What can be done about the Pacific Garbage Patch?

[Travis]

I got to thinking about this this morning. What might be done about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? I was thinking maybe developing some plastic eating bacteria but then I thought that might have unintended side effects. Perhaps dropping some sort of resin that will bind with plastic and offset its buoyancy so it sinks to the ocean floor?

And who would pay for and organize this anyways?

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

I think the key thing is to stop chucking crap into the sea. The garbage patch will eventually disappear, either broken down by UV, or carried to the bottom in albatross corpses.

 

[EHocking]

I got to thinking about this this morning. What might be done about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? I was thinking maybe developing some plastic eating bacteria but then I thought that might have unintended side effects. Perhaps dropping some sort of resin that will bind with plastic and offset its buoyancy so it sinks to the ocean floor?

And who would pay for and organize this anyways?

The wiki article on this has some links to organisations that are also thinking about the problem of cleaning this up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch#Cleanup

 

[MRC_Hans]

Interesting. It is not that I want to belittle the problem or the research, but the list of ill effects leads me to feel that this is far from the greatest problem facing humanity or our planet.

A 100 million tons of combustible material will sooner or later be a profitably exploitable ressource.

Hans

 

[commandlinegamer]

I think the key thing is to stop chucking crap into the sea. The garbage patch will eventually disappear, either broken down by UV, or carried to the bottom in albatross corpses.

I thought corpses floated due to decomposition (do we have a resident coroner who can confirm this?)

 

[MRC_Hans]

I thought corpses floated due to decomposition (do we have a resident coroner who can confirm this?)

During decomposition, gasses are generated inside, which often floats corpses for a time, but eventually, they sink.

Hans

 

[EHocking]

Interesting. It is not that I want to belittle the problem or the research, but the list of ill effects leads me to feel that this is far from the greatest problem facing humanity or our planet.

A 100 million tons of combustible material will sooner or later be a profitably exploitable ressource.

Hans

The Amazon rainforest will have been reduced to 40% of it's current size in 2 decades.

...desertification presently affects tens of millions of people with primary occurrence in the lesser developed countries

During the last century, erosion of biodiversity has been increasingly observed. Studies show that 30% of all natural species will be extinct by 2050.

Bit since there are greater problems facing humanity or our planet, let's not worry about it...

 

[INRM]

I'd say stop dumping crap in the ocean would be a very simple start

 

[INRM]

Rothschild is leading the solution towards cleaning up this garbage patch?

 

[portlandatheist]

Rothschild is leading the solution towards cleaning up this garbage patch?

Yes, the Illuminati are trying to clean up the ocean.

 

[MRC_Hans]

Bit since there are greater problems facing humanity or our planet, let's not worry about it...

No, that was not what I meant. Just that it is a problem that not all people in the world need worry about. I hope some people will do something, but there is virtually nothing I can do, so I'll not add it to my list of worries.

Hans

 

[EHocking]

So I can forget about Global Warming then - for the same reason!

I'm not trying to pick a fight here, but I did wonder about the reason for your initial post. The "I'm not trying to belittle.." was a bit like, "I'm not racist, but..."

 

[theprestige]

Mine it for resources, just like we're going to end up doing--profitably--about all our other landfills and waste dumps.