Ocean plastic endangers bacteria that create oxygen necessary for life

[Techno-Druid]

...Hence "making ways to make it biodegradable". As in, altering its chemical makeup in some way as to not disrupt its normal structure but make it biodegradable, or by literally creating microbes that are capable of degrading it. As is already under development.

Again, outside of some micro-organisms, I highly doubt they can modify the composition of petroleum plastics to be more biodegradable, at least in an efficient way, but we can find alternatives in bioplastics, some of which are biodegradable and come from renewable resources that do not release carbon (like petroleum plastics do during degradation).

[Aenigma84]

That is just an exaggerated excuse and propaganda for China and India. They are the ones buying/being paid to take SOME of our trash. They have the responsibility to either recycle it or dump it responsibly. If they can't then they should refuse to accept it from us. And what we send them is miniscule compared to what they produce and dump locally.

thats a bullshit excuse
if you know they dont do it then stop selling your trash until they do

[tru]

Is this like global warming? Should we get Al Gore on board so he can fly all over the world in his jet and tell the world about man bear pig?

[Tiwack]

Yes but we would have multiple millennium before the atmosphere reached a toxic ratio. Given the scientific and technological progress of the last century it would be very likely that a solution is found. Either way civilization is expanding and taking over the environment so there's no way to preserve the ecosystem as it was pre-industrial revolution. "Spaceship Earth" has always been a misunderstanding that was based on the idea that Earth as it was, was friendly to human life. Which is completely false, the Earth as it was before the industrial revolution would be better described as a death trap.

Dunno what you're smoking, levels of oxygen are already dropping, your environment is friendly as long as you take care to handle it/yourself.

[Trassk]

China and India won't give a fuck so we are pretty much doomed. It is possible we could in the short term work with India but China pretty much has zero fucks given about anything of the sort.

I came here to say, most Western nations have recycling laws down now. We're not the problem in this.

Guess some nations are just more empathetic to the natural world then others.

[PC2]

Dunno what you're smoking, levels of oxygen are already dropping, your environment is friendly as long as you take care to handle it/yourself.

Source? I'm sure it's a trivial fluctuation.

[P for Pancetta]

There are also non-profit companies that have created new technologies and hired crews to clean the trash in our oceans. It's not like once it is in the ocean it is there forever.

For example:
https://www.theoceancleanup.com/

The ocean cleanup so far has been nothing but a big sham, many have proven how incredibly stupid their ideas are and they persisted anyways and created something that doesn't work. The only upside is that they didn't waste much money because barely anyone was interested in investing in them for obvious reasons.

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...Hence "making ways to make it biodegradable". As in, altering its chemical makeup in some way as to not disrupt its normal structure but make it biodegradable, or by literally creating microbes that are capable of degrading it. As is already under development.

most of those developments are a sham, as are most "biodegradable" plastics out there. they just fall apart into tiny pieces which will end up in the ocean faster and are much harder to clean up but will do as much damage as whole plastic bottles on the long run.

[shikher]

Dumping of non-biodegradable trash, such as plastics
Humans have polluted the Earth, and especially its seas, with toxic chemicals, radioactive waste, and plastic debris. Many of these synthetic poisons will not disappear naturally for hundreds of thousands of years.
Humans have colonized most of the animal-friendly land on Earth, and made it unliveable for most other species.
Humans have hunted to extinction numerous species, either because they threatened us or fed us.
These factors in combination are causing extinction of non-human species (even those we don’t eat or fear) on an unprecedented scale – about 1,000 times faster than the historical average.

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Climate change’s adverse effects mostly impact poor and low-income communities around the world. Those in poverty have a higher chance of experiencing the ill-effects climate change due to increased exposure and vulnerability
Over 2 billion people – one third of the global population – are poor or near-poor and face persistent threats to their livelihoods, including from climate change. Estimates indicate that by 2030 more than 100 million people could fall back into extreme poverty due to climate change, while over 200 million people could be displaced due to more frequent and severe climatic disasters.
Climate change and poverty link a process and a condition that are interrelated. While climate change and global warming affect the natural environment, especially agriculture, it also affects humans. Climate change globally impacts poverty, particularly in low-income communities.

[Draco-Onis]

What should we do with countries that dump rivers of trash into the ocean? https://news.sky.com/story/just-10-r...ceans-11167581

Stop sending them our trash and deal with it ourselves?

