Australian Politics Forum - Plastic pollution

Jovial Monk

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Plastic pollution
May 17^th, 2017 at 11:15am

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One of the world’s most remote places, an uninhabited coral atoll, is also one of its most polluted.

Henderson Island, a tiny landmass in the eastern South Pacific, has been found by marine scientists to have the highest density of anthropogenic debris recorded anywhere in the world, with 99.8% of the pollution plastic.

The nearly 18 tonnes of plastic piling up on an island that is otherwise mostly untouched by humans have been pointed to as evidence of the catastrophic, “grotesque” extent of marine plastic pollution.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/15/38-million-pieces-of-plastic...

There are also huge patches of plastic rubbish in the ocean, presenting a real danger to marine life.

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Lord Herbert

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Re: Plastic pollution
Reply #1 - May 17^th, 2017 at 12:02pm

It's an abomination that could be dealt with fairly successfully if only governments would be willing to bring in the necessary legislation.

The idiotic fashion trend that sees gullible halfwits carrying around with them plastic bottles filled with water is responsible for a lot of the plastic trash getting into our waterways and being flushed out to sea.

In the real world teachers in every school in the country would be told to tell their students that it's stupid for them to be seen clutching onto a bottle of water all day long as a fashion accessory.

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Jovial Monk Gold Member Offline Dogs not cats! Posts: 51474 Gender:	Re: Plastic pollution Reply #2 - May 17^th, 2017 at 12:28pm SA has a container deposit legislation. SA still sells a lot of bottled water and I am guilty of buying some so I have water to drink in my car. Adelaide tap water really has improved with the sand filtration so I will buy a couple of reusable bottles to fill with tapwater and keep in the car.
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Jovial Monk

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Re: Plastic pollution
Reply #3 - May 30^th, 2017 at 10:19am

Researches are not finding nearly as much plastic—up to 100 times less—as they expected, e.g. in the Atlantic gyre.

Is this the work of newly evolved microbes? Are they eating the plastic, causing it to sink or to disintegrate into tiny particles that other marine life ingests with dire results?

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2132650-newly-evolved-microbes-may-be-break...

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lee

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Re: Plastic pollution
Reply #4 - May 30^th, 2017 at 12:01pm

Jovial Monk wrote on May 30^th, 2017 at 10:19am:

Researches are not finding nearly as much plastic—up to 100 times less—as they expected, e.g. in the Atlantic gyre.

Is this the work of newly evolved microbes? Are they eating the plastic, causing it to sink or to disintegrate into tiny particles that other marine life ingests with dire results?

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2132650-newly-evolved-microbes-may-be-break...

Or maybe they just over-egged the pudding. Wink

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Jovial Monk Gold Member Offline Dogs not cats! Posts: 51474 Gender:	Re: Plastic pollution Reply #5 - May 30^th, 2017 at 3:00pm That would be, no poor desperate Lees. Was well document, see Professor Google. Is by no means sure the problem is sorted either: note they say the plastic may have sunk or disintegrated.
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lee

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Re: Plastic pollution
Reply #6 - May 30^th, 2017 at 4:12pm

Jovial Monk wrote on May 30^th, 2017 at 3:00pm:

Is by no means sure the problem is sorted either: note they say the plastic may have sunk or disintegrated.

Note also -

"There should be hundreds of thousands of tonnes of the stuff floating around in our oceans. But we are finding less than expected "

"In fact, there’s only a tenth to a hundredth as much plastic as expected – and the amount of floating plastic does not appear to be increasing. “The trend should be there,” Sole says."

So their expectations were too high. The Microbes are eating the plastic faster than it can accumulate?

Are these the same microbes that eat oil? Wink

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Jovial Monk Gold Member Offline Dogs not cats! Posts: 51474 Gender:	Re: Plastic pollution Reply #7 - May 30^th, 2017 at 4:22pm “Does not appear to be increasing” use the little grey cells there Lees. Let us know the result of your cerebrations.
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lee Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 21533 Gender:	Re: Plastic pollution Reply #8 - May 30^th, 2017 at 4:51pm Jovial Monk wrote on May 30^th, 2017 at 4:22pm: “Does not appear to be increasing” use the little grey cells there Lees. Let us know the result of your cerebrations. Yes. They admit they don't have a clue, because as they said - “The trend should be there”. For them to say that means that the trend is not there.
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Jovial Monk Gold Member Offline Dogs not cats! Posts: 51474 Gender:	Re: Plastic pollution Reply #9 - May 30^th, 2017 at 5:33pm So you have no capacity for logical thought.
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lee Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 21533 Gender:	Re: Plastic pollution Reply #10 - May 30^th, 2017 at 5:43pm Jovial Monk wrote on May 30^th, 2017 at 5:33pm: So you have no capacity for logical thought. Obviously more than you.
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Unforgiven Gold Member Offline I have sinned Posts: 8879 Gender:	Re: Plastic pollution Reply #11 - May 30^th, 2017 at 5:47pm lee wrote on May 30^th, 2017 at 5:43pm: Jovial Monk wrote on May 30^th, 2017 at 5:33pm: So you have no capacity for logical thought. Obviously more than you. Lee believes that mindlessly repeating conservative propaganda represents logical thought.
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Jovial Monk Gold Member Offline Dogs not cats! Posts: 51474 Gender:	Re: Plastic pollution Reply #12 - May 30^th, 2017 at 5:51pm Yeah. That the plastic in places like the Atlantic gyre etc is not increasing is food for thought. Is it 100% degraded by bacteria etc? Is it thinking or is it fraying and dispersion to cause havoc to marine life?
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lee Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 21533 Gender:	Re: Plastic pollution Reply #13 - May 30^th, 2017 at 6:00pm Jovial Monk wrote on May 30^th, 2017 at 5:51pm: That the plastic in places like the Atlantic gyre etc is not increasing is food for thought. Is it 100% degraded by bacteria etc? Is it thinking Sentient plastic?
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The_Barnacle

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Re: Plastic pollution
Reply #14 - Jun 4^th, 2017 at 11:01am

Quote:

It is really hard to quantify just how much plastic is in the ocean, but the latest figures estimate there are up to 51 trillion particles or 236,000 tonnes.

That may sound like a lot, but in fact it is nowhere near the estimated 8 billion tonnes that went into the oceans in 2010 alone.

Precisely what happens to the "missing" plastic is a puzzle for researchers like Dr Wilcox.

The fact there is less plastic than expected isn't any reason to become complacent however. It may be just a sampling error, it may be because much of it sinks, it may be because the plastic accumulates in organisms or even on coastlines.

Quote:

"Even in Australia, you can tell how far away you are from a city by how much plastic is on the beach and in the water near the beach."

An analysis of waters around Australia found on average there were around 4,000 microplastic fragments per square kilometre, although some hotspots had concentrations of around 15,000 to 23,000.

The vast majority of the microplastic fragments came from plastic packaging such as cups, bottles, bags, as well as fragments of fishing gear.

Dr Wilcox said coastal pollution was an even greater problem for biodiversity than in the open ocean.

"The number of species in the coastal margin is much higher than out in the gyres."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-02-27/plastic-and-plastic-waste-explaine...

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lee Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 21533 Gender:	Re: Plastic pollution Reply #15 - Jun 4^th, 2017 at 11:17am The_Barnacle wrote on Jun 4^th, 2017 at 11:01am: The fact there is less plastic than expected isn't any reason to become complacent however. It may be just a sampling error, At which point in time? When the alarm was raised or now?
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