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What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch?

mnn.com — The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has sometimes been described as a "trash island," but that's a misconception, says Holly Bamford, director of NOAA's Marine Debris Program. If only things were that simple.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 9, 2009

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  • elijahyossie, on 06/09/2009, -1/+38fantastic article, but it's depressing to read how much impact plastic and rubber rubbish is having.
  • unfilterthought, on 06/09/2009, -2/+24Long Island is in the Atlantic.
  • inactive, on 06/09/2009, -5/+27Alex Trebeck: Known as The Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

    (Buzz)

    Jenocide312: Meh, What is Long Island?
  • Hetman, on 06/09/2009, -7/+27"The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we're gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, 'cause that's what it does. It's a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed, and if it's true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new pardigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn't share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn't know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, "Why are we here?" Plastic...*****." GC
  • Cancerkitty, on 06/09/2009, -1/+19I had never heard of this before a couple weeks ago, when they talked about it on The History Channel's series, Life Without People. It's both fascinating and depressing.
  • BeShirtHappy, on 06/09/2009, -2/+20How said that it would be a good (or better) thing if it were as simple as "trash island"...
  • FallenTurtles, on 06/09/2009, -3/+15I wonder if, in a few thousand years, we're going to see marine lifeforms adapt to be able to seek out and digest plastic as a food source.

    Of course, you'd have to believe in that crazy "evolution" scheme to buy that!
  • jboitnott, on 06/09/2009, -0/+10It's bigger than Texas!
  • AmyVernon, on 06/09/2009, -1/+9oh, no you din't!
  • Hetman, on 06/09/2009, -1/+8I would imagine they would though.

    "I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world save for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don't give a ***** about the planet. They don't care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don't. Not in the abstract they don't. You know what they're interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They're worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn't impress me."
  • inactive, on 06/09/2009, -1/+7I can't believe George Carlin is getting dugg down. I never thought I'd see the day.
  • borez, on 06/09/2009, -2/+8"What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch?" It's that thing that pops up on digg every couple of weeks..
  • plaguepony, on 06/09/2009, -0/+6There was a great Skeptoid Podcast on this Topic. It discusses the photo degradation and the popular misconceptions. Take a look at http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4132.
  • lucy22, on 06/09/2009, -1/+6If only they could find a way to scoop up the plastic and remove it from the ocean. I find this article very informative, but sad too.
    I remember when they announced that they had found an airline seat, and then , whoops sorry not from that airline people.
    Way too much garbage, and how many planes have crashed there that there are other airplane seats floating around?
  • Memnochxx, on 06/09/2009, -0/+5This joke was made 6 hours ago.
  • Rivetgeek, on 06/09/2009, -0/+5You are getting dugg down by people too young to remember GPK
  • niner9, on 06/09/2009, -1/+6Garbage Patch Kids....

    The sea creature cousins of the Garbage Pail Kids.
  • Hetman, on 06/09/2009, -0/+5To be fair. We did ban a lot of products that created the ozone hole. Since these items were banned we would assume that the ozone hole should start shrinking which it has.
  • Rivetgeek, on 06/09/2009, -0/+40/10 back to troll school with you, kiddo,
  • nullcodes, on 06/09/2009, -0/+4Yeah, I agree the reason the ozone hole isn't a problem anymore is because of the steps that were taken .. but that means we can solve this garbage patch issue too.
  • divinediva, on 06/09/2009, -1/+5I’m pretty surprised that most of this garbage has apparently been brought into the sea by… wind… or so some claim so
  • MidnightRealism, on 06/09/2009, -0/+4Well, the worry for EVERY generation would be short-sighted morons who can (for example) dismiss a landmass-scale oceanic dump as a non-issue. You retard.
  • nullcodes, on 06/09/2009, -0/+3True, I agree.
  • Hetman, on 06/09/2009, -0/+3I disagree he does have a lot of the answers he was able to critic our society very well. You are just not listening carefully enough. Do not worry though and do not be so mean. "The Big Electron...whoooa. Whoooa. Whoooa. It doesn't punish, it doesn't reward, it doesn't judge at all. It just is. And so are we. For a little while." Gc
  • inactive, on 06/09/2009, -0/+3They took steps to fix the ozone problem. It didn't just resolve itself.
  • unfilterthought, on 06/09/2009, -1/+4or they would become extinct. Cause you know...evolution is part of that too.
  • imautobot, on 06/09/2009, -0/+3Go swim in it and get back to me.
  • elementop, on 06/09/2009, -0/+3You, however, are at least honest enough to admit it. That's a good thing.
  • pingpants, on 06/09/2009, -0/+3The seagull cut-open and found filled with trash is awful.
  • quanta88, on 06/10/2009, -0/+2Unfortunately the plastic can't just be scooped or vacuumed up...it's actually a soup of plastic bits that can be microscopic in size, and it's mixed and coated with ocean life like plankton.

