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The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]
In 1997 Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, set sail from Hawaii and discovered, in a remote part of the North Pacific, an island…made of plastic.
Moore measured about 300,000 tiny pieces of plastic per square kilometer back then, but a decade later there are approximately 2.3 million pieces of plastic per square kilometer. What is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now the size of the United States, according to Moore.
Wind and ocean currents sweep up this garbage and deposit it in this slow-moving gyre.
The plastic never degrades, but sunlight and wave friction break it into tiny particles, smaller than five millimeters, that remain suspended in the water. Holly Bamford, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says it’s likely that filter feeders like clams or jellyfish are eating the plastic, which may prove dangerous all the way up the food chain. Ongoing studies will try to determine the patch's impact.
Getting rid of it is nearly impossible, because we lack the technology to separate microplastic from biologically important plankton, like algae. So Bamford says to focus on prevention.
The best bet to keep the plastic patch from growing is to reduce our dependence on plastic in the first place as well as reuse and recycle the plastics we can't replace.
—Christie Nicholson
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9 Comments
Add CommentJust turn the plastic into syngas using a plasma torch incinerator and then utilize the syngas for electric power or convert it into methanol, gasoline, or dimethyl ether.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMarcel F. Williams
http://newpapyrusmagazine.blogspot.com/
Brian Dunning has debunked this story. Please rely on more than one source! http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4132
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhere did he get his information?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have seen/read/heard reports from at least 10 eyewitness sources.
At any rate we recycle, reuse, reduce etc. I don't take plastic or paper at the grocery store, I use canvas bags that I have had for at least 4 or 5 years. I also take my 20 year old plastic ice chest to the grocery with me. I try to buy least packaging goods. We grow a lot of our own produce and buy meat etc from our neighbors, I realise that most folks cannot do this. When we lived in town we had potted veggies on window sills, the porch etc, even hydroponic planters with things in them. When I started getting severe asthma attacks from being downwind of coal fired power plant we found and purchased an abandoned farmstead, think GreenAcres. We are slowly turning it into an ecofarm, organic veggies and fruit trees, getting rid of the old appliances as they die and scrimp to buy the most efficient ones to replace them. We have reduced our power use by 30% in 2 years, on the cheap. Insulation weather strip, gaskets on switch and outlet covers, insulating curtain liners(20-25$ per window) in all we have spent about 2500$ (1200 on a front load waster that uses 60%less power and water and 1 tablespoon of soap)over 2 years and are saving about 125$ month just on electric and at least 50$ on heat fuel.
Eye-witness? We are talking about "small pieces of plastic" so small that they can not be separated from algae. And the number of 2,300,000 per square kilometer is enough to have 1 piece for every 4 sq.ft. What did those eye witnesses see?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCan we see this on Google Earth? Where exactly?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you follow all the links provided in this transcript, as well as all the links provided in the VERY detailed and well researched Skeptoid episode by Brian <http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4132>, you will notice that every piece of information provided in this transcript is supported by evidence... EXCEPT the exaggerated mythical description that it is an "island" of garbage. On their webpage, neither Captain Charles Moore himself nor the Algalita Marine Research Foundation at large use the words "island of garbage" to describe what their research has found, and neither do the scientists Christie Nicholson cites above at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration <http://swfsc.noaa.gov/publications/TM/SWFSC/NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFSC-154_P247.PDF>. The pictures of such solidly built up garbage on their site exists only along coastlines. And it is also confusing to say that "The plastic never degrades, but sunlight and wave friction break it into tiny particles," when that is exactly what degradation is. It may not be degrading all the way down to individual Carbon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen molecules, but it is degrading, which is part of what makes it so dangerous. As Christie cited Holly Bramford above, the degraded pieces are now able to be eaten by marine life, which makes the pollution that much more damaging to the oceanic ecosystem.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo, in order to encourage people to act responsibly and in a mutual self-interest to take care of the Earth we all share, I would implore Christie to please refrain from passing on the buck of using scare tactics by repeating unsubstantiated claims of an entire "island" of plastic floating in what should be plain sight of trans-Pacific commuters (or on Google Earth, like alphachapmtl said). Although I could not find the source of Moore saying specifically that the patch of pollution was "now the size of the United States" (it may be in one of the dozens of scientific papers available on the Algalita site), it is probably not a reference to a solid block of collected plastic. It is most certainly a reference to areas of the Pacific in which degraded neuston plastic particles are diluted but detectable, and therefore dangerous.
Other than the misplaced reference to urban pop-mythology, I agree with Cristie Nicholson's and Holly Bramford's assessment that prevention is now the necessary action to preserve the integrity of the oceanic ecosystem, upon which so much of our personal livelihood depends that we would be grossly irresponsible to ignore it.
After rereading my response, I realise i did not make my self clear that I was referring to rob hooft. I also meant that I have seen reports of the garbage gyre from 10 different sources. I do not know how to separate the plastic from the plankton let along make syngas from it. I only know that we can make less , by making none at all.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am still skeptical. There is little doubt that the oceans filled with plastic debris, but the "gabage patch" idea -- I've heard "twice the size of Texas" and "the size of the United States." -- just isn't holding up. There is too small a body of coroboration for such a huge phenomenon. It isn't as if the Pacific ocean is all remote and impossible to see or something. How many tourist cameras alone get pointed out of how many jetliner windows in a single day? I am not a bit about downplaying a problem and plastic and other trash is a serious problem. But, can I condone sensationalizing a problem to try to "sell" it. You know who you are, Greenpeace, et al. The only thing sensationalization does is alienate many people from an otherwise worthy cause.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExactly the point I was making Chris, thanks for your comment. The trash is obviously there; anyone who has been to a beach or a walk through a national park knows how much pollution is there. But over-dramatizing a real problem simply alienates some responsible who would otherwise want to get involved with a real problem. Scare tactics only seem to work on people who already hold a negative opinion of plastic to begin with, whereas to make a difference, we shouldn't alienate people who want to act responsibly to preserve our ecosystem by making it seem as if environmental activists are going on about a fake problem.
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