about this one.
And the problem in both cases is capitalism, rather than giving according to need. There are enough people in the world and enough technology has been created that we can do fine with people who enjoy the challenge, and don't need those motivated by shiny trinkets. Rendering most people economically redundant is inevitable, and only the question of how painfully we do this remains.
As a liberal I'm all for the cleanup effort, but as a Jim Henson fan, I'm a bit sad.
It is also a habit for a lot of marine species and might hold the solution for plastic trash handling as bacteria have started to find way to eat it away. Like all thing natural, problems are really opportunity and go away by itself. Also, remember when wood used to piling up everywhere because cellulose would not biodegrade? Eventually bacteria and fungus found a way to eat it, the sun could be seen again, and it turn out that wood is a useful resource for many animals inhabiting the planet.
The oceans produce 70% of the oxygen on this planet. A huge portion of those "worrying about their next meal" depend on ocean ecosystems for that meal. And most of that plastic is produced by the first world, not the third.
And you know, they're also capable of speaking for themselves. You, a first-worlder, have food security. So what's your excuse for not using your privilege and means to do something about this problem?
I don't know about the recycling part...much of this plastic has been degraded by UV so badly it's past the point of recycling. We still need to clean this up though.
Trash is an habitat for a lot of marine species? Thank god we're around, otherwise hermit crabs would be facing extinction.
And which bacteria are eating extremely high molecular weight polymers? The ones you dream about, certainly.
Stop vomiting stupid arguments. Trash, kills more animals (stuffing their stomachs, preventing them from breathing, etc.) than the few it helps. Sure, sunken boats may be awesome for marine wildlife, but it's not like there wasn't any wildlife around before we overfished it. And bacteria don't eat plastic. They may, at best, eat the microscopic pieces into which plastic broken down after years on the sun and being ground around against sand, rocks, or other debris. And even that is very up to debate. Just because they eat oil, it doesn't mean they'll eat a thousand times longer chain which has a totally different chemical structure. And yes, I'm a chemist.
Ironically, there's the possibility that removing the trash could pay for itself and then some. Plastics floating in the ocean tend to slowly intercalate metals - the types and quantities depending on the plastic and the rate depending on the surface area to volume ratio (very high for most pacific garbage patch trash). Plastic trash that's been floating around for a long time tends to become quite contaminated by these metals (as well as some types of persistent biological toxins), making it much more toxic to sea life than new plastic. But these same metal "contamination" problems could make the waste a potential resource back on land. Intercalated metals can be stripped out by a soak in a strong acid bath. And the ratios of metals found in the oceans are very different than those found on land, with some, such as uranium and lithium, being orders of magnitude more common than they are on land.
Stale pastry is hollow succor to one who is bereft of ostrich.
Yeah, great habitat there....
Stale pastry is hollow succor to one who is bereft of ostrich.
Have BP do it.
They'll just spill some oil, accidentally torch it and in a few months it will all be gone.
with a teaspoon while the water is on full blast. Plastic needs to be stopped at the source otherwise companies/organizations like Ocean Cleanup Project are just making well paying jobs for their "non-profit" organization. I'm just going to call it what it is, a sham. Don't believe me, read what other scientists think. Frankly it might do more harm than good in that people will perceive the problem over and continue to use plastic with reckless abandon. When the reality is that there is microscopic plastic soup that exists 10m from the surface ocean that the Ocean Cleanup Project does not address. There are very few actual independent scientists or any conservation organizations that are for this group. Yet the media still keeps hyping it up--I guess maybe to assuage their guilt of using plastic. I don't know.
There are a lot of birds, turtles and fish killed by plastic debris.
But the bird carcass filled with plastic in the first seconds of the video is very suspicious.
That amount of plastic does not fit in its digestive system and a much smaller amount would kill the bird.
Be careful, this may hurt your cause.
Let's take these two statements.
You can't build a 3000 km wall across the US southern border.
You can't build a system to clean up the garbage patch with a circumference of 3000 km.
It's interesting that people will agree with only one.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
I have never heard a 'leftist' say anything like that. I'm pretty left-wing, and we're fully up for dealing with things big and small. Mind you I am British, and left-wingers over here are actually fucking left wing; there's almost nobody in the USA who isn't to the right of our centre.
But if that is an 'example', is there a citation?
"we just found lots and lots of plastic"
These guys sound really sciencey. Couldn't they give their measurements in layman terms?
If I had a DeLorean... I would probably only drive it from time to time.
I know your ravenous hatred blinds you, but churches have had the most success in making the world a better place. Most hospitals and universities were started by churches. Churches care about addicts, unwed mothers and many other people that the world throws away. Just because they are against the things YOU like to do (which are probably contributing to making the world a worse place) doesn't make them a waste of time.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Intercalated metals can be stripped out by a soak in a strong acid bath.
OK, say that you gathered a lot of plastic and got it on land. Would this actually be cost effective?
