WAR ON MOTHER NATURE: We Are Rapidly Approaching An Environmental Catastrophe - Plastic Waste In The Ocean WILL OUTNUMBER FISH BY 2050! [VIDEO]

The study says that plastic waste entering the ocean is one to three orders of magnitude greater than the reported mass of floating plastic debris
in high-concentration ocean gyres and also globally.

April 16, 2016 - OCEANS - A dump truck full of plastic is unloaded into the sea every minute, and experts say the situation is growing worse, with plastic debris expected to outnumber fish by 2050.

With plastic production currently at a twentyfold increase since 1964, generating 311m tonnes in 2014, a new report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has revealed we are rapidly approaching an environmental catastrophe — especially where the world's oceans are concerned. This number is expected to double in the next 20 years and almost quadruple by 2050.

New plastics will use 20% of all oil within 35 years, which stands at around 7% today. And, despite the increasing demand, a mere 5% of all plastics are recycled successfully — with 40% ending up in landfills and a third in delicate ecosystems like the ocean. The remainder tends to be burned to generate energy, which has its own environmental impact not only in the pollution this practice generates, but also because it causes more fossil fuels to be used in order to make new plastic products like bags, cups, tubs and consumer devices.

A sea of plastic

One of the more shocking details in the report addresses how, by 2050, we will have more plastic in the ocean than fish. Sit with that for a moment. The day will come in the not so distant future where the sea will be so clogged with plastic debris, fish will be in the minority.

The report states that every year "at least 8m tonnes of plastics leak into the ocean - which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute. If no action is taken, this is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030 and four per minute by 2050. In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish [by weight]."

This scenario isn't only horrifying from an aesthetic point of view, the environmental impact has far-reaching ramifications. Think bisphenol A (BPA), DDT, PCBs — three exceptionally toxic chemicals present in plastic. BPA causes a number of disorders, including cancer, diabetes, infertility and obesity. DDT is linked with cancer, miscarriages, low birth weight, male infertility, developmental delay, nervous system and liver damage. PCBs also contribute to cancer and are linked with disorders of the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems.

All three poisons endanger wildlife as well. So much so that UK whales and dolphins are at risk of extinction because of high levels of PCBs in the environment. Another example that illustrates how utterly toxic our oceans have become is when scientists discovered yogurt cups, food wrappers and a shoe in the stomach of a dead orca. How did we arrive at such a point of madness?

Unfortunately, when plastic breaks down, poisons leach into the environment — especially the ocean. Fish are also attracted to these colorful bits and eat them, which invariably saturates their tissues with toxins. In the end, the chemicals arrive on our dinner plates.

As observed in Plastic is Killing the Planet and Our Health — Here's How We Can Turn the Tide:

"Here's the catch: every piece of plastic that was ever made is still with us today as it was designed to last — and it does, for hundreds of years. The ecosystem and our health are choked by it. What will the planet look like in the not so distant future with the ever increasing influx of this hardwearing material? It's a sobering thought and one that doesn't have an easy answer."

What can we do?

The first step in reducing our plastic load is to become informed. The documentary Plastic Paradise is an excellent place to start. We can also get industry on-board to help mitigate the problem.

"One part of the solution is to rethink the way goods are packaged, cutting the demand for plastic. Water-soluble film, for example, can be used to wrap small items. Hard-to-recycle plastics such as PVC and expandable polystyrene could be phased out. [...]

Manufacturers could redesign plastic items so they can be reused better, and rethink their production methods to make recycling easier. More products could be made out of plastics which can be composted on an industrial scale, including rubbish bags for organic waste and food packaging for outdoor events, canteens and fast food outlets." [source]

As consumers, we have tremendous power in turning the plastic tide. Environmentally friendly ideas include:

• Reject single use plastic bags, food containers and bottles
• Rethink shampoo, dish and laundry soap
• Petition your favorite brands to fa

• vor biodegradable packaging like paper and glass
• Contact your local stores and educate them about the damaging effects of plastic
• Avoid synthetic fabrics and opt for hemp, wool, cotton or silk instead
• Swap out plastic wrap and bags
• Seek out supplement brands that aren't housed in plastic
• Don't purchase or consume canned food
• If you have children, choose natural toys

For further details about the above suggestions, click here.

There are several bright spots on the eco-friendly horizon, such as a plastic eating mushroom and a small household device developed in Japan that converts plastic waste into heating oil, gasoline, kerosene and diesel.

As wonderful as these developments are, we are still faced with an overload of plastic - and it will only become worse. Until we get a handle on the underlying problem of consumption and waste, innovative technologies will simply be a Band-Aid for a larger problem. Article sources:

• www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/19/more-plastic-than-fish-in-the-sea-by-2050-warns-ellen-macarthur
• www.ecowatch.com/2016/01/20/more-plastic-than-fish-in-ocean

WATCH: Plastic Paradise - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Trailer.

