Huge amounts of floating plastic in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

[Pikaville]

I'm not sure if many people know about this but the title pretty much says it all.

What the hell is this bull****?

A load of broken down plastic that affects an area roughly twice the size of Texas.That is just incredibly messed up in my opinion.

What do you guys think about this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch (Yeah it's wiki but....)

 

[DTP]

wtf? Seriously?

I'll google this later tonight. I've never heard about this before.


EDIT: Oh look, a link. Sweet, thanks lol

 

[Fuelbi]

Wow... we need to start recycling...

If we don't we'll eventually have a giant ball of garbage blasted from outer space at us which will only be deflected by another giant ball of garbage...

 

[ru5514n]

Wow... we need to start recycling...

If we don't we'll eventually have a giant ball of garbage blasted from outer space at us which will only be deflected by another giant ball of garbage...

Lol, Futurama reference.

I would believe it if I see it. If the spot is so big, it shouldn't really be a problem to take some aerial shots of it.

 

[Mota]

Dam disgusting, all those poor animals getting screwed over.

If it's so massive, surprised it hasn't gotten more attention.
I wonder if you could walk on it.

 

[cutter]

Even though I never heard of this, I had a feeling there would be places in the ocean contaminated with garbage. That's what happens when you make plastic and glass; both of which take eons to "decay".

 

[Pikaville]

Lol, Futurama reference.

I would believe it if I see it. If the spot is so big, it shouldn't really be a problem to take some aerial shots of it.

There are pictures of it.But it's mainly tiny bits of plastic along with larger random debris.Sun and salt water make plastic brittle and cause it to break into smaller and smaller pieces.Fish and birds are eating this and dying as a result.

Just search plastic and Pacific in google and you'll find what you want.

I shouldn't have said pile really.It's just the content of plastic in the water is extremely high around a bigger than Texas area.

 

[Terywj [태리]]

That's really gross. People need to start caring for the planet a lot more than they have been, otherwise we'll all suffer earlier than we need to.

-Terywj

 

[Overload]

I've heard of this before and was thinking about it the other day. It just stays there due to the way the currents are. It should really be cleaned up.

 

[Pikaville]

Apparently it would be nearly impossible to clean up without killing a large amount of sea life.

I think this may just be a cop out though.

 

[SkylerOcon]

Eh. Kill the sea life now and face short term consequences rather than long term ones.

 

[kirbywizard]

I heard about this a few years back, and I for one think we should build a new country on top of this filth. I'm sure a good amount of it is all that fast food trash that is never recycled.

 

[JPOBS]

something tells me this is a much smaller problem than wiki (and this thread) is makign it out to be.

if it was so bad, why has almost no one in here heard about it before? and on top of that, its not even in an isolated region of the world, its in the Pacific ffs you'd thing animal/environmental activists would be all ove rthis stuff.

 

[Deleted member]

Wow, this is patethic. At least I care about my surrounding.

 

[Luigitoilet]

Eh. Kill the sea life now and face short term consequences rather than long term ones.

I hope this is a joke but I don't know

 

[SkylerOcon]

I hope this is a joke but I don't know

It was a joke. I'm not a complete idiot haha.

 

[Pikaville]

something tells me this is a much smaller problem than wiki (and this thread) is makign it out to be.

if it was so bad, why has almost no one in here heard about it before? and on top of that, its not even in an isolated region of the world, its in the Pacific ffs you'd thing animal/environmental activists would be all ove rthis stuff.

First of all it's not a smaller problem that it's made out to be.If nothing is done it's only going to get worse and worse.When the total weight/mass of plastic found in water samples is greater than that of plankton you know something is wrong.(A ratio of 6:1)

Secondly,the reason almost no one here has heard of it before is probably because your government doesn't like letting people know that they pay contractors to illegally dump waste in the ocean.

Lastly there are MANY groups/researchers/individuals that are "all over this"

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Moore-North-Pacific-Central-Gyre.htm
http://www.satyamag.com/apr07/moore.html
http://gyrecleanup.org/

 

[Tacel]

Humans are jerks.