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Yet another man-made crisis – Emerging with that?


Kip Hansen’s opinion – January 1st 2022

Just in time to ring in the New Year – New Crisis!

CRISIS / ˈkraɪ sɪs /:

“A situation has reached a critical stage”

or, alternately, “specific, unexpected and unconventional events or sequences of events [create] high degree of uncertainty and perceived threat or threat to [a society’s] high priority goals. ”

And, of course, this crisis is man-made. Artificial in two senses:

1) Caused by something humanity is doing

and

2) is a situation that would normally be considered an interesting issue that has been declared a CRISIS! by a few dozen well-positioned single issue advocates.

Supporters of this crisis are endowed with social influence by the fact that they Scientists. Not only scientists but scientists have been (self) appointed to a important committee of a important scientific organization. Which of the scientific bodies is extremely important? August, venerable, always completely accurate and completely reliable US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, often referred to simply as National Academy.

They, not the National Academy itself, but the members of “Committee on U.S. Contributions to Plastic Waste in the Global Ocean, has stated clearly and frankly:

“In the United States, ocean plastic waste has become a top public concern, but the growing plastic waste crisis has spanned decades.. ”

And what is this ocean plastic waste crisis made up of?

“Sampling at the ocean surface has allowed scientists to assess the large-scale accumulation of debris floating in ocean basins, which occurs in oceanic pools in both the northern and southern hemispheres. male. These areas of accumulation, commonly referred to as “garbage patches”, are mainly composed of microplastics that have broken off from larger objects, although large floating debris (especially derelict fishing gear, including nets, buoys and buoys) were also found”. [ source ]

You may be confused by the language used, even if you are a native English speaker. “Large-scale accumulation” is not “debris floating in ocean basins” at all, although the report makes that claim unequivocally, while making it clear that the patches are not. exist (but were once very popular in advocacy)”is mainly composed of microplastics that have been broken off from larger items”.

Just what are these dangerous microplastics? They are pieces of plastic between 4 and 120 micrometers in size, in inches how big it is (it’s the National Academy of America, after all)

From one-tenth of an inch and a half to five thousandths of an inch.

To see microplastics, you usually need a microscope. Your eyes can distinguish a fine grain of sand, if you put it on a contrast colored paper and you should be able to see a bit of microplastics at 120um if displayed similarly (well, younger people can, I don’t). But even young people cannot see something as small as 4um in diameter without the aid of a microscope.

Almost all of the plastic pollution that creates crises in the oceans is so small you can’t see it. This admission is consistent with my personal experience. Like Nils-Axel Morner, I am a devoted fan of the “Oh is that so? Let me see for myself”-proof case. Until I retired 5 years ago, I spent half of my adult life living at sea in boats and ships, as a professional sailor and Captain of ships. my own. I have a lot sea ​​miles under my belt. To actually see something floating in the sea is so rare it always requires closer inspection at least with binoculars or sometimes by a brief divergence from one’s intended course to” go see”. Failure to investigate an object large enough to be seen at any distance was considered negligent by the Captains I served under, and I followed suit as a Captain. The “garbage patch” is a deceptive invention – a myth.

Here’s a view of the worst area of ​​the Pacific Landfill:

You can read the full 211-page National Academy report.”Challenging the US’s role in global ocean plastic waste (2021)in .pdf format by downloading it here.

The most authentic of the report is presented in this image (originally from Law 2017):

It does at least show that ocean plastic, where it was found, fragmented into smaller and smaller pieces and then underwent (despite the “?”) biodegradation. What is biology? Plastic doesn’t last forever as you might think, but is broken down into smaller pieces and then into simpler chemical compounds, which are literally eaten by bacteria and other nasty creatures living in the sea. black.

The image below explains the repeated findings of nets trolling across the sea in search of floating fish plastic (which comes from the ocean) – below a certain size, the number of pieces of plastic, increases with age. multiplier as the larger pieces break into many smaller pieces. decreases to 0 as the size decreases. Like ice chips in a glass of water, as the size decreases, the ratio of surface area to volume increases. The organism that eats the plastic from the outside will eventually consume the entire small part.

In all ocean basins, as the particle size decreases due to natural fragmentation, especially when the size drops below 0.5 mm, the number of detectable plastic particles rapidly becomes zero. Supporters of the Plastic Waste Crisis simply don’t address this dazzling scientific fact – it doesn’t contribute to their agenda.

The trumpet crisis Microplastics! involves plastic bits ranging from 4 to 120 micrometers – 4um is 0.004 mm and 120um is 0.12mm – both are below the vanishing point on the chart above.

If you read the Academy report, you’ll discover that the entire crisis is based on a new and evolving ability to detect such tiny bits of plastic – the amount of plastic that goes into the oceans is used up. in reporting, even by the most tolerant scientific standards. , merely guess old guess young. These SWAGs are then used in overconfident computer models to generate even more alarming estimates of total microplastic bits and potential harms, although very few cases have been documented. of any real harm (Creatures can become entangled clumps of discarded fishing nets and such, but not microplastics). As with other invented crises, the presence of a single thing is defined as harm.

Bottom line:

1. There isn’t any plastic-related crisis. Any claims to the contrary are fictitious.

2. Plastics are just another type of hydrocarbon compounds, created and used by many people because of their ability to remain intact in many conditions and for long periods of time. Both are features not bugs.

3. It is not true that “Plastic is Forever”. Plastic is decomposed, decomposed, and literally consumed by Earth’s life forms, all based on carbon.

4. Plastics are made from petroleum and its by-products. Petroleum turns into plastic instead of being burned to absorb energy that carbon over a long period of time like trees… .and is eventually broken down by Nature into other chemical compounds, such as methane.

5. However, the Kindergarten Rules apply at all stages and areas of life: Pick up – pick up your own mess. So we need to do all we can to keep all waste, including plastic, responsibly stored and disposed of – which keeps it out of the oceans and the rest of the environment. natural field.

6. Plastic is great value and should be recycledd whenever possible into a useful and valuable commodity, such as an alternative to plywood, shipping pallets, etc. Non-recyclable plastics are a valuable source of energy when burned in equipment clean design Factory turns waste into energy.

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Author’s comment:

I’ve written a lot about plastics over the past decade. You can Find more essays using this link.

None of our society’s waste ends up in the ocean – either by the roadside or in the woods. But creating a crisis from almost nothing is not helpful.

Lady Bird Johnson taught my generation to “put your trash in the trash” and I have had a long-standing habit of putting candy wrappers and other pieces of trash in the back pocket – often to my wife’s dismay.

The horse-riding ocean plastic hobby is a far cry from all the other anti-oil frenzy.

By the way, while clumps of fishing nets and floating plastic ropes are a danger to shipping because they can get caught in a ship’s propeller – which I know from sad personal experience – they are also Floating coral reefs and excellent habitats for countless marine life in the high seas.

Hope you all have a happy, prosperous, productive and healthy new year.

Thanks for reading.

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