The Scotsman – Wed 28 Dec 2005:
THOUSANDS of seabirds are being killed each year after a massive rise in plastics pollution in the North Sea, according to a new report. Studies on the bodies of 600 fulmars washed up on beaches revealed that 95 per cent had plastic litter in their stomachs – with an average of 40 pieces of plastic per bird.
Mark Grantham, of the British Trust for Ornithology, said yesterday: “Plastics pollution is a chronic problem in the North Sea. Heaven knows where some of this plastic comes from. They’ve found everything from balloons to shotgun cartridges in the birds’ stomachs. But the commonest is beads of raw plastic before it is formed.”
I usually think that environmentalists are a bunch of wackos. But we certainly cannot continue dumping raw waste into our oceans and think nothing bad will happen.
I won’t be convinced of anything until scientists fail to find plastic in the bellies of live seabirds. After looking for it, that is.
Environmentalists aren’t a bunch of wackos. Radical ones are. And the rest of the world, of course. Maybe true environmentalists are the only sane people on earth…
Slightly related to this, a few years ago I read somewhere that a study in Germany showed that human breastmilk had 4 times the ammount of toxic contaminants allowed for cow milk (!!!) and therefore a reccomendation was issued for mothers to stop breatfeeding their babies…
Now isn’t that great?
Palstics in the environment are an increasing concern. I have witness several dead endangered leatherback sea turtles with stomachs full of plastic bags. I even had the opportunity to pull a garbage bag out of the cloaca (tail) of a nesting turtle. Story here: http://www.floridaleatherbacks.com/interact/2005_04_17_archive.html
I know that all the time I’ve spent on a navy ship, we dumped plenty of garbage into the sea every night, but all plastics were melted down and stored until we hit port.
Yeah I was listening to NPR the other day (commuting 1 hr each way = radio time), and they had this really interesting guy on there who tracks the flotsam that washes up on beaches around the world… anyway, he mentioned that there are some beaches that have several inches to several feet of ground plastic strewn all over them (plastic snow).
Apparently plastic can be broken down so much that it can enter the food chain (I can only assume he was speaking about hydrocarbon plastic, not corn based polymers) – The discussion came back to me when I read this article, thought I’d mention it.
I usually think that environmentalists are a bunch of wackos.
Dear John , could you explain me why you have this point of view.
I find it disturbing that you as a tech savy american have this opinion.
It makes me wonder. Do all americans think like this?
Haven’t you heard anything about the pollution, which has been going on since the beginning of the 20th century?
If we continue this way, our world will be destroyed. There will be no more oil. Several important species will be instinct. The North pole will melt. Thanks to the pollution, smog and additives in products far more people die and will die of cancer. I can go on with this list forever , please don’t tell me that you don’t believe anything of it and just believe in economy over all.
Response to frank kramer…
Dude, seriously?… Polution is a fact of life – In the early days of the Earth, the atmosphere was primarily composed of Methane and Nitrogen. Then a organism came along that figured out how to make energy from sunlight (aka chlorophyll). The result was Oxygen (a pollutant at that time) released into the atmosphere – causing rusting (oxidation), and generally wreaking havoc with the “system” as it was then.
When you consume, you pollute. Cancer is a part of life, ice melting is a part of life, and death is a part of life. Live with it, or shuffle yourself off of the mortal coil – but if you do, please do it somewhere where we cant see your bloating corpse “polluting” the area.
Thanks!!
You are a real demagogue tallwookie, could you you explain me now why the number of people suffering from cancer has increased, the icicle melting has increased, how whe are going to fuel the society when there’s no more oil. (not with those evil wind and solar energy is it).
Of course death is apart of life, I just hope for you that God wil forgive you for your egoism when he sees you.
my favorite is all the vegans who would rather fill up landfills with their synthetics clothes made to look like animal products than to use the real thing, which is bio-degradable.
Well Frank, I dont really want to start a flamer here, I doubt Mr. D. would approve.
However, some of you points are really lacking in logic (as far as I can see anyway).
1. Population growth = more deaths. (by whatever cause you can name, and then some).
2. Climate changes. There are geological records that the Earth has gone through 4 major ice ages in the last 2.7 billion years, and countless smaller ice ages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age).
