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Plastic Pollution Is Killing Coral Reefs, 4-Year Study Finds (npr.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: A new study based on four years of diving on 159 reefs in the Pacific shows that reefs in four countries -- Australia, Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar -- are heavily contaminated with plastic. It clings to the coral, especially branching coral. And where it clings, it sickens or kills. "The likelihood of disease increases from 4 percent to 89 percent when corals are in contact with plastic," researchers report in the journal Science. Study leader Drew Harvell at Cornell University says the plastic could be harming coral in at least two ways. First, bacteria and other harmful microorganisms are abundant in the water and on corals; when the coral is abraded, that might invite pathogens into the coral. In addition, Harvell says, plastic can block sunlight from reaching coral. Based on how much plastic the researchers found while diving, they estimate that over 11 billion plastic items could be entangled in coral reefs in the Asia-Pacific region, home to over half the world's coral reefs. And their survey did not include China, one of the biggest sources of plastic pollution.
I'm glad this is out here, because right now everyone is focused on CO2. The reality is that there is are so many other forms of pollution that are destroying our planet that are much more devastating. We have lakes of sludge in China as a result of all our cellphones and laptops.
To stop general pollution, we need to consume less. Our cellphones need to last 10 years, not 2. Everything doesn't need to come in a cardboard box from Amazon. We generate so much waste in our day to day lives and consume sooooo much. To really fight pollution, we need products that last longer, fewer factories with workers that get paid more, more durable goods and a restructuring of how we value things. Companies should be praised for good products when people don't buy more stuff because their previous line has stood up so well (like CPUs and memory).
It's a tall order. It's not easy. It probably won't happen.
And it doesn't matter if you believe climate change is man made or not. If we reduce general pollution, consume lest, demand better public transport (which can be a reality now, unlike self driving cars that might be a reality ten years from now, and won't even touch 10% of the capacity of trains), we can reduce all kinds of pollution, including CO2.
I personally don't feel this will happen until America runs out of countries to bomb and manipulate, fuel prices hit $9/gal and the US collapses. The vote is a joke. Trump is the 2 minute hate (really 24/7 hate) and Americans have lost sight of the real enemies that are present, no matter which puppet is elected.
Actually, as we were able to find out only recently, that 'disposal' consisted in shipping it to China and declaring it 'recycled'. We learned that, when China refused to take any more of that plastic wastes from the US and GERMany, upon which both nations are now facing the problem of keeping their statistics 'green'. ;-)
I believe the term to use here is "whitewashing". The western world is very good at this, thanks to our – totally independent – media.
This was China's own plan to bolster its own plastics industry.
The fact that they decided to end it suddenly and then blame the shutdown on others trying to "push" their waste onto China is a rather consistent pattern for the Chinese government.