Waste, Trash and the Ocean (how much, live in, floor)

[mangodog]

I am amazed how much trash and sheet we can throw into the ocean and it is still reasonably blue and clear. All the nations dump their refuse into the ocean; amazing that anything can live in it.

[Robin Rossi]

Originally Posted by mangodog

I am amazed how much trash and sheet we can throw into the ocean and it is still reasonably blue and clear. All the nations dump their refuse into the ocean; amazing that anything can live in it.

Having transited both the Atlantic and Pacific, I can tell you that the oceans are HUGE. Every animal in there poops in it from the Blue Whale to Krill. Oil oozes from the ocean floor in amounts that would boggle your mind if it were all collected into one outfall. True, some of man's pollutions are harmful, or at least causes the ocean to react in ways we don't like, but all in all, there is so much volume there that it all gets diluted pretty well.

Don't get me wrong, I am against litter, and pollution on land and water, but one has to keep a perspective on just how big the oceans are, both in terms of volume and area.

IMHO, trash, etc., should be dumped into huge lined holes in the ground, covered over with impermeable membranes and dirt, and tapped for the methane gas that is produced. Better than dumping it into the ocean for both the ocean and man. The methane can power generators for the grid.

[McFrostyJ]

Great Pacific garbage patch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[mangodog]

Now if we can only turn plastic into food.... we would have no World Starvation.

[InDC]

Originally Posted by mangodog

Now if we can only turn plastic into food.... we would have no World Starvation.

Here is the sad and scary thing: all that plastic breaks down into smaller bits that are actually ingested by marine wildlife and if we eat what comes from the oceans, by us.

Mango, I know you've been to some of those way-remote beaches in Hawai'i, as have I. Many of them are just coated in little colorful bits of plastic, about the size of a sesame seed. When that stuff is floating it looks like algae to a lot of fish.

But, it gets worse. Plastics floating in the ocean will accumulate PCBs at rates of 100,000 to 1,000,000 times that of just regular sea water. So, when the fish eat the plastic they are also eating the PCBs that the plastic accumulates. And, of course, we eat these banned chemicals when we eat the fish.

http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/pdf/plastic.pdf

[mangodog]

If Karma catches up with all of us, then some might say that we all got poetic justice. We sheet in the ocean and the ocean sheets on us.

I have friends on the mainland who are telling me that a new type of ailment going around big cities called "Alergic Asthma" which is accumulated air pollutants that cause the sufferer to have symptoms of a strong hacking cough with unproductive sputum. They tell me it is like Emphysema cough, coughing one's guts out..... Contrails anyone ?

[Robin Rossi]

Originally Posted by mangodog

If Karma catches up with all of us, then some might say that we all got poetic justice. We sheet in the ocean and the ocean sheets on us.

I have friends on the mainland who are telling me that a new type of ailment going around big cities called "Alergic Asthma" which is accumulated air pollutants that cause the sufferer to have symptoms of a strong hacking cough with unproductive sputum. They tell me it is like Emphysema cough, coughing one's guts out..... Contrails anyone ?

Never heard of it. Contrails are water vapor. WWII piston-powered bombers created Con Trails. Con as in Condensed (Water Vapor) Trails.

[mangodog]

Some say there is a mass of floating trash the size of Texas floating on the ocean endlessly.

[Jungjohann]

Originally Posted by mangodog

Some say there is a mass of floating trash the size of Texas floating on the ocean endlessly.

It actually IS Texas. Recent seismic events set it adrift. They always said it was 'LIKE A WHOLE NOTHER COUNTRY', now it is.

Aloha, hope this helps




(not really)

[JoDan]

The hike along the shore to the Green Sand Beach is horrific! The trash just continues to pile up.