...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!"
this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
361 points (99.5% liked)
Futurology
1670 readers
92 users here now
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
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.
In how many years?
Claims 5, but says 10, by 2034...
It's like the second line of the article
Proving once again that every man-made problem on Earth can be solved through appropriate resource allocation, which is only hindered by those hoarding the wealth, and those in our governments whom they pay to protect their wealth from practical use.
It's not really a solution as it will be a perpetual requirement until we just stop putting out so much plastics
"Thus solving the problem forever."
load more comments
(12 replies)
And puts it where?
Outside the environment.
The Atlantic
Dammit now I have this picture in my head of two cleanup teams sneaking trash back into the other's ocean.
I don't know why you think the British would want to remove their own landmass?
I think their idea is to put it into new plastic products.
So it can go back into the ocean.
So our planet will have a plastic cycle then? Sounds good enough for now.
Gotta stay in business somehow.
"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.
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.
Even if all pollution stopped today we still have to clean up the patch.
Yes. That is why I said that I support them.
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.
There are groups working to cleanup river plastic before it becomes ocean plastic.
It shouldn't be river plastic either though. That's just pushing the problem back a step instead of solving it outright. It's a step in the right direction, but it shouldn't end up in the rivers either...
You're not wrong.
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.
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.
No doubt it's good work, but the plastic shouldn't get in there in the first place. That was my only point.
it shouldn’t, but realistically it will and given that it’s good to be able to clean it up
load more comments
(1 replies)
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.
[...] 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
load more comments
(1 replies)
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 if approached.
Yeah. All product packaging should be paper based.
load more comments
(11 replies)
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.
Thats sadly not even a first step, its basically a crawl.
A crawl in the positive direction
Unfortunately it is this attitude that is responsible for effectively zero actual motion. When we "look at the positive" in this situation, it does not help the situation, it hurts. "If I save a single Sea Turtle" by using an aluminum pipe for a straw. . . is my Mother's way of patting herself on the back, getting the microdose of dopamine, and moving on to solve the next crisis.
We did it for 40 years, walking an extra 10 yards to a recycle bin to toss that water bottle and feeling good because we didn't make the Indian (sic) guy cry . Yet, with all that time and technology, we haven't made more than a 9% dent in the bulk of "recyclables" (excluding metals $$). And we are actually losing ground.
Instead, we have green washing grifts, like this one, which may have once upon a time, actually tried to do something, but later realized they couldn't continue their effort without a corporate partnership. And somehow, rather than just failing and creating the vacuum, they linger, for a decade, clean up nothing, save for the staged Instagram vids that are WAAAAY more impressive than the actual footage of failure. Those vids are necessary to fund the important research, of course.
Yeah the only way to achieve actual change is up to the government. Or maybe it big corporations want to help out, which seems like that will never happen.
load more comments
(1 replies)
view more: next ›