About the author:

Carolanne Wright enthusiastically believes if we want to see change in the world, we need to be the change. As a nutritionist, natural foods chef and wellness coach, Carolanne has encouraged others to embrace a healthy lifestyle of organic living, gratefulness and joyful orientation for over 13 years.

Through her website Thrive-Living.net, she looks forward to connecting with other like-minded people from around the world who share a similar vision. You can also follow Carolanne on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. - Wake Up World.

 

WAR ON MOTHER NATURE: Full Scale Of Plastic Pollution In The World's Oceans Revealed For First Time - OVER FIVE TRILLION Pieces Of Plastic!

Plastic pieces in the ocean damage wildlife and enter the food chain when ingested by fish. Photograph: Bryce Groark/Alamy

December 14, 2014 - EARTH - Over five trillion pieces of plastic are floating in our oceans says most comprehensive study to date on plastic pollution around the world

More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world's oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found.

Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a minimum of 5.25tn plastic particles in the oceans, most of them "micro plastics" measuring less than 5mm.

The volume of plastic pieces, largely deriving from products such as food and drink packaging and clothing, was calculated from data taken from 24 expeditions over a six-year period to 2013. The research, published in the journal PLOS One, is the first study to look at plastics of all sizes in the world's oceans.

Large pieces of plastic can strangle animals such as seals, while smaller pieces are ingested by fish and then fed up the food chain, all the way to humans.

This is problematic due to the chemicals contained within plastics, as well as the pollutants that plastic attract once they are in the marine environment.

"We saw turtles that ate plastic bags and fish that ingested fishing lines," said Julia Reisser, a researcher based at the University of Western Australia. "But there are also chemical impacts. When plastic gets into the water it acts like a magnet for oily pollutants.

"Bigger fish eat the little fish and then they end up on our plates. It's hard to tell how much pollution is being ingested but certainly plastics are providing some of it."

The researchers collected small plastic fragments in nets, while larger pieces were observed from boats. The northern and southern sections of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans were surveyed, as well as the Indian ocean, the coast of Australia and the Bay of Bengal.

The vast amount of plastic, weighing 268,940 tonnes, includes everything from plastic bags to fishing gear debris.

While spread out around the globe, much of this rubbish accumulates in five large ocean gyres, which are circular currents that churn up plastics in a set area. Each of the major oceans have plastic-filled gyres, including the well-known 'great Pacific garbage patch' that covers an area roughly equivalent to Texas.

Reisser said traversing the large rubbish-strewn gyres in a boat was like sailing through "plastic soup."

"You put a net through it for half an hour and there's more plastic than marine life there," she said. "It's hard to visualise the sheer amount, but the weight of it is more than the entire biomass of humans. It's quite an alarming problem that's likely to get worse."

The research found that the gyres themselves are likely to contribute to the problem, acting as "shredders" to the plastic before dispersing it.

"Our findings show that the garbage patches in the middle of the five subtropical gyres are not the final resting places for the world's floating plastic trash," said Marcus Eriksen, another of the report's co-authors. "The endgame for micro-plastic is interactions with entire ocean ecosystems."

The research, the first of its kind to pull together data on floating plastic from around the world, will be used to chart future trends in the amount of debris in the oceans.

But researchers predict the volume will increase due to rising production of throwaway plastic, with only 5% of the world's plastic currently recycled.

"Lots of things are used once and then not recycled," Reisser said. "We need to improve our use of plastic and also monitor plastics in the oceans so we get a better understanding of the issue.

"I'm optimistic but we need to get policy makers to understand the problem. Some are doing that - Germany has changed the policy so that manufacturers are responsible for the waste they produce. If we put more responsibility on to the producer then that would be part of the solution." - Guardian.

THE WAR ON MOTHER NATURE: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch - We Are Literally Filling Up The Pacific Ocean With Plastic! [VIDEO]

June 20, 2014 - EARTH - We are starting to see that there are very serious consequences for filling up our oceans with massive amounts of plastic that never biodegrades. In fact, this is one of the greatest environmental disasters of all time and yet you rarely hear it talked about.

thehigherlearning.com

Virtually every molecule of plastic ever created still exists somewhere, and we all use things made out of plastic every single day. But have you ever stopped to think about what happens to all of that plastic? Well, the truth is that a lot of it ends up in our oceans. In fact, humanity produces approximately 200 billion pounds of plastic every year, and about 10 percent of that total ends up in our oceans. In other words, we are slowly but steadily filling up our oceans with our garbage. In the North Pacific Ocean, there is a vast area where so much plastic has collected that it has become known as "the Great Pacific Garbage Patch" and as "the Pacific Trash Vortex". This "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" stretches from Hawaii to Japan, and it has been estimated to be larger than the entire continental United States. It contains more than 100 million tons of plastic, and every single year it gets even larger.

