[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0506_040506_oceanplastic_2.html]Oceans Awash With Microscopic Plastic, Scientists Say (link)[/url]
James Owen
for National Geographic News
May 6, 2004

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To gauge long-term trends, the scientists examined plankton samples collected over the past 40 years in shipping lanes between Iceland and Scotland. Results showed there was approximately three times more plastic in the water column in the 1990s compared with the 1960s.

"Estimates for the longevity of plastic range from a hundred to a thousand years," Thompson said. "Since we've only been [mass producing] plastics for 40 years, we still don't have a full handle on their longevity."

The impact of larger plastic flotsam on marine wildlife is well documented. According to the U.K.'s Marine Conservation Society, a national environmental nonprofit, more than a million seabirds and 100,000 mammals and sea turtles die globally each year from entanglement in, or ingestion of, plastics.

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Once lodged in an animal's digestive tract, plastic can prove fatal.

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Many plastics contain toxic chemicals, including biocides (to prevent organisms colonizing their surfaces)

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when plastics are floating in the seas, they will accumulate and absorb toxic chemicals that are present from other sources. These are hydrophobic chemicals that hate to be in water and cling to plastic as an alternative. These chemicals may then be transported to organisms that eat the plastic."

Such toxic chemicals include PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and DDE (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene), which are derived from pesticides and other manmade substances. These agents are known endocrine disruptors—chemicals that interfere with the reproductive, developmental, and immune systems of animals.

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"What we are finding, increasingly, are plastic bottles, caps, bits of packaging—disposable items which are used once and then thrown away."

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[Ludi]

http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/New/newstuff.htm

[Raxozanne]

Don't forget that huge floating mass of used condoms that's meant to be floating around out there.

[Wildwell]

Ah the joys of the oil economy:

Plastic bags are everywhere. According to the Virginia-based American Plastics Council, 80 percent of groceries are packed in plastic bags.

"The numbers are absolutely staggering," said Vincent Cobb, a businessperson from Chicago who launched reusablebags.com. He notes that consumers use between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags per year worldwide.

Plastic bags can be found in landfills, stuck on trees, and floating in the ocean.


What is the effect of all of these bags? Some experts say that they harm the environment. Plastic bags can take hundreds of years to break down. As they break down, they release poisonous materials into the water and soil.

Plastic bags in the ocean can choke and strangle wildlife. Endangered sea turtles eat the bags and often choke on them—probably because the bags look like jellyfish, the main food of many sea turtles.

In fact, floating plastic bags have been spotted as far north as the Arctic Ocean (see map) to as far south as the southern end of South America (see map). One expert predicts that within ten years, plastic bags will wash up in Antarctica (see map)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids ... cbags.html

[AmericanEmpire]

Man this stuff just pisses me off!

Sad what we have done to the environment. We think the world is our playground to do with as we want being ignorant of the fact that we depend up the ecosystem to live also.

This is the reason peak oil no longer bothers me. We need the oil economy to end and soon.

[UIUCstudent01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AmericanEmpire', 'M')an this stuff just pisses me off!

Sad what we have done to the environment. We think the world is our playground to do with as we want being ignorant of the fact that we depend up the ecosystem to live also.

This is the reason peak oil no longer bothers me. We need the oil economy to end and soon.

[FairMaiden]

The most affluent time in history and what have we done with it? Waste, waste, waste.

Of couse, ppl will say that we've invented all these wonderful gadgets and toys - but what use will they be for survival when we have no power to run them?

[AmericanEmpire]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')f couse, ppl will say that we've invented all these wonderful gadgets and toys - but what use will they be for survival when we have no power to run them?

[Dukat_Reloaded]

People should be using the bins, not throwing their garbage into the oceans. I remember in the early 20th centery afew people claimed that the oceans ability to absourb rubbish was infinate. That reminds me of a guy in my school days, I was walking home one day and saw a guy using a broom handle to shove all his rubbish into a storm water drain, I think he forgot to put his bin out for collection. I do think alot of the estimates for the breakdown of plastic bottles are abit drawn out, I do know that a floating bottle will not last long against salt water and constant full sun. I'm not sure about the microscopic particals, that could be a problem, then again, against the vastness of the oceans, I'm sure the levels will remain low. All we have to do is stop littering, unfortantly there are a ton of litterbugs out there, and I ask a friend of mine (not really my friend) why he litters so much (eg, throws fast food runnish out the car window), said he's creating jobs "they'll have to pay someone to pick that up".

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Raxozanne', 'D')on't forget that huge floating mass of used condoms that's meant to be floating around out there.

[Dukat_Reloaded]

Yes but condoms come in plastic wrappers.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dukat', 'Y')es but condoms come in plastic wrappers.

[Raxozanne]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Raxozanne', 'D')on't forget that huge floating mass of used condoms that's meant to be floating around out there.