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From	Message
zorroloco 09-Oct-06, 17:28	trashed oceans i was thinking about water pollution today after reading an article about the increasing dead zones in the puget sound of the north-western coast of the us. (bottom waters become starved for oxygen, killing or displacing the many organisms that live there. sewage and agricultural runoff feed the biological and chemical cycles that remove oxygen). i started doing a little research, and came across this striking and horrifying description of what is happening to the oceans. here is an excerpt: I often struggle to find words that will communicate the vastness of the Pacific Ocean to people who have never been to sea. Day after day, Alguita was the only vehicle on a highway without landmarks, stretching from horizon to horizon. Yet as I gazed from the deck at the surface of what ought to have been a pristine ocean, I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic. It seemed unbelievable, but I never found a clear spot. In the week it took to cross the subtropical high, no matter what time of day I looked, plastic debris was floating everywhere: bottles, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments. Months later, after I discussed what I had seen with the oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, perhaps the world's leading expert on flotsam, he began referring to the area as the "eastern garbage patch." But "patch" doesn't begin to convey the reality. Ebbesmeyer has estimated that the area, nearly covered with floating plastic debris, is roughly the size of Texas. it is a little long, but not bad, and quite readable. scary stuff! www.mindfully.org" target="_blank">-> www.mindfully.org
deadofknight 09-Oct-06, 21:07	Seems to me that a relatively inexpensive, but consistent plan to Vacuum this crap up would work wonders...just from the speed read of the article, it seems apparent that people realize a) what the problem is b)the general location of the problem and c) the extent to which it is growing/continuing. Cant we put a bounty on the stufff and make worth somebody's time to clean this crap up...a bounty would be a veery effecctive way of gettina nice responsive, create jobs and clan the environemnt. Think of it as a recycle program where you get thoussands of dollars instead of nickels for your trouble. I think you have to believe that somebody would be happy to change their current line of work, say fishing, for an easy job like scooping up this stuff if we made it valuable enough for them to do so. I mean, in perspective with any of numerous costs that are reckless (ie...The Big Dig) or $25MM for some arabs head...why dont we make the stuff worth 100K per ton. You'd have the place cleaned up by guys fighting for every scrap they could lay their hands on...Im sure at some point there would be charges of turning in trash that "collectors" brought in under some scam...like the brough their own trash with them...so you would have to put in safe guards, but I think that would be easy enough... Just my way of thinking.
proginoskes 09-Oct-06, 21:53	we should probably start dumping everything in the ocean - it has become painfully obvious that humans suck and the earth needs to take another stab at it . . .
bobbynox 09-Oct-06, 23:43	Deleted by bobbynox on 23-Jan-07, 08:51.
deadofknight 10-Oct-06, 11:02	Dammit I hate it when people keep calling me KOP
bobbynox 10-Oct-06, 11:11	Deleted by bobbynox on 23-Jan-07, 08:52.
echo3 10-Oct-06, 12:28	It wouldn't work here.... ..... the people who live in the worst squalor are those who can ill aford to pay high deposits. Our weakneed politicians would grant all layabouts an exemption and the littering would continue. Oh for some really tough government - NOW.

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