Cleanup Group Says It's on Track to Eliminate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Cleanup Group Says It's on Track to Eliminate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Nonprofit environmental organization The Ocean Cleanup has announced that it can clear the Great Pacific Garbage Patch within a decade.
"The Ocean Cleanup" is a great effort and I support their mission wholeheartedly. BUT looking at the bigger picture; it seems completely asinine to fish garbage put of the ocean and call that the solution to pollution, instead of preventing it from getting there in the first place. This is not meant as a criticism of "The Ocean Cleanup", but of global society in general. One minute you see them removing the Pacific garbage patch and the next you see whole rivers covered in plastic waste flowing out into the ocean from certain countries.
Edit: Fishing it out of the rivers before it enters the ocean is also a good effort. But it doesn't address the underlying problem any better than cleaning ot out of the ocean. Also; some people seem to think I'm bashing "The Ocean Cleanup" and similar organisations. I'm very much not. They do great, necessary work. I'm just frustrated that said work is needed, and more importantly; that it doesn't seem to be on track to stop being needed anytime in the near-ish future.
They are doing similar tryouts in Big Rivers now too. But that's a lot harder than cleaning what's already stagnant.
The sheer force of the water and waste is difficult to hold in place with nets. But they're definitely working on it.
I trust programs like this and admire the work. It's a good thing for life in general to get rid of that shit. It's just abysmal that companies still use so much plastic for everything.
Climate is a thing where no matter how big your solution is, it's only part of a larger solution-cluster.
We need it all, and then the rest of it, too.
[...] the next you see whole rivers covered in plastic waste flowing out into the ocean from certain countries.
Which is why they're working on exactly that
Same issue though; it shouldn't end up in the rivers either. The rivers were just an example in relation to the ocean patches specifically. Plastics shouldn't end up in the environment at all. Catching it a step earlier, is still treating the symptom instead of the cause.
Except they're not calling it the solution, just a remedy to a literally growing problem. Even if people stopped polluting the ocean in an instant, you'd still have to clean up the patch. Now, they're taking the initiative to go clean it up as best they can, which is a heck of a lot more than the average person lemme tell ya that much.
The majority of the great Pacific garbage patch material - over 75% of it - comes from fishing and aquaculture activities. I'm sure some of it is accidents or storm related, but I also have a strong suspicion that a good percentage of it is from China's ghost fishing fleets - the ones they deny exist, that over-fish and poach other countries' waters, and that cut loose their nets and pretend innocence it approached.
Even if all pollution stopped today we still have to clean up the patch.
Yes. That is why I said that I support them.
Who said it was a solution?
No one specifically, but in a lot of cases it feels like certain interest groups, tout projects like this as the be all and end all of solving the issue. I just fear for a sentiment where people go: "Look at what "The Ocean Cleanup" is doing! We don't need to abolish single use plastics. Any that end up in the environment is simply picked up!" That is of course a bit of a caricature, but at this point my trust in humanity as a whole, is not very high...
It's important to celebrate the wins that we have in order to build some tailwind behind the general effort.
We should still recognize how far we have to go, of course, but celebration matters.
They are working on exactly that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wdKoIjdgSE
Yeah. All product packaging should be paper based.
Where do they say anything like that? I've been following them very closely for years and they've always been super transparent that there isn't one solution. They also do a lot of work to prevent trash from getting to the ocean in the first place.
There are similar groups with near identical solutions for tackling "problem" River that are some of the worst offenders of plastic pollution.
Ultimately there is still a problem in the ocean, and to some extent, it is inevitable until we have a realistic solution for plastics.
There will always be the lost who care not for fellow man. I can only hope those that do care, outnumber those who don't.
Be kind to one another
Also, what are we gonna do with the trash? Moving it isn't gonna magically make it disappear lol
Put it in the bin!
True AND what do they do with the garbage they pull out of the ocean? Place it in a landfill?
I wonder if they figured out how to remove the garbage without hurting the blue sea dragons that are living in there.
Obviously the garbage has to get out of the ocean, I just remember that the last I heard about it a few years ago they had to stop because they were accidentally hurting and killing the very wildlife they're trying to protect. It's a shitty catch 22 we've created, but I hope they succeed. That garbage has been there too fucking long.
...prompting conservatives to send even more garbage. "Ain't nuthin in the bible about cleanin up no oceans, you marxist satanists! That garbage patch is part of our heritage!"
Nonprofit environmental organization the Ocean Cleanup has announced that it's on track to eliminate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by 2034.
If it can get the necessary funds, that is. In a press release, the organization claimed that eliminating the patch once and for all would cost a whopping $7.5 billion
The title seems rather misleading. "We're on track if someone just gives us 7.5 billion USD" is a really big if. It doesn't seem like they are close to raising those kinds of funds either.