How much metal can one expect to get from a ton of plastic and what is the cost of the process?
Without really knowing the answers and just speculating about the work needed to extract the metals it sounds to me that it's not something you will make a profit from.
And while we're at it, why don't we also stop burning fossil fuels, quit using man made chemicals in agriculture, and stop worldwide violence. I think all those ideas are much more obtainable than stop using plastics.
Actually, comments like yours are the kind of "media hype" they've been getting... It seems to consist of more unsupported criticism than anything else. And more to the point, all the criticisms have been soundly addressed, in a nice convenient list, LAST YEAR:
http://www.theoceancleanup.com...
You'll find a lot of the crap you're spouting is already in there, and already debunked.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
It's because we've been told over and over by leftists
No you haven't.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
"The damn thing won't fly."
Ocean Cleanup Project addressed these issues. But don't let that stop your standard libertarian slashdot cosplay engineer hard guy act.
I know your ravenous hatred blinds you, but churches have had the most success in making the world a better place. Most hospitals and universities were started by churches. Churches care about addicts, unwed mothers and many other people that the world throws away.
Some churches have indeed cared, many others have only hated and shamed "addicts, unwed mothers and many other people that the world throws away" at the same time scamming poor people out of their last dollar.
The truly funny thing is there appears no correlation between following the philosophy of a 2000 year old Jewish heretic and religiosity. But don't tell that to most agnostics or atheists, lest they take offense.
Here in the U.S. we have a problem with our immigration system - this is something everyone involved (Left and Right) agrees is a problem.
In the past the right has proposed incremental changes to the immigration system, only to be shut down by the Left's insistence that we need 'Comprehensive' immigration reform, not small, piecemeal changes around the edges...
We can't enforce e-verify, because we need comprehensive reform.
We can't secure the border, because we need comprehensive reform.
We can't deport illegals, because we need comprehensive reform.
Etc.
We have seen this same tactic play out in tax code reform and in the case of healthcare the Left got their way and rammed thru 'comprehensive' reform legislation that was so broad in it's scope that we are still struggling to implement the majority of it's changes - this has left many to be skeptical of 'comprehensive' reform measures.
Ken
Wasn't there a Garbage Patch craze a while back?
Their project hopes to recover eleventeen metric shittonnes of plastic and a few billion $.
Without really knowing the answers
Without knowing the answers one conducts research to find out the details to know the answers. There already have been some studies about how plastic trash accumulates metals, although not of the ocean's more valuable metals. In the above-linked articles, some very rough calculations are run for different potential recovery rates of different metals and what their market value would be. There's lots of caveats, though.
Stale pastry is hollow succor to one who is bereft of ostrich.
We already had that talk. And also probably some other civilization before us. Last time it was about poverty and space exploration.
You don't tackle the main problem: it's a useful tactic in certain fields, and in defined situations. For real life, things are much more interrelated and you have to tackle many problems at once.
For the possible benefits, I strongly recommend viewing the ancient but nonetheless very enlightening "Connections" series by James Burke.
In short words, solving some secondary problems speeds up the solution of the main ones. And conversely, not solving them makes solving the main problems a lot more difficult.
But please do remind us of the more pressing questions -- you might find other people who want to solve these, too.
Your religious delusions are showing. It makes anyone outside your cult seem hateful to you, when really they just see through your absurd, archaic beliefs.
There is also no correlation between the secular do good left, and love. Rather than expressing any love, the left just hates those who do not have the proper left leaning enlightened view. In this respect the Secular Left and the hard core holier than though Christian right, have a lot in common. They both hate those inferior individuals who are not down with their program. They just differ on whom they consider evil. (both know it is the other guy).
Hate is a universal part of humanity. If humans can't hate they would not be human. You love those that are a part of your group and hate all others. The only way to eliminate hate is to create another strong enemy outside the human race, that wants to kill us. If you do that people will universally treat each other with kindness and civility. But the absence of an enemy causes people to turn inward and find enemies of their fellow humans( not really fellow, because those others are evil, racist, communist, Nazi, child rapist, white people, who eat dogs and killed bambi )
"when there are people going hungry in Iraq!"
Iraqis and Syrians are going to Hungary,
and The Czech Republic, and other EU countries
People need stuff to live, and want stuff to live pleasantly. This is half the basis of the economy (the other half being supply), and by the very fact of being human, people cannot be "economically redundant".
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
In the past the right has proposed incremental changes to the immigration system
You mean incremental changes like self deportation, building a huge wall, etc? Yeah, let's not pretend the US political right has been anything remotely resembling rational about this issue - not to mention routinely racist (see Trump). Their general stance has largely been one of xenophobic hysteria with a complete disregard for why the problem exists in the first place or the economic consequences of their stance on the issue. Let's also not ignore the fact that most illegal immigrants coming into the US are Hispanic/Latino and that the Hispanic/Latino citizens eligible to vote tend to vote democrat and they (mostly) oppose the policies espoused by the US political right. The republicans will need the Hispanic vote but they keep shooting themselves in the foot on the issue.
