Off topic: Gigantic Garbage Patches in the Oceans Thread poster: Sonja Köppen
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| | David Russi 
United States
Local time: 02:46
English to Spanish
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Thanks for posting this, it is a very interesting article.
| | | | Brian Young
United States
Local time: 01:46
Danish to English
| Plastic On Easter Island | Jul 2, 2010 |
I was on Easter Island last October, a five hour flight from Santiago de Chile, the most remote human settlement on Earth. At the beach at Anakena, on the northern shore, I marveled at the wonderful colors in the sand; the blues, reds, and yellows. When I bent down, and looked closely, I realized it was all plastic, ground down to small particles, 3-4 mm and down. It was everywhere. We have sown the Earth with the waste of our "civilization".
This is the human cancer, metastasizing, infect... See more I was on Easter Island last October, a five hour flight from Santiago de Chile, the most remote human settlement on Earth. At the beach at Anakena, on the northern shore, I marveled at the wonderful colors in the sand; the blues, reds, and yellows. When I bent down, and looked closely, I realized it was all plastic, ground down to small particles, 3-4 mm and down. It was everywhere. We have sown the Earth with the waste of our "civilization".
This is the human cancer, metastasizing, infecting every corner. Not even in that beautiful, remote spot can you get away from it. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Niraja Nanjundan (X)
Local time: 14:16
German to English
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Alison Sabedoria (X)
United Kingdom
French to English
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| It's the everyday small things... | Jul 2, 2010 |
... that we do that are the real big disaster, like snowflakes settling on a branch, each one apparently insignificant, but their combined weight will eventually break the tree. That's the bad news.
If we each radically change our own everyday ways of doing things: refuse plastic packaging, buy second-hand or durable products, eat less meat, use less gadgets; lots of small differences can all add up. We might even enjoy living a more real, hand-made lifestyle, free from addic... See more ... that we do that are the real big disaster, like snowflakes settling on a branch, each one apparently insignificant, but their combined weight will eventually break the tree. That's the bad news.
If we each radically change our own everyday ways of doing things: refuse plastic packaging, buy second-hand or durable products, eat less meat, use less gadgets; lots of small differences can all add up. We might even enjoy living a more real, hand-made lifestyle, free from addiction to brands and retail therapy.* That's the good news. Like snowflakes settling on a branch...
But will we do it? We hardly count as homo sapiens yet, and we need to learn very fast indeed.
Climbing down off my soapbox (slightly!  ), I can recommend stinging nettles as a highly nutritious free organic food: no food miles, no plastic bags - you'll need rubber gloves, though - and ideal for when you're still waiting for that late payment to come in! Many rural folk in France still eat them regularly. Ask me for recipes.
*Easy for me, cheating almost - I live a long way from the shops and don't have a car!  ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sonja Köppen
Germany
Member (2008)
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | We will not do it | Jul 2, 2010 |
Wordeffect wrote:
But will we do it?
I don't think so, and if we did, that would not be enough. As far as I can see, we will actually have to pick the trash out again, wherever to dispose it, else it will eventually poison us (and everything on its way through the food chain, of course), as it gathers toxics and crumbles to very small pieces that persist for centuries, killing time and again.
It has taken us about 60 years to turn the oceans into waste dumps. I don't think our immense momentum can be inverted in time. We are not even too bothered ... this phenomenon here was completely new to me (as if it could be any different! I did not think), and I don't know anyone who has heard of it yet. Very few media ever mention it in Germany. Yet the term "pacific garbage patch" produces well over 10 million google entries.
Should the oil deposit below the Gulf of Mexico eventually crack in (there are those who say this is possible; cf http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593#comment-648967 ), it might even come into handy that plastic binds toxics. And the act of fishing it all out again could mean full employment worldwide. One might say the glass is half full, as long as we don't care what exactly it holds.
| | | | gianfranco
Brazil
Local time: 05:46
Member (2001)
English to Italian
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| Gigantic Garbage Patch | Jul 2, 2010 |
I think it is made of all the machine translated texts, piling up there because nobody reads them, or make any sense when they are read...
Gianfranco
[Edited at 2010-07-02 10:56 GMT]
| | | | Alison Sabedoria (X)
United Kingdom
French to English
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| I agree with Sonia... | Jul 2, 2010 |
... that it's unlikely we / "they" / anyone will do enough in time. Still, it's worth a try. And yes, there's enough cleaning up work to keep us all out of mischief for a very long time.
I first became aware of marine plastics pollution as a problem in the late 1970s, but at that stage I don't think anyone expected the plastics to degrade to molecular level. Unfortunately I don't see how the polymer molecules can be removed from marine worms and other organisms.
Until... See more ... that it's unlikely we / "they" / anyone will do enough in time. Still, it's worth a try. And yes, there's enough cleaning up work to keep us all out of mischief for a very long time.
I first became aware of marine plastics pollution as a problem in the late 1970s, but at that stage I don't think anyone expected the plastics to degrade to molecular level. Unfortunately I don't see how the polymer molecules can be removed from marine worms and other organisms.
Until seeing this article I hadn't realised the Pacific "dustbin" was so big.
(There are probably loads of lost e-mails floating around in there too.)
[Edited at 2010-07-02 13:40 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Wordeffect wrote:
Until seeing this article I hadn't realised the Pacific "dustbin" was so big.
(There are probably loads of lost e-mails floating around in there too.)
[Edited at 2010-07-02 13:40 GMT]
... how much of it is composed of abandoned Trados packaging ...?
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