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So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish


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Capitalism has been very good to a minority of humans and also to the advancement of technology and science.

There may be a better, sustainable way. What it is however i don't know.

I have been dabbling with permaculture concepts and philosophies, it is one positive thing that can be done.

 

My connection is a bit slow to view but i have heard of this sea of plastic

Something Vanderbilt in his Plasticki was trying to bring to world attention.

The scaryist aspect of it is how micro-bits of plastic are getting into phytoplankton and thus entering the food chain!

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Perhaps the phytoplankton enjoy the taste of plastic, Michaelangelica. I'm sure that the seabirds, fish, and whales do. It's our legacy as a throw-away society, where it appears that we don't care if we throw away money, lives, or eventually the planet.

Yes sadly; but then the Japanese, who eat the whales, are living longest.

Perhaps becoming non-biodegradable?!

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Superbad! Awesome! Plans for Cleaning Up all that Plastic" that Americans love and need so much from the place where much of it ends up--the ocean!

 

 

And, just so you can be assured that these Top 5 are really the very BEST Top 5 we can find, we want you to know that our distinguished panel of experts included voices from Dow, BP, almost every government on the planet, a global supermarket chain, lots of toy makers, a big PR firm, a really big bottled water pusher, and a really, really big soda megamultinational.

 

 

So here they are, our Top 5 Superbad! Awesome! Plans for Cleaning up Plastic in the Ocean!

 

 

5. SUCK IT: Yes, in development right now are Electrolux vacuum cleaners that WILL suck up the junk. Governments and people alike will be able to use these amazing products to just suck it up. Yup, just suck the plastic and away it goes! Actually, that's not quite right, these vacuums won't actually suck up the plastic from the ocean, they'll just be made (at least some percentage, anyway) of plastic from the ocean. Sounds great in theory, right? Only problem is: this will make a ball-peen-hammer-sized dent on the problem, but it will raise awareness of the issue among the hard-to-reach, über-influential vacuum cleaner market. And reinforce the circular logic that, if we just buy more designed-for-obsolescence plastic stuff, we'll feel OK because we'll be doing our small part. Brilliant!

 

 

4. LIVE ON IT: With population growth, massive layoffs, and homelessness on the rise, some have suggested gathering plastic from the sea to build a really big island of plastic for people to live on! No need to ever buy a plastic product again, now you can live on it, in it, and with it! Free seasickness patches included with each condo. Superbad!

 

 

3. EAT IT: Then there's the coalition of leading petrochemical conglomerates who created an amazing new product--a global army of plastic-eating bacteria! This will work, right? Just look at how well our massive destroy-the-village-to-save-it solutions, like 2 million gallons of toxic Corexit dispersants on oil in the Gulf of Mexico, have worked. Genetically modified bacteria are a step in the right direction: let's sic them on plastic all over the planet! One small caution: This technology has been thoroughly tested by exactly one high school science fair award winner, but, then again, it has been hyped by the media, so it must be ready for primetime, right? Awesome!

 

 

2. STRAIN IT: Promising to do for plastic what colanders did for pasta, introducing ... The Mongo! Though scientists estimate that there are a mere thirteen-gazillion bits of micro-plastic in the ocean, a consolidated team of petroleum companies will launch a flotilla of 1,000 ships--or, if you're game, just ten whale-sized vessels--all powered by petroleum, of course, and using fabulous new 500-foot-by-500-foot "Mongo" filters to STRAIN it from the water! Once scooped, all those tiny little bits of plastic--and the ocean life that comes with them--can be converted into oil, condos (see #4) and vacuum cleaners (see #5). See, we told you: This list rocks!

 

 

And now ... drum roll please ... the number-one "Plan to Remove Plastic from the Ocean" (an oldie but a goodie):

 

 

1. F**K IT: Let's do nothing! After careful review, our panel of esteemed experts threw up its hands and concluded that our present, do-nothing strategy is working quite well, thank you very much. So they will stick to denigrating "whacko environmentalists," attacking the validity of overwhelming peer-reviewed science (accumulating rapidly since 1974), and continuing to produce a crapload of plastic. Then, we get fat. Then, we die. That's SO pluckfastic!

 

 

And there you have it, folks. Five sure-fire plans, brought to you by the same guys who created the problem, to ensure we can all enjoy another Century of Plastic in comfort, cleanliness, and guilt-free style.

The Top 5 Superbad! Awesome! Plans for Cleaning up Plastic in the Ocean!

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European over-fishing began 1,000 years ago-report

 

Sun May 24, 2009 2:00pm EDT

 

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

 

PARIS, May 24 (Reuters) - Europeans started over-exploiting freshwater fish at least 1,000 years ago, according to historical studies that could help manage depleted modern fish stocks worldwide.

 

Whales teemed in waters off New Zealand in the 19th century and a now almost non-existent cod stock in the Gulf of Maine totalled a huge 70,000 tonnes a year in the mid-19th century, according to historical records.

