Wonder if the guys (let’s assume it’s guys) in the media exaggerating this have also been exaggerating about the size of, um, more personal things?
An Oregon State University researcher has found that the media has been exaggerating the size of the “Great Garbage Patch” found between California and Japan.
Angelicque White, an assistant professor of oceanography at Oregon State University, has studied the “Great Garbage Patch” and all of the media stories surrounding it, and concluded that most media reports have grossly overestimated the size of this garbage patch.
White came to this conclusion after taking part in an expedition where the objective was to understand how much plastic debris is out there and how it affects the surrounding environment, such as microbial communities. […] With her research backing her up, White says that the media has exaggerated the size of the “Great Garbage Patch,” making claims like the oceans are filled with more plastic than plankton, or that the patch is twice the size of Texas and has been growing tenfold each decade since 1950.
“There is no doubt that the amount of plastic in the world’s oceans is troubling, but this kind of exaggeration undermines the credibility of scientists,” said White.
Wish it wasn’t there…
I asked a friend of mine that’s a marine biologist based out of San Diego about this a couple of months ago and he told me that it’s bogus and blown totally out of proportion.
Double the size of Texas is pretty f’in big.
What a shock that the media blew it out of proportion!!!!!
Good grief…
The media is rapidly showing its uselessness as are politicized scientists. It is like watching a race of stupid people from some old cartoon…
They cannot write TV this good!!!
I read an article recently claiming there were an estimated 5 million pieces of plastic floating in the Mediterranean.
After reading a few paragraphs the truth was that someone had done an analysis on several dozen square meters of sea water from the Mediterranean and counted all the microscopic plastic particles, and then extrapolated the number assuming even distribution throughout the entire sea.
So, Hysterical headline + Bad science = Bullshit news story.
Scientific Scam #2 – This Time by the Media
and #1?
The award goes to:
Scientific Scam #1 – Global Warming Nutcases
“What’s equally as troubling as the effect on the microbial community is the hyperbole the media has been spreading regarding the garbage patch. White says there are four clarifications that need to be made regarding what people have heard about the garbage patch. First, the amount of energy it would take to take the plastic patch out of the ocean is 250 times the mass of the plastic itself. Second, plastic also covers the ocean floor, but little is known about how much is actually down there. According to a recent survey, about three percent of the Southern California Bight’s ocean floor is covered with plastic. Third, White says you cannot see or quantify plastic from space. Most of the plastic isn’t even visible from a boat deck. Finally, there are areas of the ocean that are no polluted at all, such as remote areas between Easter Island and Chile.
“If there is a takeaway message, it’s that we should consider it good news that the ‘garbage patch’ doesn’t seem to be as bad as advertised,” said White. “But since it would be prohibitively costly to remove the plastic, we need to focus our efforts on preventing more trash from fouling our oceans in the first place.””
OK,
these are the last 2 paragraphs..
READ between the lines..
There are many types of plastic. AND TONS of it lay on the bottom of the ocean.
Was the amount on the BOTTOM measured? NOPE.
were any other SITES measured? NOPE.
There is a suggestion that IF’ the ocean was the size of a football field it would be EQUAL to 1 inch in size for the PATCH. but that is a VERY deep football field.
If we covered the WHOLE ocean TOP with a layer of plastic, it would STILL be a LARGE percentage BELOW 1%. But would you understand HOW MANY FISH/birds I would kill?
She mentions the Atlantic Island of plastic..hasnt increased in SIZE, since 1980? HOW OLD is this person? And my previous points for that location ALSO..there are many TYPES of plastic, and MANY dont sit on the surface.
… fool on me. This research could just as easily be bogus. Who funded the expedition, the SPI? The larger problem is the quality of news reporting and the fact that the media in general has lost credibility.
When the media has no credibility, it leaves society with very little information in order to guide our decisions that in turn develop into good policies.
This needs to join Wiki’s list of Popular Misconceptions.
http://tinyurl.com/5ubbqr
The media did it?
I thought the media just parroted whatever their sources say, or there is one source that gets reported and “the media” just copies one another?
Thats not “the media” making up stuff–its the media not doing any investigative research==you know, what our new blog based infotainment is all about.
Why even study the gyro when there is no intent at all to do anything about it? Heh, heh. You can start removing hormone based fish killing useless plastic from the ocean when you pry my disposable shopping bags holding my disposable wrapping holding my plastic toys from my dead hand!
Just waiting for the perfect storm.
The media in any form never ever gets it right the first time, nor the second, third, fourth ad infinitum. About four years ago I did an interview with my boss and the local TV station. We spoke with the reporter for 45 minutes. The end result seven seconds of air time, and they got both our names and who we worked for wrong.
Despite the fraud of This and the global warming bullshit, pollution is still bad and should be discouraged. If sacrifice solid science to discourage it otherwise you become the little boy who cried wolf.
Unfortunately that’s where the green movement is at now.
Scientific scams cause Global Warming .
aNYONE GET THE IDEA THAT WE ARE LIVING IN THE PAST?
GERMS? what germs? I dont see no fricking germs? Whats a germ?
I dont see no AIR pollution, I can still breathe, so it must NOT be so bad.
Anyone know ICEBERG THEORY??
1% is seen..99% is under water?
AS she states..
It would COST MONEY to clean it up..
But, wouldnt it COST MORE if it gets worse?
Can we learn a lesson NOW, and not later?
AND,
this is only 1 form of pollution..ONE THAT CAN BE SEEN. Anyone know the concentration of Mustard gas to AIR that was used in WWII? I will bet a 1% index would REALLY make you suffer.
CORPS moved outside the USA for many reasons..the MAIN ONE, is/was the requirement to CLEAN IT UP after they were done. It Raised the price of COAL 4-10 times. As they MUST reforest the areas they clear.
Think about PLASTICS.. SHIPPED to the USA from countries that DONT have these laws.
The Chemicals used are a PAIN. lET ALONE THE END PRODUCT. What would it take to have BINS for used plastic bags at STORES, to DUMP what you dont want/need?
Basic sorting isnt a big problem..its WHAT the corps charge you to do it..
The trash is there. What is misrepresented is the “quality” of this floating island. It is not one homogeneous mass. The currents and winds have congregated it into an area, but there are a lot of open spaces between each piece of plastic debris. But there are millions of tons of plastic there.
Second, this “island” is degrading. Those pieces near or on the surface are being degraded faster and eventually will fall to the floor or just decompose under the UV of the sun. Everything falling to the ocean floor is being slowly buried under sediment so it is not a case of looking down and seeing a floor covered in plastic.
Long story short, it is a mass of floating garbage. it is ugly and shouldn’t be there. But it is not the end of the world as much as it is an indicator of our consumption and disposal society.
Assuming this research is correct, I learned one “good” thing and one “bad” thing.
“Good” The surface problem has been overblown
“Bad” There is a lot of plastic on the ocean floor; I didn’t know that…
Having said that, a plastic patch that is 1% the size of Texas is 2,686 square miles
Still pretty big–over half the size of the LA metro area