- Subject: [Gaia-members] Plastic is Drastic: World's Largest 'Landfill' is in theMiddle of the Ocean
- From: "(Nity)anand Jayaraman" <nity68@vsnl.com>
- Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2002 22:59:52 -0800
>Plastic is Drastic: >World's Largest 'Landfill' is in the Middle of the Ocean >CAPT. CHARLES MOORE / Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) 1nov02 ><http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Ocean-Plastic-Landfill-Algalita1nov02.htm>http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Ocean-Plastic-Landfill-Algalita1nov02.htm > >more on this issue: ><http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Sea-Of-Plastics.htm>http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Sea-Of-Plastics.htm > >There is a large part of the central Pacific Ocean that no one ever visits >and only a few ever pass through. Sailors avoid it like the plague for it >lacks the wind they need to sail. Fisherman leave it alone because its >lack of nutrients makes it an oceanic desert. This area includes the >“horse latitudes,” where stock transporters in the age of sail got stuck, >ran out of food and water and had to jettison their horses and other >livestock. Surprisingly, this is the largest ocean realm on our planet, >being about the size of Africa- over ten million square miles. A huge >mountain of air, which has been heated at the equator, and then begins >descending in a gentle clockwise rotation as it approaches the North Pole, >creates this ocean realm. The circular winds produce circular ocean >currents which spiral into a center where there is a slight down-welling. >Scientists know this atmospheric phenomenon as the subtropical high, and >the ocean current it creates as the north Pacific central or sub-tropical gyre. > >Because of the stability of this gentle maelstrom, the largest uniform >climatic feature on earth is also an accumulator of the debris of >civilization. Anything that floats, no matter where it comes from on the >north Pacific Rim or ocean, ends up here, sometimes after drifting around >the periphery for twelve years or more. Historically, this debris did not >accumulate because it was eventually broken down by microorganisms into >carbon dioxide and water. Now, however, in our battle to store goods >against natural deterioration, we have created a class of products that >defeats even the most creative and insidious bacteria. They are plastics. >Plastics are now virtually everywhere in our modern society. We drink out >of them, eat off of them, sit on them, and even drive in them. They’re >durable, lightweight, cheap, and can be made into virtually anything. But >it is these useful properties of plastics, which make them so harmful when >they end up in the environment. Plastics, like diamonds, are forever! > >If plastic doesn’t biodegrade, what does it do? It “photo-degrades” – a >process in which it is broken down by sunlight into smaller and smaller >pieces, all of which are still plastic polymers, eventually becoming >individual molecules of plastic, still too tough for anything to digest. >For the last fifty-odd years, every piece of plastic that has made it from >our shores to the Pacific Ocean, has been breaking down and accumulating >in the central Pacific gyre. Oceanographers like Curtis Ebbesmeyer, the >world’s leading flotsam expert, refer to it as the great Pacific Garbage >Patch. The problem is that it is not a patch, it’s the size of a >continent, and it’s filling up with floating plastic waste. My research >has documented six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton in this >area. My latest 3-month round trip research voyage just completed in Santa >Barbara this week, (our departure was covered by SBNP) got closer to the >center of the Garbage Patch than before and found levels of plastic >fragments that were far higher for hundreds of miles. We spent weeks >documenting the effects of what amounts to floating plastic sand of all >sizes on the creatures that inhabit this area. Our photographers captured >images of jellyfish hopelessly entangled in frayed line, and transparent >filter feeding organisms with colorful plastic fragments in their bellies. > >As we drifted in the center of this system, doing underwater photography >day and night, we began to realize what was happening. A paper plate >thrown overboard just stayed with us, there was no wind or current to move >it away. This is where all those things that wash down rivers to the sea >end up. On October 10, during our return trip to Santa Barbara, we >discovered something never before documented-a Langmuir Windrow of plastic >debris. Circular ocean currents with contrary rotation create long lines >of material, visible from above as streaks on the ocean. Normally these >are formed by planktonic organisms or foam, but we discovered one made of >plastic. Everything from huge hawsers to tiny