The Pacific trash vortex.....

Deep Sea News' Kevin Zilnio points us to a great piece in The Independent describing what has become known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," or "trash vortex" - essentially a floating expanse of waste and debris in the Pacific Ocean now covering an area twice the size of the continental U.S. Believed to hold almost 100m tons of flotsam, this vast "plastic soup" stretches 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan:

"The "soup" is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk – which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags – is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from land."

David Karl, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, believes the "plastic soup" may actually represent a new habitat; he plans on organizing a research expedition later this year to examine its size and nature. Plastic waste is one of the most significant sources of marine pollution: According to UNEP, plastic accounts for 90% of all debris floating in the oceans - with every square mile containing close to 46,000 pieces.

The pernicious effects of this "trash vortex" aren't just limited to the marine ecosystem either. Every year, hundreds of millions of nurdles, tiny pieces of plastic, are dumped into or lost at sea, where they eventually make their way into the food chain by acting as sponges for a variety of anthropogenic chemicals (e.g. hydrocarbons and DDT).

Marcus Eriksen, research director of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, put is thusly: "What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. It's that simple."

www.treehugger.com...

www.google.ie... lt_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB4QsAQwAA

Man that stuff breaks my heart and angers me at the same time. And I still don't see where anyone is willing or able to take on the duty of removing it.

Perhaps some new mutated microbe will develop that will feed on the plastic. But, let's not wait!

Thanks for the post!
Peace

I dig your avatar.

[edit on 9-6-2010 by speculativeoptimist]

Everyonce in a while there is a little blurb about this in the MSM that shocks the few who see it and then it just seems to be brushed off or forgotten. starred and flagged because i think EVERYONE needs to keep being reminded of this . its not going away it is growing everyday.theres no excuse for inaction its not 5000 feet below sea level .....

thanks again for the post


~meathead

Everyonce in a while there is a little blurb about this in the MSM that shocks the few who see it and then it just seems to be brushed off or forgotten. starred and flagged because i think EVERYONE needs to keep being reminded of this . its not going away it is growing everyday.theres no excuse for inaction its not 5000 feet below sea level .....

thanks again for the post


~meathead

edit to add: the only excuse that i can come up with for inaction is the profit margin is Zero.........sad

edit to add: wow i broke my double post cherry ..i guess it happens to everyone sooner or later...sorry

[edit on 9-6-2010 by Mike Stivic]

[edit on 9-6-2010 by Mike Stivic]

reply to post by DCDAVECLARKE

This really pisses me off! I just wanna get in a boat and start cleaning it up! Does anyone know of any practical contributions we could make? Like maybe there are some people out clearing it now who need a donation!
One of my biggest pet peeves is going to the beach and finding litter. Worst I've ever seen was a day trip I took to Benone strand in Northern Ireland and what was a formerly blue flag beach was covered in all manners of trash the whole length of the beach.

Here it is guys.
www.sott.net... 43% degradation of plastic in 6 wks, amazing. Non-toxic at that. Why isnt it being employed???
In addition to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, there is the Atlantic Garbage Patch located in the Sargasso Sea. Actually had to look up where this is located. It's on the western fringes of Bermuda and is the only sea without a shore...pretty neat.
Besides the GPGP, and the Atlantic Garbage Patch there are 5 other oceanic gyres in the world.....niiiiice....
We could be in the process of healing a portion of our world, Our Home, so why isnt it happening???

Kim

[edit on 6/9/10 by Demetre]

..........nevermiiind.....

[edit on 6/9/10 by Demetre]

reply to post by Demetre


Wow, thanks for the link!

I don't understand how/why these things surface and then disappear just as fast. Even if the notion had to be tested and go through vigorous trials, shouldn't some kind of follow up be done? Sott should keep up with such findings since they post them.

It always makes me suspicious that things discovered that are truly revolutionary are plucked out of the scene. Perhaps these ideas/technologies threaten some other industry.

Peace

I have heard interviews about this. The problem is that this stuff follows currents and washes up in offspring habitats because that is the way many animals find decent breeding places.

It is very sad.

Ever walk on a beach after a storm? I fill a trash bag in about 20 yards.

reply to post by nixie_nox


Agreed, very sad!

