Real enviro issues that get my attention

Joeslogic · Oct 19, 2009

My biggest peeve is water pollution.

Check this out.

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/oceanissues/plastics_albatross/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FinDNPopXQY

Joeslogic · Oct 19, 2009

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm

Throughout the race our strategy, like that of every other boat in the race, had been mainly to avoid the North Pacific subtropical gyre-the great high-pressure system in the central Pacific Ocean that, most of the time, is centered just north of the racecourse and halfway between Hawaii and the mainland. But after our success with the race we were feeling mellow and unhurried, and our vessel was equipped with auxiliary twin diesels and carried an extra supply of fuel. So on the way back to our home port in Long Beach, California, we decided to take a shortcut through the gyre, which few seafarers ever cross. Fishermen shun it because its waters lack the nutrients to support an abundant catch. Sailors dodge it because it lacks the wind to propel their sailboats.

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.
Click to expand...

Aballister · Nov 3, 2009

Joeslogic said: ↑

That dude on Survivorman said that no matter how isolated or remote your location is; you will always find garbage. He was deep in the Peruvian jungle for one of his shows and found the remains of what appeared to be a mattress, how the heck did it get there?
Click to expand...

Joeslogic · Nov 3, 2009

Was it a kingsize?

Maybe belonged to a Peruvian jungle king?

Aballister · Nov 3, 2009

Joeslogic said: ↑

Was it a kingsize?

Maybe belonged to a Peruvian jungle king?
Click to expand...

Hahaha! That would certainly explain why it was there.

Log in or Sign up

Real enviro issues that get my attention

Joeslogic Active Member

Joeslogic Active Member

Aballister New Member

Joeslogic Active Member

Aballister New Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Real enviro issues that get my attention

Joeslogic Active Member

Joeslogic Active Member

Aballister New Member

Joeslogic Active Member

Aballister New Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches