Welcome to Thunderdome

Also for Gordon.

Got a paper straw in Ohio recently.

Jesus fuck.

GORDON wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 7:57 pm Got a paper straw in Ohio recently.

It's one of those two things.

Polluters put the onus on consumers.

https://www.businessinsider.com/fossil- ... ity-2021-3

"Gordon was right."

Well, we've all been saying that, but sure.

I love the southwest, but retiring there is looking worse and worse. They're possibly on their way to permanently dark and dry.

And then if every day were sunny, it would work.

This is very, very cool and worth a watch. This kid is going to clean up the garbage patch in the Pacific.



He's also doing work in rivers, which scientists have learned is how the plastic is getting to the ocean. How many rivers are responsible? 1%



Kind of shits on the efforts to eliminate plastic here when you learn most of the plastic in the ocean comes from 1% of rivers and we're not talking U.S. rivers. Although, that being said, it still sucks to see plastic waste anywhere, so whatever.

One thing that does bug me is their fund raising efforts. You know who should be funding this stuff? Major corporations, not donations by individual citizens.

It makes me angry how stupid this is.

If you won't stop the countries from polluting, then put the nets at the mouths of the 5 rivers dumping all the plastic. That's all you have to do.

This scheme is that you've got a million horses escaping your barn every single day, and with this you just caught one after six months and said "yay, we did it."

GORDON wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 7:59 am It makes me angry how stupid this is.

If you won't stop the countries from polluting, then put the nets at the mouths of the 5 rivers dumping all the plastic. That's all you have to do.

This scheme is that you've got a million horses escaping your barn every single day, and with this you just caught one after six months and said "yay, we did it."

Tell me you didn't watch the videos without telling me you didn't watch the videos.

I didn't watch those videos.

But I've been following the "Pacific garbage patch" cleanup, even recent stuff, and it's all just so stupid.

I am also aware there's a device or two in US harbors, slowly skimming water bottles. Is that one of the videos?

GORDON wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 12:28 pm But I've been following the "Pacific garbage patch" cleanup, even recent stuff, and it's all just so stupid.

You'll have to explain to me why eliminating a floating garbage patch the size of Texas is "stupid". Do we just leave it there? (Make sure you read all the way down before posting a response...some points might get covered.)

GORDON wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 12:28 pm I am also aware there's a device or two in US harbors, slowly skimming water bottles. Is that one of the videos?

You probably saw something similar, but not this machine. It's autonomous and collected 40K pounds of trash in a day in another video I watched (they raced a massive team of volunteers collecting trash off a beach). It and the few others they have also are not in the U.S. They're in some of those 1% of rivers.

Why?

Because the company behind both solutions in the videos think the problem has to be attacked at the source. (Logical right?) They want to clean up the mess in the Pacific, but also prevent more from getting out there. They also go inland and highlight how the trash is getting to the river: lack of infrastructure. Many of these countries don't do trash pickup.

Call me crazy, but it seems like these people have a good handle on the situation.

1. I seriously doubt they are cleaning a spot the size of Texas (great unit of measure. How many rhode islands is that?). That would take a navy. And, water swirls. Next day new trash comes into the texas patch.

2. Even if there's a spot the size of texas getting scrubbed, a shitload of texases fits in the Pacific. I'm going to go ahead and say it will be impossible for them to get it all, or even a dent.

3. Unless they're hitting the source, another texas-worth of garbage is flowing in every month. If they aren't getting it at the source, they're wasting money putting more carbon into the atmosphere running that flotilla, or whatever they have, and not solving anything.

4. A big chunk of the ocean plastic are ghost nets, and other commercial boat trash.

A million horses escape the barn every day, and they're catching one a week.

OK, Catholic Church.

No idea what that means.

GORDON wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 2:47 pm No idea what that means.

Something about Copernicus.

I'm not claiming a heliocentric orbit. I'm saying there's a lack of imagination in effect over the size of this problem, and they're trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon. It doesn't matter if they collect 40k tons in a month when 10 times that flowed in the same month.

You've got to stop new stuff flooding in before you can begin to clean it, otherwise you're burning bunker fuel for nothing.

I wonder if there's some fat grant money in play, here.