When people hear the term "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", they expect to find millions of plastic bottles floating around out there. But that is not what we are dealing with. You see, when plastic gets into the ocean it never biodegrades, but it does photodegrade. So what we end up with is a "plastic soup" of billions upon billions of microscopic pieces of plastic. Some are approximately the size of your pinkie fingernail, but most of the pieces are much smaller.


WATCH: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Even though all sorts of different kinds of garbage get into our oceans, plastic is of particular concern.

Yes, it breaks down into smaller components, but it never goes away. So the plastic bottle that you toss overboard today will still be there in some form a hundred years from now. And this creates some major league problems...

The main problem with plastic - besides there being so much of it - is that it doesn't biodegrade. No natural process can break it down. (Experts point out ­that the durability that makes plastic so useful to humans also makes it quite harmful to nature.) Instead, plastic photodegrades. A plastic cigarette lighter cast out to sea will fragment into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic without breaking into simpler compounds, which scientists estimate could take hundreds of years. The small bits of plastic produced by photodegradation are called mermaid tears or nurdles.

Perhaps the biggest danger that all of this plastic poses is to our food chain.

According to Captain Charles Moore, plastic is found in a significant percentage of the fish that his team catches...

"35 percent of the fish that we caught out there had an average of two pieces of plastic in their stomach."

But fish are only part of the story. Just check out the following excerpt from an excellent Wikipedia article...

Some of these long-lasting plastics end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals, and their young, including sea turtles and the Black-footed Albatross. Midway Atoll receives substantial amounts of marine debris from the patch. Of the 1.5 million Laysan Albatrosses that inhabit Midway, nearly all are found to have plastic in their digestive system. Approximately one-third of their chicks die, and many of those deaths are due to being fed plastic from their parents. Twenty tons of plastic debris washes up on Midway every year with five tons of that debris being fed to Albatross chicks.

That is just tragic.

But what we are witnessing now is just the beginning. The plastic soup in our oceans is starting to block sunlight from reaching the algae and plankton that form the very base of the food chain.

And that could rapidly become an absolutely massive crisis.

If we start wiping out the algae and the plankton, that could cause a chain reaction up and down the marine food chain. The following is how National Geographic describes what we could be facing...

If algae and plankton communities are threatened, the entire food web may change. Animals such as fish and turtles that feed on algae and plankton will have less food. If those animals start to die, there will be less food for predator species such as tuna, sharks, and whales.

In turn, that could ultimately mean a lot less food out of the oceans for humanity.

And already, vast portions of the Pacific Ocean appear to be "dying". In a previous article, I included a quote from a very experienced Australian adventurer in which he stated that he felt as though "the ocean itself was dead" as he journeyed from Japan to San Francisco recently...

The next leg of the long voyage was from Osaka to San Francisco and for most of that trip the desolation was tinged with nauseous horror and a degree of fear.

"After we left Japan, it felt as if the ocean itself was dead," Macfadyen said.

"We hardly saw any living things. We saw one whale, sort of rolling helplessly on the surface with what looked like a big tumour on its head. It was pretty sickening.

"I've done a lot of miles on the ocean in my life and I'm used to seeing turtles, dolphins, sharks and big flurries of feeding birds. But this time, for 3000 nautical miles there was nothing alive to be seen."

In place of the missing life was garbage in astounding volumes.

"Part of it was the aftermath of the tsunami that hit Japan a couple of years ago. The wave came in over the land, picked up an unbelievable load of stuff and carried it out to sea. And it's still out there, everywhere you look."

What in the world would cause vast areas of the Pacific Ocean to appear to be "dead"?

In addition to all of the plastic in the ocean, it is also certainly possible that the Fukushima nuclear disaster is playing a huge role in the enormous changes that we have been witnessing in the Pacific. For much more on that, please see my previous article entitled Japan Begins Purposely Dumping 100s Of Tons Of Radioactive Water From Fukushima Into The Pacific.

In any event, it is undeniable that conditions in the Pacific Ocean are getting worse with each passing year.

And every single day more garbage, more plastic and more radioactive water from Fukushima gets added to the mix.

If future generations get the chance, they will probably look back on us as "the crazy plastic people". Nearly everything that we buy comes wrapped or contained in this substance that we know won't biodegrade. But we keep dumping hundreds of billions of pounds of it into our landfills and into our oceans without ever considering the consequences.

