Henderson Island - the most plastic-polluted place on Earth

[Stormspark]

At least plastic can be picked up. It could be a lot worse, here's the actual most polluted place on Earth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Karachay

[Deletedaccount1]

I don't intend to have children, so I'm not contributing to the problem

You really think eliminating humanity from the planet rather than focusing on preserving the environment as much as we can is a good idea? What makes the planet so great that we should kill ourselves off?

[Stormspark]

You really think eliminating humanity from the planet rather than focusing on preserving the environment as much as we can is a good idea? What makes the planet so great that we should kill ourselves off?

Agent Smith said it best in the Matrix. I don't think I can say it any better than he did.

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.

[primalmatter]

Only thing that made me smile reading about this. :s

Nature always finds a way.

[Trassk]

Agent Smith said it best in the Matrix. I don't think I can say it any better than he did.

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.

Good old agent smith. does make me wonder, when computers become completely sentient, will they view humanity in this way for real.

[Mayhem]

I don't intend to have children, so I'm not contributing to the problem

The problem being garbage. You don't produce garbage because you don't intend to have children... well that's one way to put it.

[Deleted]

I don't intend to have children, so I'm not contributing to the problem

Thank the 9 gods for the fact my kids wont have to live your kids.

[Afrospinach]

Hermit crabs having the time of thier lives.

I saw someone suggest once we should 3d print en masse plastic shells for hermit crabs and just dump them on beaches because these days their shells erode more quickly from ocean acidification.

Clearly they've never seen venice beach. Hyuck hyuck

Or that river in malaysia, where most of this crap probably comes from.

[Mihalik]

probably doesn't have natural fresh water, that's usually why islands are uninhabited.

There is only one known potable (drinkable) water source, a brackish spring on the north shore exposed at half tide, rising from a crevice in flat rock, large surfaces of which compose the face of the beach. The surrounding ocean tidal range is about one metre at spring tide.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hender...ural_resources

If there's a spring on it, it means that the bedrock is deep, insulated from sea water and porous enough for wells. Tho it's questionable how large a population it could sustain.

[Ravenblade]

This looks like a doctored photo. The trash doesn't extend very far away from the camera.

It's not doctored, the lighting corresponds with the objects in the image and the image has no tonal discrepancies revealing an eventual tampering. Also I have been at plastic-polluted beaches in Spain so I am not one to think it can't get worse than that, it always can (with humans anyway). Also where trash lands is mainly dictated by the flow of currents and doesn't have to be some homogeneous coverage. It's likely been picked because of being one of the most densely packed places. Even if you don't believe this image to be true there are many others including actual film documents - as it happens you can't simply go there so you will have to rely on people who acquired permission and a way to get there. I find it ironic that the first response isn't "Damn, we should not simply dispose plastic waste into open nature but recycle it!" but "IT'S A FAAAAAAKEEE!".

[Stormspark]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hender...ural_resources

If there's a spring on it, it means that the bedrock is deep, insulated from sea water and porous enough for wells. Tho it's questionable how large a population it could sustain.

Rather than tapping those wells, it'd be better to just use desalination equipment and use sea water instead. For a small population, it wouldn't take a whole lot and there really wouldn't be much environmental impact (we're not talking huge desalination plants like what they have in Australia here). The salt could be used for other purposes or exported.

[Allybeboba]

I thought the pacific gyre was as the most polluted.

Fun fact! At the rate we are going there will, by weight, more plastic in the ocean than fish by the year 2050.
Only 14% of plastic gets recycled. Compared to 58% of paper and 90% of iron and steel.

[Trassk]

Thank the 9 gods for the fact my kids wont have to live your kids.

I have nephews.

[Hammerfest]

It's not doctored...

Riiight...

[Ravenblade]

Riiight...

You could always - I know it's a novelty concept, so I am not going to stress it! - back up your claim that it's doctored instead of cutting 90% of that part out where I explained why it isn't faked.

It isn't faked for the reasons mentioned. Here's the image in full size. The author appears to be a Tara Proud of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a respected British conservation society. Since you are adamant about it being photoshopped. Here's a Google Maps shot from 2013.

Here's another view of the same island.



Does that look like being doctored too? (The author of this image is marine scientist Dr. Jennifer Lavers for Caters News, the image according to the metadata was taken on Henderson Island. So take it up with her if you believe she doctored it as well. No pun intended.)

[Deletedaccount1]

Give us both population control AND a significant push for renewable sources. In the decades to come we will obsolete vast swaths of labor damning most of the world to unemployment and we still do not have the social consensus for redistribution of wealth. A global one child policy (I am not saying it can happen of course) would keep demand and supply better matched for labor while sharply cutting down the value of most other resources. We would all be happier if we were fewer.

I suggest reading Julian Simon or Ronald Bailey for why population control isn't necessary and can actually make the problem worse by destroying intellectual capital that leads to major breakthroughs in conservation and technology. You don't know that we will see vast swaths of unemployment in the future, that is a heterodox view among economists. In any case, sudden major retribution of wealth would cause the current poor to consume more natural resources and that would be unsustainable in the short term.

I also suggest looking at the immense failure of China's old one child policy for why a global one would be a disaster. Look at Japan as another example of how a declining population has absolutely no benefits for most countries.

[Nathreim]

Polluting the seas like this could kill all us in our lifetime but it never gets any attention thanks to global warming sucking up all the headlines.

[Deletedaccount1]

Agent Smith said it best in the Matrix. I don't think I can say it any better than he did.

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.

I don't think I need to say why a quote from an action movie is not a convincing argument for anti-natalism.

[Ravenblade]

Polluting the seas like this could kill all us in our lifetime but it never gets any attention thanks to global warming sucking up all the headlines.

Global climate change gets most of the headlines because people are incredibly pigheaded about it and because it triggers a lot more people.

[Blobfish]

I Think of that Movie "Castaway" with one of my Fave Actors ..Tom Hanks
and think, if he had landed here... he could have had a lot more friends than just Wilson