    TEDTalks has a 7 minute video from Charles Moore with some pictures of what it looks like. It's pretty gross:

    http://www.ted.com/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the ...
  • bradleyland, on 06/10/2009, -0/+2Ever heard of MRSA? Some bacteria have extremely short life cycles and high reproductive rates, so their ability to adapt is rapidly accelerated. Conditions that kill off most of a population only serve to accelerate the adaptive process.

    Don't get me wrong, it's a long way from plant-based food to plastics, but there are already bacteria that can eat plastic, so it's not as far off as you may think.
  • amorrise, on 06/09/2009, -0/+2With a Ricky Ricardo accent?
  • erydan, on 06/09/2009, -0/+2Isn't called "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here"?
  • bradleyland, on 06/09/2009, -0/+2We already know of bacteria that can use some types of plastics as a food source, but be careful what you wish for. Plastics are popular because they're durable. What happens if your favorite building material suddenly becomes susceptible to degradation at the hands of some microorganism with a penchant for long-chain polymers?
  • pinserz, on 06/09/2009, -0/+2that was a great show actually
  • jj101, on 06/09/2009, -0/+2@askantik - Can things like bacteria not evolve much more quickly? I'm pretty sure really small life (for want of a better description) can evolve far more rapidly than things that have to reproduce sexually and live for ages.

    bradleylands point about why this would probably be a bad thing is spot on IMO.
  • ifruit, on 06/09/2009, -1/+3Walllllllllllllllllllllllll-E
  • askantik, on 06/09/2009, -0/+2A few thousand years is a quick time for anything to happen evolutionarily... especially something as drastic as that.
  • dmunkey, on 06/09/2009, -0/+2i think at least twice within the month
  • ifruit, on 06/09/2009, -0/+2It's in your mom's pants.
  • imautobot, on 06/09/2009, -1/+2The most accurate answer is..... SOCIALISM. Socialism causes horrible things to happen all over the world, this is just one of those unthinkable things! And now you know the truth, as told by FOX news.
  • imautobot, on 06/09/2009, -0/+1Every state should have bottle and can deposits. Like 95% of California's bottles and can't get recycled because of it!
  • rjshatz, on 06/09/2009, -0/+1Knows how to party?
  • nextekcarl, on 06/09/2009, -1/+2Then we need some massive wind farms to take all the energy out of the wind so we can protect the oceans!
  • LoveOurOcean, on 08/05/2009, -0/+1Wow great article! We actually featured Holly Bamford as a Cool Scientist on our website, http://www.DiveIntoYourImagination.com. The coolest part is that Annie Crawley, the creator of Dive Into Your Imagination, is out with Project Kaisei and Scripps on a 3 week expedition to the garbage patch! You can stay updated on their progress at any of these websites:

    http://facebook.com/DiveIntoYourImagination
    http://kaisei.blipback.com/
    http://www.twitter.com/DiveImagination
  • Philbert, on 06/09/2009, -0/+1I was just coming to ask if anyone thought of Garbage Pail Kids.
  • jj101, on 06/09/2009, -0/+1No its not. Its about the size of France.
  • alffa66, on 06/10/2009, -0/+1Converting the plastic debris to Diesel fuel is a great solution ... could the same be done with plastic water bottles that everyone uses just once?
  • imautobot, on 06/09/2009, -0/+1Ba-ZING!
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