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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.”
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>
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?
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.
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.
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
Oh yes, doing something is almost always better than doing nothing.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
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.