Did they expect it to stand against the mast and look handsome in the breeze? Maybe they got a panicky rabbit and it shredded things and people?
Posted on 07/05/2008 1:01:55 PM PDT by hripka
On the first of June, two men and a rabbit set sail from the port of Long Beach, bound for Hawaii, on a raft made of junk. Their cabin is the cockpit of a Cessna 310, white with a blue racing stripe, salvaged from the desert. It floats on a system of handmade pontoons -- 15,000 plastic bottles held together with recycled nets -- propelled by currents and wind. If it sounds dangerous and makeshift, that's the point. The pilots of Junk, as the vessel is called, want to get your attention.
They are Dr. Marcus Eriksen, director of research and education at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, and Joel Paschal, a former employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (The rabbit was abandoned early on -- to a safe home, not the depths -- after proving a less than seaworthy companion.) Their cause is alerting the world to the fouling of our oceans by plastic debris, and Junk is the poster child ( www.junkraft.com).
Plastic flotsam -- 100 million tons of it -- already litters the oceans of the world. Another 60 billion tons of plastics will be produced this year alone. A particularly dense accumulation of debris can be found in a holding pattern 1,000 miles off the California coast, in an area known as the central North Pacific gyre, the calm core of a convergence of four major ocean currents rotating clockwise under a large high-pressure zone. What gets in there can be trapped for decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Why are they taking the rabbit with them? So they can eat it if they get hungry?
Glad the rabbit's okay.
I saw a picture of a TV set encrusted with barnacles floating in that area. I wonder how it got there?
I would make the case that Liberals, when nobody’s watching, pollute more, less conscientiously.
Governator Arnold, AlGore and John Travolta do it with jets even while we watch.
The Ownership Society idea—not as much that of President G.W. Bush’s but entirely that of the Founding Fathers—is STILL the best approach to keeping things clean, although that’s a bit more difficult to execute on the high seas.
Need I ask? “Where’s the barf alert?!”
The more things change...
From the link’s link through another Google link:
[The potential for ingestion of plastic particles by open ocean filter feeders was assessed by measuring the relative abundance and mass of neustonic plastic and zooplankton near the central high-pressure area of the North Pacific central gyre. Neuston samples were collected at 11 random sites, using a manta trawl lined with 333 u mesh. The abundance and mass of neustonic plastic was the largest recorded in this area at 334,271 pieces/km’ and 5,114 g/km2, respectively. Plankton abundance was approximately five times higher than that of plastic, but the mass of plastic was approximately six times that of plankton. The most frequently sampled types of identifiable plastic were thin films and polypropylene/monofilament line. The most frequently sampled type of unidentified plastic was plastic fragments. Cumulatively, these three types accounted for 98% of the total plastic pieces.]
BTW, that works out to about 15 pounds per square mile or about 37,500 tons for 5 million square miles or about .0006% of the total output of manufactured plastic in the U.S. alone.
Oh, don’t go looking for it, as the article states that it isn’t visible from any overhead viewing apparatus.
IMHO, the Ownership Society is a good idea.
Unfortunately, with the morality, or lack thereof, in the US today, this idea has little chance of success.
A shame.
We should be able to manufacture plastics that are digestible by the plankton and algae in the ocean.
I am surprised at the negative comments. There is nothing conservative about litter. I am as conservative as they come, and I hate to see the trash people leave behind in beautiful spots. You don't have to be an environmental wacko to dislike people using oceans, rivers, and mountain peaks as their own personal trash dump.
Tragedy of the Commons
Yeah, right. Nine tons per person, worldwide. I, for one, am not getting my share. They must be dumping it all in the ocean.
I agree.
Did they expect it to stand against the mast and look handsome in the breeze? Maybe they got a panicky rabbit and it shredded things and people?
Don’t forget, the ocean is a rabbits natural habitat. There must have been something wrong with their rabbit. /sarc off
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