3. In addition to solar and wind power, there is geothermal, nuclear, piezoelectric, biomass based… the list goes on and on. Energy based on hydrocarbons isnt the only answer.
4. Everyone is entitled to their own belief’s, thats one of the great things about this country. My personal belief is there is no “god”, but i dont force it on other people.
Dear Talkiewookie.
I just want to make you think about some of my points of view.( as well as other Americans), indeed that’s one of the great things abotu your country; to be entitled to have your own opinion.
1You say that the increase of cancer is caused by the population growth. I am sorry, but I dont believe that. Since the beginning of the 20th century pollution has increased. I name a few substances: asbestos, micro particles(very small particles).CO2, sigarettes etc
2 There are, of course, climatological records of climate changes.
Earth has had some very ‘bad ‘climatological changes, but this one is veru bad for ‘us’ the people and if we can do anything to avoid that, I think we should ‘try’to do that.
3 The energy sources you mention are not durable. they leave a lot of radioactive waste.
4 I really don’t want you you to think that I am forcing God onto you.
I just thought you believed in God and I wanted you to think about about the fact that your God might not believe in your ideas.
Dear Frank,
I’m trying to have a logical discussion with you here, I’m not trying to get into a flame war (if I did, you would get seriously burned – and pwned). Additionally, you need to pay more attention to your spelling and grammar, last post looked a *little* sloppy (hard to understand at times as well).
Since we’ve decided that each of us is entitled to our own belief’s, then I will repect your belief, even though I believe it is wrong. Dead wrong.
How can you mention cigarettes as a cause for global polution? Where is the logic there?
The energy sources that I mentioned are perfectly durable, not as simple to implement as the small-gas-engine, but perfecly durable just the same. Significant strides forward ahve been made in nuclear science in the last few years. They are not commercially viable right now, but they will be.
Try not to assume that everyone shares your opinions, thats a flawed belief right there.
Dear Tallwookie
Thank you for your answer,I am sorry I spelled your name wrong, I hope it doesn’t prevent you from listening to my arguments.
if I did, you would get seriously burned – and pwned),
I would like to see some evidence for that, this is just talking without arguments.
I don’t think that cigarettes are the cause of global pollution, where do you get get that idea from?
I just mentioned in my previous post that cigarettes, along with asbestos have increased the number of deaths caused by cancer to the American public. Is it a secret here that tobacco companies knew about the dangers of cigarette smoking before the public knew? They even tried to cover up this danger to the publics health.
I am very sorry, but I don’t believe you when you say things like “The energy sources that I mentioned are perfectly durable, not as simple to implement as the small-gas-engine, but perfecly durable just the same. Significant strides forward ahve been made in nuclear science in the last few years.
Where do we leave the radioactive nuclear waste? Oh we just dump it somewhere and have our children sort the mess out.
And for your final comment “Try not to assume that everyone shares your opinions, thats a flawed belief right there.”
I am perfectly aware that the USA doesn’t give a shit about its children who are growing up in this mess. I just want to tell you that there are other people, who don’t believe in this shit Bush and his allies tells us.
The biggest lie is that if you are against the Bush, you are unpatriotic.
This is ther same lie Hitler told the german people, so much for freedom off thought
um… ok this discussion has metamorphed into some sort of political/theological discussion, far from what I had originally intended. Our discussion responses have taken control of this thread, so now I’m going to conced to you Frank, because quite honestly, I dont care about it. Your responses keep getting more and more retarded, and you keep taking some wierd tangents off of my responses.
If you want to continue this discussion somewhere else (aka off Mr. D’s site), then let me know.
You win. Gratz. *sound of one hand clapping*
How about planes on trans-Alantic or trans-Pacific flights? The black-ice or whatever they call the rubbish that they dump out? I doubt they have a flight-attendent going into the fuselage to sort out the plastics and burn it while letting the other “recycleable” stuff go ya? 🙂
When it comes to environmentalists I prefer to shut up because not matter what I say I know that nothing will change any time soon. What makes me say that? I’ll give you a simple example: after all these asbestos public lawsuits and after all the victims we continue to expose ourselves to asbestos risks because there are plenty buildings that have asbestos. Franky I don’t feel too safe right now…