 

Records reconstructed from everything from Russian monastery purchases to U.S. schooner logs indicate that over-fishing has been happening in many parts of the world for centuries and that fish used to be more abundant, and bigger, than now.

. . .

New fishing boats in the 16th century made it possible to fish in deeper seas and a "real revolution" came in the mid-17th century when pairs of boats started dragging much bigger nets.

 

Blue whales, orcas and dolphins used to be common off Cornwall in southwest England.

 

Examination of records including log books of whalers indicated that populations of the southern right whale off New Zealand totalled 22,000 to 32,000 in the early 19th century. They now total perhaps 1,000 after over-hunting.

European over-fishing began 1,000 years ago-report | Reuters
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"If the point of equilibrium were below this necessary size, it is possible that even the market forces couldn't prevent an extinction"

 

I'm not sure what market model you are referring to there because when I studied economics the model said that the price would go up which would bring suppliers into the market (in this case fisherman) which would then fill the existing demand with the possibility of a sell price reduction because of the increased supply, which would raise demand to a stable equilibrium point (in this case) until there were no more fish because the shortage would create a price increase and propogate the cycle. The free market system is in no way naturally inclined to support conservation of a resource because one of the central tenets is to maximise demand and so supply. The more you can maximise demand the more money there is in it. That means terrific economic growth to salivate over but not much Coral Trout.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Japanese financial giant Nomura profits from lack of fish

 

Japan's list of environmental sins is growing. If it wasn't already pushing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour by killing whales in the Southern Ocean and slaughtering dolphins in Taiji it now seems that Japan's industrial and financial giants want to get in on the act.

Mitsubishi have tried to corner the market by stockpiling 40% of the world's supply of critically endangered bluefin tuna and now Nomura Securities Company appear to be doing similar with other overexploited fish and 'seafood' marine species.

As the world's fisheries fail and demand for fish increases, Nomura hope to make a killing by creating the world's first investment trust specifically targeting global 'seafood' and fisheries related businesses.

 

For more on this story visit here http://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?monthyear=&day=9&id=37607&l=e&special=&ndb=1%20target=

Please sign a petition to stop Nomura Inc. from investing in ocean extinction http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-nomura39s-16-billion-ocean-raid/

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  • 2 months later...

Oceans – time to take out the garbageFriday, 05 November 2010By Christine WilliamsImage: ECOS MagazineWhen the Plastiki – a boat made of 12 500 plastic bottles – arrived in Sydney in July, it alerted Australians to the impact of refuse on our oceans and sea life. In a statement congratulating the Plastiki crew, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) noted that marine debris kills 100 000 turtles and other marine animals – dolphins, whales and seals – each year.The UNEP statement also noted that if we collectively continue using the sea as a dustbin, ‘human beings will soon have turned the once beautiful and bountiful marine environment from a crucial life-support system into a lifeless one’.

. . .Plastic bags constitute a particular problem, as seals and other mammals can mistake them for jellyfish and consume them. Other plastics break down into small edible pieces, and the toxicology of their breakdown is little understood.

. . .

Chicks remain in the nest for 90 days, and it’s during this time that the parent birds ingest plastic, and then download it to their offspring,’ Dr Lavers says.‘In a number of seabird species, chicks containing large plastic loads were found to be significantly lighter and in poorer body condition compared with chicks who were fed less plastic by their parent, so their chance of survival during the first crucial year at sea was likely to be a lot lower.‘On Lord Howe, up to 90 per cent of flesh-footed shearwater chicks were found to have plastic in their stomachs. This plastic has resulted in ulcers, rupturing of the digestive tract, and contamination of the bloodstream with toxins such as mercury and arsenic, which are used in the plastic manufacturing process.’

. . .

Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) organises marine debris surveys across key coastal areas of Australia, including the annual Cobourg Peninsula initiative, which it has run over the past five years.5CVA’s Ms Joanne Davies says the volunteers who take part come from other states and overseas, paying just over $600 for the privilege of picking up rubbish in outstandingly beautiful remote country.Mr Rod Collier, who led two groups of volunteers into the Top End – to Cobourg Peninsula in June this year, and Brown Point in the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in August – hopes there are some signs of improvement.

http://www.scienceal...Latest+Stories)

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  • 3 weeks later...

</h1>

<h1 style="margin-top: 0.25em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 2.5em; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 1; ">Scientists fear mass extinction as oceans choke

By Amy Simmons

 

Updated 50 minutes ago

 

PreviousNextSlideshow: Photo 1 of 2

 

Low oxygen levels, which have been found along south-eastern Australia, are known to increase stress on fish. (Reuters: Ho New)

 

Australian scientists fear the planet is on the brink of another mass extinction as ocean dead zones continue to grow in size and number.

 

More than 400 ocean dead zones - areas so low in oxygen that sea life cannot survive - have been reported by oceanographers around the world between 2000 and 2008.

 

That is compared with 300 in the 1990s and 120 in the 1980s.

 

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (

 

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/30/3080628.htm?section=justin

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