Welcome to Environmental Pollution Guide
Pictures Of Environmental Pollution Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Industrial Pollution & Environmental Degradation On Display In The Pacific Gyre's "Sea Of Trash"
from:Industrial pollution & environmental degradation are widely--and rightly--considered one of the largest problems facing our late-capitalist society. The continued effects of industrial pollution & environmental degradation make our factories less efficient (believe it or not), poison our groundwater, poison our air, use up natural resources and generally make the world filthier, deadlier, and less pleasant to be a part of.
And nowhere is this more evident than in the mysterious "Sea of Trash", one of the saddest legacies of industrial pollution & environmental degradation currently on display anywhere in the world.
The Sea of Trash is exactly what it sounds like. Plastic refuse and improperly-disposed-of trash is often dumped offshore, even in comparatively environmentally-conscious states like California and Oregon. In the minds of the illegal dumpers, this plastic refuse just drifts away somewhere out of sight and therefore out of mind, eventually probably becoming waterlogged and sinking into the Pacific, someone else's problem. In reality, plastic trash almost never degrades naturally, nor does it simply sink into the water, out of sight. It continues to float on the surface of the ocean until it's picked up on the neck of an animal--contributing to extinction and the pollution of animal habitats--or until it reaches its final goal, the dark legacy of industrial pollution & environmental degradation: the Sea of Trash.
Refuse tends to come to the Sea of Trash because of its position in the North Pacific Gyre. The Coriolis Effect causes ocean currents to swirl, forming massive vortexes in the sea. These vortexes slowly draw water into them from all bordering regions. The water will slowly leave the area through evaporation and the standard weather cycle. Anything carried along in that water, however, will remain trapped in the vortex forever: the prisoner of industrial pollution & environmental degradation.
The Sea of Trash is the largest complex of trapped industrial refuse in the world, with an estimated surface area anywhere from 700 thousand to one million square kilometers, nothing but floating plastic refuse virtually the size of Texas. It didn't get that way overnight, of course. According to official estimates, trash takes roughly a year to reach the Sea of Trash from the east coast of Asia and five years to reach the Sea from the west coast of the United States. Reach the Sea it does, however, leaving the world just a little bit more ravaged by industrial pollution & environmental degradation than it was before.
So what can be done about the Sea of Trash? The only thing we can do, it seems, is to try not to make the Sea any larger than it already is. Beyond that, all we can do is float amidst the plastic bottles and milk jugs--and hope that we haven't already pushed the planet too far.
Pictures Of Environmental Pollution Specific links
Pictures Of Environmental Pollution News
Pictures: History of Auto Fuel Efficiency
Today’s global demand for more efficient cars follows two centuries of shifting attitudes toward fuel-guzzling vehicles, from Model T to Rambler, from Hummer to Prius.
Read more...'Last Call' Sounds Water Alarm in Dry World
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich sounds the alarm on the world's water crisis in the documentary "Last Call at the Oasis," by Oscar-winning director Jessica Yu. The film highlights water pollution, depletion and potential wars over vanishing water resources. “You don’t have to be a scientist to understand if you take more water out of the bathtub than you put into the bathtub, the bathtub ...
Read more...Lake St. Clair Festival schools students on water issues
Clinton Township — The butterscotch-colored corn snake patiently allowed students to stroke its back as the presenter held it coiled around her arm.
Read more...EPA to Utah: Halt the haze in your national parks
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order will require two of Utah's oldest coal-fired power plants to improve control of pollution that has drastically reduced visibility across a region that includes five national parks and redrock wilderness.
Read more...Lake St. Clair fest teaches students importance of preserving natural resources
About 1,600 Macomb County fourth- and fifth-grade students gathered Tuesday at Macomb Community College to explore concepts of water conservation, preservation and safety at the fifth annual Lake St. Clair Water Festival.
Read more...