Here's a video of a Hawaii Beach where the sand is being replaced with tiny plastic particles.

One Of The Dirtiest Beaches In The World In Hawaii

This breaks my heart and angers my soul!

Another link to similar story-
Ocean Debris Is Turning Beach Into Plastic
news.bbc.co.uk...

I remember Phillippe Cousteau on Bill Maher recently and they said that it was the size of (or larger than) Rhode Island if I remember correctly.

I've heard quite a few stories over the years about the patch, but never a story in regards to cleaning it up.

Are there any organizations out there trying to clean it up?

I really wish i had a billionaire philanthropist uncle, cause i have an idea (several ideas concerning the ocean actually)

Thermal de-polymerization could be used in a case like this - especially with so much plastic.



Now, imagine a ship being able to scoop up the plastic and water. It could run on the diesel created, the plant aboard runs on the gas - and you have the activated charcoal to sell

Concerning scrapmetal, i have another idea cooked up:

In this case, you convert scrap metal, into hydrogen and algea blooming.

Imagine a tanker filled with scrap metal, sucking in seawater over to solar powered spikes ( plus and minus - making hydrogen and oxygen) - the slightly acidic water runs through the scrap metal, slowly decaying it and then releases the iron rich water into the sea.

Damn, i wish i was super rich

reply to post by K-Raz


Wow! That's astonishing, thanks for bringing that on board!

Maybe try and shoot the idea to Richard Branson or James Cameron's way, and good luck with that because I am sure a multitude of ideas try and reach these people and who knows if you could actually get through! It's worth a try though huh?

Again though, revolutionary ideas/technology that make sense, seem so often to just disappear and that so disenchants me.

Might I encourage you to start a thread with some of your ideas, I for one would be interested!

Peace

[edit on 9-6-2010 by speculativeoptimist]

I was off the Thailand Coast in 1990 and on the horizon was a large what looked like a big American stile Football, when we got closer it turned out to be huge! guess what it was?
a net full of plastic bottles! it turns out they are every 100 yards as far as the eye can see! so the next time you are in the far east an yea by a bottle of drinking water this is were it ends up.........

How about this for a great idea, your own floating island
ecoble.com...

Isn't someone Rothschild trying to do something about this?
I would think if anyone can he can.

Really makes me very sad. What hope do our oceans have with this and the oil, not to mention the other chemicals and sewage that gets dumped in to the seas.

It amazes me that the buck is passed so much on this issue. How wonderful it would be if we stopped fighting pretend wars and spent the collective money on sorting our environment out.

This, again, proves how much humans are destroying this planet. Period.

If any person to claims that we aren't...well, 'nuf said.

Disgusting, putrid, and revolting. All in one huge area.

This makes me want to physically punish those who litter across the globe.
Although, that's nearly impossible seeing as alot of the trash comes from Asia.

There's a thread about the most toxic cities that has a picture of a river thick with plastic HERE.

I am speechless.
Sometimes it makes me wonder if this planet is better off with less people.

Okay,
Lets all move to these patches, I claim the atlantic patch.
We'll build floting cities, and recycle the plastics to make, huge bags, to put the trash in, and then recycle them to make bigger bags to put the trash in...now, when the oil from the gulf makes its way to the atlantic patch, its mine, and I'll sell it as I see fit...
I'm gonna call my island Wisdomonia

More evidence of this terrible scandal

reply to post by Mike Stivic

"edit to add: the only excuse that i can come up with for inaction is the profit margin is Zero.........sad "

In the other thread talking about this I noticed a possibly huge
profit stream fro them.

They would need to process the water, take out the plastic and
the other thing that appears to be in once section in massive amounts.

That is uranium.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

With 5 - 6 million tons of uranium flowing by every year.

That would power the many nuclear reactors in France for a
VERY VERY long time.

For France and other countries that have a lot of nuclear power
this could be worth while project.

Barge the plastic and use solar concentrators on site to melt it into
blocks and then load up the uranium and other elements derived
from the sea water as well.

There is even a small amount of gold in sea water.

blog.modernmechanix.com...

If they make it solar powered and robotic it would have a low labor cost.

That much uranium is worth more than drilling for oil.