There is no way that we are ever going to be able to clean up the "plastic soup" that we have created in the Pacific Ocean. But it would be nice if we would stop making it worse every single day.

Sadly, very few people seem interested in doing anything about this very preventable crisis. - The American Dream. 

KILLING MOTHER EARTH: Man-Made Environmental Pollution - 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' Plastic Has Increased Hundredfold Since the 1970s?!

Scientists have found that the massive swirl of plastic waste known as the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' has increased a hundredfold since the early 1970s, which could spell major changes for California and other coastal states.  During a 2009 expedition, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers took water samples 1,000 miles west of California, and then compared the amount of plastic they detected with samples dating back to 1972. 

While many of the samples taken 40 years ago included little or no plastic, vast stretches of the North Pacific are now polluted with billions of tiny pieces of confetti-like trash that come from flotsam and jetsam that is swept into the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone by circulating ocean currents known as a gyre, and is then broken down by winds and waves.  The particles of 'microplastic' - pieces of plastic smaller than 5 milometer in diameter - sit on or near the surface, where they are consumed by fish, sea turtles and other marine animals.  The latest samples show that the garbage patch - which is about the size of Texas - has become much denser: There are roughly 100 times more pieces of plastic per cubic meter of water than were in samples during the 1970s, according to the study cited by the San Jose Mercury News.  'We were really surprised. It is a very large increase,' said Miriam Goldstein, a Ph.D. graduate student in biological oceanography and lead author of the study.  The study, which appeared on Wednesday's online editions of the journal Biology Letters, also found the floating debris makes it easier for the marine insect known as a 'water strider' or 'sea skater'to lay its eggs out over the ocean - a fact that could have negative consequences for other animals.  The bugs - relatives of pond water skaters - normally lay eggs on pieces of wood, feathers, seashells and tar lumps, but now they are taking advantage of the abundant supply of plastic.  Since the insects subsist on zooplankton and fish larvae, an explosion in their population could lead to a reduced food supply for other animals, including fish and turtles, which eat the same prey. More bugs also could mean more food for their predators. 

This latest study comes on the heels of an earlier research conducted last year by Scripps scientists that showed 9 per cent of fish collected on the expedition to the 'Pacific Garbage Patch' in 2009 -- nearly 1 in 10 -- had plastic in their stomachs.  That investigation, published in Marine Ecology Progress Series, estimated that the fish at intermediate ocean depths in the North Pacific Ocean could be ingesting plastic at a rate of roughly 12,000 to 24,000 tons a year, according to BBC News.  Goldstein said that since cleaning up the all plastic trash in the ocean is virtually impossible, prevention is the goal.  'Once a piece of plastic is in the ocean, it is really hard and expensive to get it out again,' she said.  'Historically, we have not been very good at stopping plastic from getting into the ocean, so hopefully in the future we can do better,' Goldstein added. The alarming findings come less than a month after University of Washington oceanographer Giora Proskurowski reported that there is far more plastic in the world's oceans than previously thought.  Proskurowski said that during a research cruise in the Pacific Ocean, he noticed that the surface of the water was littered with tiny specs of plastic, which vanished from sight when the wind suddenly picked up.  Taking water samples from 16 feet, he discovered the wind was pushing the lightweight plastic particles below the surface.  Data collected from just the surface of the water commonly underestimates the total amount of plastic in the water by an average factor of 2.5, according to further research from Proskurowski and his team.  In high winds, the volume of plastic trash could be underestimated by a factor of 27, he reported with Tobias Kukulka, of the University of Delaware, in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

It is expected that as a result of the new findings, there will be more calls for cities and states to ban plastic bags and Styrofoam packaging. In California, 14 billion plastic bags are distributed annually, and only 3 per cent are recycled.  In 2010, the state Senate voted 21-14 to defeat a bill that would have banned plastic bags from being given out at grocery stores and other retailers, after heavy lobbying and donations from the American Chemistry Council and the plastics industry.  Since then, cities and counties have been passing their own bans.  As of this week, 45 California cities and counties including San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland have banned plastic bags in stores. Meanwhile, more than 60 California cities and counties have restricted or banned Styrofoam.  Because about 80 per cent of the trash in the Pacific Ocean comes from land, the alarming findings of this week's study illustrate a need for a change in behaviour, said Kaitilin Gaffney, Pacific program director of the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental group.  'This is a problem created by personal action, and frankly, personal carelessness. Ultimately, we need a behaviour shift,' she said.  'When I was a kid, everybody smoked. Now, most people don't smoke. The solution, really, is to move away from single-use items, and we need people to basically be more thoughtful,' Gaffney added. - Daily Mail.