Sister blog of Physicists of the Caribbean in which I babble about non-astronomy stuff, because everyone needs a hobby
Monday 10 September 2018
Cleaning up the ocean
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas and Ocean Cleanup is launching a massive plastic catcher to clean it up https://cnb.cx/2M7aN7G https://cnb.cx/2M7aN7G
For what I've read, this falls under the "cool story, unworkable idea" category. The patch is vast, extremely scarce (from the point of view of the machine, not pollution-wise), composed of many, many tiny bits, sea water is corrosive and sea life will grow on everything, trying its best to foul mechanisms.
Beyond the money put there that will probably be wasted, some even say it will detract from actual plastic-reduction initiatives because, after all, if we can clean the sea, why would we bother throwing less of it in the first place?
So, probably the kind of "Lone prodigy youngster proves the Establishment wrong!" story that pops up in media from time to time. And we know how trustworthy those stories usually are.
I would say that while there's a risk of increasing the rate of rubbish entering the sea, we damn well ought to do something about what's already there. It isn't going to go away on its own.
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For what I've read, this falls under the "cool story, unworkable idea" category. The patch is vast, extremely scarce (from the point of view of the machine, not pollution-wise), composed of many, many tiny bits, sea water is corrosive and sea life will grow on everything, trying its best to foul mechanisms.
ReplyDeleteBeyond the money put there that will probably be wasted, some even say it will detract from actual plastic-reduction initiatives because, after all, if we can clean the sea, why would we bother throwing less of it in the first place?
So, probably the kind of "Lone prodigy youngster proves the Establishment wrong!" story that pops up in media from time to time. And we know how trustworthy those stories usually are.
I would say that while there's a risk of increasing the rate of rubbish entering the sea, we damn well ought to do something about what's already there. It isn't going to go away on its own.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/DrAndrewThaler/status/1039171104634363904?s=19
ReplyDeletetwitter.com - Andrew Thaler on Twitter