Furthermore we DO need comprehensive immigration reform. The problem is that the left and right disagree on what the reforms should be and there hasn't been much willingness to compromise on the issue from either side.
People are coming to the US because there is economic opportunity. If there is economic opportunity where they are coming from then there is little reason for them to come. Want to solve the illegal immigration problem? Help Mexico and Central America build up their economy and it will (mostly) magically disappear. But illegal immigration is NOT what you should worry about. What you should worry about is if they stop trying to come to the US. That means economic opportunity has gone elsewhere.
I know your ravenous hatred blinds you, but churches have had the most success in making the world a better place.
I would say exactly the opposite. Organized religion is the foundation of countless wars, conflict and suffering. Organized religion is nothing more than a cynical means of controlling people and exercising power via irrational and unproveable beliefs. The fact that they do some charitable works does not begin to excuse the harm humanity has suffered because of the tribalism that results from organized religion. I don't care at all if people want to believe in some bizarre ideas of their own but they should keep them to themselves, particularly around children. I have a huge problem with people who think we should base public policy on their religion and who think I should have to share their weird ideas sometimes literally at gunpoint.
Most hospitals and universities were started by churches.
Demonstrably not true on both counts. Certainly plenty of hospitals were started by churches but demonstrably not the majority. 20% of hospitals in the US have a religious affiliation and the majority of those are catholic institutions. And most universities have largely secular origins if you actually bother to look. Furthermore these charitable acts by churches are anything but altruistic. They are nothing more than a thinly veiled marketing effort. They have the clear ulterior motive of proselytizing in order to swell the ranks of their tribe. It is usually a soft sell but it is a sell nonetheless.
Churches care about addicts, unwed mothers and many other people that the world throws away.
So do plenty of secular organizations. And the secular organizations don't do so with the ulterior motive of trying to convert people to join their superstitious cult exactly at the time when those people are most vulnerable.
The issue with the Mexican and most Central American economies is graft and corruption at the Governmental level.
As if those things don't exist in the US....
Short of overthrowing those Governments - there's not a lot we can do other than what we've done (open markets - NAFTA).
Not even remotely true that we have done everything we can. Our relationships with countries to our south is anything but friendly or productive. A lot of those countries don't like us at all because our policies do nothing to help them.
Maybe we should try better border enforcement and encourage the local populace to institute change at home, rather than run away...
You can build the walls as high as you want and it WON'T MATTER. If there is money to be made they will keep coming. And frankly spending vast resources policing the border is hugely wasteful and will never solve the problem. They're ALREADY HERE in vast numbers. We have a far larger and less policed border with Canada and guess what? Canada is prosperous so there is no meaningful immigration problem. But the folks south of our border aren't white and don't speak English so we aren't so willing to help them.
As for encouraging the immigrants home countries to institute change is exactly what I suggested. You have to help them build their economies which in turn will spur changes. Right now the US trade policies are anything but helpful or friendly.
Would you people stop confusing the populist center-right Democratic Party with 'leftists' please. They are nothing of the sort. Leftists believe illegal immigration is a major problem that needs to be stopped, and that it can be stopped by jailing people who employ them. Leftists believe the reason none of the American political parties want anything but 'amnesty' is because corporate America loves illegal immigration. It suppresses wage growth and ensures a constant supply of destitute, disenfranchised people who will work in deplorable conditions for almost nothing.
You probably think that because you're a conservative Libertarian, which means you don't believe in doing anything about anything if it doesn't make somebody a dollar. The Ferengi were invented to parody you guys.
I have for many years and continue to avoid plastic as much as humanly possible, and you know what? For all the not using plastic bags, buying goods not packaged in plastic etc etc, I have barely touched the volume of plastic used to support my life.
You know those precious few goods you can find in shops that aren't packed in plastic? They come in on a crate wrapped in miles of plastic wrap to keep them waterproof (because, you know, keeping them out of the rain and factoring in a small fraction of losses is apparently just too hard).
All those energy efficient long life bulbs? Needlessly packed in tough plastic shells and shrink-wrapped in plastic when a simple corrugated cardboard tube would do the job just fine *and* be genuinely environmentally friendly.
And don't forget the apparent need for any tech to come in a package 10x larger than the device itself, often as not with parts kept in their own little plastic bags, superfluous plastic boxy bits and the obligatory plastic shrink wrapping.
So yeah, I agree that we need to cut off the source of all the plastic waste, but until we can stop companies that appear to be competing to see who can use the most plastic I don't hold out much hope.
A large part of the world still worries about the next meal , roof overhead and the other basic necessities of life . Garbage is the last thing on their mind . Some of them live in or near garbage .
I see a great opportunity here, just need to figure out how to get them into the Pacific...