fragments were formed into a >miles long line. We picked up hundreds of pounds of netting of all types >bailed together in this system along with every type and size of debris >imaginable. Sometimes, windrows like this drift down over the Hawaiian >Islands. That is when Waimanalo Beach on Oahu gets coated with blue green >plastic sand, along with staggering amounts of larger debris. Farther to >the northwest, at the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem >Reserve, monk seals, the most endangered mammal species in the United >States, get entangled in debris, especially cheap plastic nets lost or >discarded by the fishing industry. Ninety percent of Hawaiian green sea >turtles nest here and eat the debris, mistaking it for their natural food, >as do Laysan and Black Footed Albatross. Indeed, the stomach contents of >Laysan Albatross look like the cigarette lighter shelf at a convenience >store they contain so many of them. > >It’s not just entanglement and indigestion that are problems caused by >plastic debris, however. There is a darker side to pollution of the ocean >by ubiquitous plastic fragments. As these fragments float around , they >accumulate the poisons we manufacture for various purposes that are not >water-soluble. It turns out that plastic polymers are sponges for DDT, >PCBs and nonylphenols -oily toxics that don’t dissolve in seawater. >Plastic pellets have been found to accumulate up to one million times the >level of these poisons that are floating in the water itself. These are >not like heavy metal poisons which affect the animal that ingests them >directly. Rather, they are what might be called “second generation “ >toxics. Animals have evolved receptors for elaborate organic molecules >called hormones, which regulate brain activity and reproduction. Hormone >receptors cannot distinguish these toxics from the natural estrogenic >hormone, estradiol, and when the pollutants dock at these receptors >instead of the natural hormone, they have been shown to have a number of >negative effects in everything from birds and fish to humans. The whole >issue of hormone disruption is becoming one of, if not the biggest >environmental issue of the 21st Century. Hormone disruption has been >implicated in lower sperm counts and higher ratios of females to males in >both humans and animals. Unchecked, this trend is a dead end for any species. > >A trillion trillion vectors for our worst pollutants are being ingested by >the most efficient natural vacuum cleaners nature ever invented, the mucus >web feeding jellies and salps (chordate jellies that are the fastest >growing multicellular organisms on the planet) out in the middle of the >ocean. These organisms are in turn eaten by fish and then, certainly in >many cases, by humans. We can grow pesticide free organic produce, but can >nature still produce a pesticide free organic fish? After what I have >witnessed first hand in the Pacific, I have my doubts. > >I am often asked why we can’t vacuum up the particles. In fact, it would >be more difficult than vacuuming up every square inch of the entire United >States, it’s larger and the fragments are mixed below the surface down to >at least 30 meters. Also, untold numbers of organisms would be destroyed >in the process. Besides, there is no economic resource that would be >directly benefited by this process. We have not yet learned how to factor >the health of the environment into our economic paradigm. We need to get >to work on this calculus quickly, for a stock market crash will pale by >comparison to an ecological crash on an oceanic scale. > >I know that when people think of the deep blue ocean, they see images of >pure, clean, unpolluted water. After we sample the surface water in the >central Pacific, I often dive over with a snorkel and a small aquarium >net. I have yet to come back after a fifteen minute swim without plastic >fragments for my collection. I can no longer see pristine images when I >think of the briny deep. Neither can I imagine any “beach cleanup” type of >solution. Only elimination of the source of the problem can result in an >ocean nearly free from plastic, and the desired result will only be seen >by citizens of the third millennium AD. The battle to change the way we >produce and consume plastics has just begun, but I believe it is essential >that it be fought now. The levels of plastic particulates in the Pacific >have at least tripled in the last ten years and a tenfold increase in the >next decade is not unreasonable. Then, sixty times more plastic than >plankton will float on its surface. > >Captain Charles Moore >Aboard Oceanographic Research Vessel, Alguita ><http://www.alguita.com>www.alguita.com >www.algalita.org _______________________________________________ Gaia-members mailing list Gaia-members@lists.essential.org http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/gaia-members