[PC2]

Climate change’s adverse effects mostly impact poor and low-income communities around the world. Those in poverty have a higher chance of experiencing the ill-effects climate change due to increased exposure and vulnerability
Over 2 billion people – one third of the global population – are poor or near-poor and face persistent threats to their livelihoods, including from climate change. Estimates indicate that by 2030 more than 100 million people could fall back into extreme poverty due to climate change, while over 200 million people could be displaced due to more frequent and severe climatic disasters.
Climate change and poverty link a process and a condition that are interrelated. While climate change and global warming affect the natural environment, especially agriculture, it also affects humans. Climate change globally impacts poverty, particularly in low-income communities.

It's fine though because extreme poverty is lower than ever at about 10%. Agriculture is more productive than ever, undernourishment is down from 15% a decade ago to 11% now. Most of the progress has been among the poorest populations that you mention.

Also there's no such thing as a scientific way of estimating future poverty. Not unless someone found a miraculous poverty prediction formula and forgot to share it with everyone else.

[zenkai]

Stop sending them our trash and deal with it ourselves?

How about the people who want our trash actually process it like they should, shouldn't we hold them responsible?

[HavokHeart]

Gonna go ahead and point out that the ratio of plastic to seawater the research used would not be reproducible in the world even if we decided to actively dispose of all plastic waste in the ocean. There is a problem with plastic being dumped into the ocean. This is not it. This is a fantasy.

[Najnaj]

How about the people who want our trash actually process it like they should, shouldn't we hold them responsible?

This isn't an either or situation. Both are responsible.

[zenkai]

This isn't an either or situation. Both are responsible.

When sending your trash out to a global market and expect them to process and recycle it properly, you shouldn't have to worry about it.

Maybe you should hold onto your trash because your waste deposit company is not processing it properly because they are sending it over seas?


When it comes to fixing things my goal is always to tackle the root problem.

[Draco-Onis]

How about the people who want our trash actually process it like they should, shouldn't we hold them responsible?

We aren't keep our trash because we think it's too expensive so we pay third world countries to take it knowing they aren't going to take care of it either. There's plenty of blame to go around but to put it solely on them is intellectually dishonest.

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When it comes to fixing things my goal is always to tackle the root problem.

Seems your goal is to blame one party and wash your hands off the mess.

[zenkai]

We aren't keep our trash because we think it's too expensive so we pay third world countries to take it knowing they aren't going to take care of it either. There's plenty of blame to go around but to put it solely on them is intellectually dishonest.

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Seems your goal is to blame one party and wash your hands off the mess.

That's because you express limited thinking, my goal knowing fixing the root problem will chain up. Even if we stopped sending our trash to these countries, do you think the problem will be fixed? Do you think they don't product trash on their own?

[Doctor Amadeus]

I’ll admit I’m guilty of double bagging plastic bags at the grocery store because these plastic bags are so damn easy to break, But I do reuse them.

[Ghostpanther]

That's because you express limited thinking, my goal knowing fixing the root problem will chain up. Even if we stopped sending our trash to these countries, do you think the problem will be fixed? Do you think they don't product trash on their own?

It seems like some do. So much easier to blame the US for the issue. Esp when they hate the current administration so much. 2 billion people and esp one with over 1 billion who is a major industrial world trader and consumer is going to produce and use a ton of plastics.

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I’ll admit I’m guilty of double bagging plastic bags at the grocery store because these plastic bags are so damn easy to break, But I do reuse them.

I use them to put other trash in and then place them in my large trash container at the end of my driveway for the trash collector to pick up. But I do think we should go back to paper bags at the store.

[Draco-Onis]

That's because you express limited thinking, my goal knowing fixing the root problem will chain up. Even if we stopped sending our trash to these countries, do you think the problem will be fixed? Do you think they don't product trash on their own?

Of course not it has to be part of a comprehensive plan several are under consideration at the moment but dealing with our trash is a big part.

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It seems like some do. So much easier to blame the US for the issue. Esp when they hate the current administration so much. 2 billion people and esp one with over 1 billion who is a major industrial world trader and consumer is going to produce and use a ton of plastics.

Most of the west does this not just the US and the majority of the people you are talking about don't have the purchasing power to produce that much plastic. This is not just about the current administration this goes back decades when 1st world countries decided they didn't want to deal with their own trash anymore.

[Ghostpanther]

Of course not it has to be part of a comprehensive plan several are under consideration at the moment but dealing with our trash is a big part.

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Most of the west does this not just the US and the majority of the people you are talking about don't have the purchasing power to produce that much plastic. This is not just about the current administration this goes back decades when 1st world countries decided they didn't want to deal with their own trash anymore.

So you think they are just dumping the trash we send them to bury, into the rivers? If that is true, then slap another 25% tariffs on China and include India in on it too. :P