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Planet's Ocean-Plastics Problem Detailed In 60-Year Data Set (nature.com)
Scientists have uncovered the first strong evidence that the amount of plastic polluting the oceans has risen vastly in recent decades -- by analyzing 60 years of log books for plankton-tracking vessels. Nature reports: Data recorded by instruments known as continuous plankton recorders (CPRs) -- which ships have collectively towed millions of kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean -- show that the trackers have become entangled in large plastic objects, such as bags and fishing lines, roughly three times more often since 2000 than in preceding decades. This is the first time that researchers have demonstrated the rise in ocean plastics using a single, long-term data set, says Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. "I'm excited that this has been finally done," he says. The analysis was published on 16 April in Nature Communications.
Van Sebille says that because the study focused on large plastic items, it doesn't reveal much about the quantity of microplastics -- fragments fewer than 5 millimetres long -- in the oceans. These tiny contaminants come from sources such as disposable plastic packaging, rather than from fishing gear. Nevertheless, he adds, the study demonstrates that fisheries play a major part in plastic pollution, and will provide useful baseline data for tracking whether policy changes affect the levels of plastic in the oceans. "As fisheries become more professional, especially in the North Sea, hopefully we might see a decrease," he says.
Van Sebille says that because the study focused on large plastic items, it doesn't reveal much about the quantity of microplastics -- fragments fewer than 5 millimetres long -- in the oceans. These tiny contaminants come from sources such as disposable plastic packaging, rather than from fishing gear. Nevertheless, he adds, the study demonstrates that fisheries play a major part in plastic pollution, and will provide useful baseline data for tracking whether policy changes affect the levels of plastic in the oceans. "As fisheries become more professional, especially in the North Sea, hopefully we might see a decrease," he says.
We need oceans. The whole of life on earth is a chain of dependencies that goes back to them.
Keep consuming, though, there's still a tiny bit of time left before they're permanently fucked.
No sig today...
That oceans don't matter because VR.
Our country (USA) is responsible for almost none of the plastic in the ocean.
"Almost none"? Not even remotely true. Not the majority but we certainly contribute plenty. We are in the top 20 as far as plastic polluting countries go so, let's not get too proud of ourselves for not being the worst of the worst.
We do lead by example by generally not littering, by reusing bags, by recycling them, and by disposing of them properly.
Are you shitting me? We litter plenty - just spend a little time cleaning up along a highway if you don't believe me. I have. In 2014 the US produced approximately 100 billion plastic bottles and an estimated 14% of those ended up as litter. We litter a huge amount. Just because you don't see it where you live doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
Literally almost every grocery store in the US uses tens of thousands of disposable plastic one use bags every day and we certainly don't dispose of an awful lot of them properly. (protip - a landfill is not proper disposal of a plastic bag in most cases) Reportedly we use about 1 million of them per minute on average. 91% of plastic we use isn't recycled and plastic bags are certainly a non-trivial piece of that 91%. About 40% of plastic is used for packaging of one sort or another.
Banning plastic bags (and straws) here would change very, very little in waste except make it more inconvenient for most people.
We already have paper bags and people can bring their own and we already have paper straws and people can bring their own of those too. Exactly who is being inconvenienced here? Now paper to be fair has its own pollution problems, but let's not pretend we're putting some huge burden on anyone. Nobody is claiming banning plastic straws is some cure-all but it's a low hanging fruit that does solve a measurable part of the problem. Your argument is that we shouldn't solve a small part of the problem just because we haven't solved the bigger parts of the problem yet. That's idiotic.
I imagine styrofoam is more of a problem, anyway.
What you imagine is irrelevant and in this case wrong as well. You appear to lack the data to really understand the problem.
Yes, plastics are cheaper and often easier to deal with than other materials, but come on, you can look anywhere today and find plastic garbage. I don't see aluminum soda can pop-tops from the 1970's on the ground anymore (kids, those used to be everywhere there were people). They probably broke down already - natural recycling. You can knock incandescent light bulbs, but they require no special recycling since they are, arguably, all natural.
I think there needs to be a recycling tax (on everything) to mitigate this new disaster. I don't see it happening (properly), but I think that's the answer, versus a total ban of plastics which would be detrimental in many cases.
>"Even if true, that doesn't free you from the responsibility to lead by example. PS: China has banned plastic bags.Most of Africa has banned plastic bags (four years prison in Kenya!). Has your country."
Our country (USA) is responsible for almost none of the plastic in the ocean. We do lead by example by generally not littering, by reusing bags, by recycling them, and by disposing of them properly. Banning plastic bags (and straws) here would change very, very little in waste except make it more inconvenient for most people. If you don't want to use them, nobody is forcing you to... bring/use your own reusable bags and straws.
I imagine styrofoam is more of a problem, anyway.
Before you spout such nonsense, I suggest you travel the world and visit a few developed countries to make up an educated comparison in where we are when it comes to recycling at the micro and macro level.
I think there needs to be a recycling tax (on everything) to mitigate this new disaster.
The problem is, where do you apply that tax? Because almost all of the ocean plastics come from the third world (and China, I don't really think of them as third world)... can they afford the tax you are proposing? I think instead of a tax some kind of viable alternative for the plastics they are using needs to be in place.
I agree that plastic trash is a problem everywhere but a lot of first world areas (like the U.S. or Europe) have done a pretty good job greatly reducing plastic waste that gets into the environment, especially by reducing the use of plastic bags from stores.
I do a lot of work picking up trash around my community and elsewhere, in recent years there has been a notable reduction in the amount of plastic bags blowing around outside (there are still some).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
More libertarian is to come up with an alternative that is better, not to tax something in a way that inherently harms poor people - that's the domain of liberals seeking to create victims to exploit.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley