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posted by Fnord666 on Friday November 10 2017, @09:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the a-river-runs-through-it dept.

Submitted via IRC for Sulla

A recent study paints a sobering picture about the state of our oceans.

According to the paper, published last month in Environmental Science and Technology, rivers deposit up to 4 million metric tonnes of plastic into the sea -- and about 95 per cent of that comes from just 10 waterways.

Previous studies suggested about 67 per cent of plastic in the oceans came from 20 rivers. For this study, researchers out of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Science used a larger data set to reach their findings, sampling from 79 sites along 57 rivers around the world.

Eight of the 10 rivers are in Asia. [...]

  • Yangtze River, Yellow Sea, Asia
  • Indus River, Arabian Sea, Asia
  • Yellow River (Huang He), Yellow Sea, Asia
  • Hai River, Yellow Sea, Asia
  • Nile, Mediterranean Sea, Africa
  • Meghna/Bramaputra/Ganges, Bay of Bengal, Asia
  • Pearl River (Zhujiang), South China Sea, Asia
  • Amur River (Heilong Jiang), Sea of Okhotsk, Asia
  • Niger River, Gulf of Guinea, Africa
  • Mekong River, South China Sea, Asia

Source: https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/ninety-five-percent-of-plastic-in-sea-comes-from-just-ten-rivers/89034/


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @10:13PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @10:13PM (#595375)

    Hey troll, the problem was actually started by western offshoring to specifically evade environmental regulations and get cheap labor.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @10:38PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @10:38PM (#595384)

    We've regulated to the point that businesses just went elsewhere.

    We could have kept medium-strict regulations and they would have mattered, but no, we insisted on strict regulations. The only regulations that currently apply are weak ones in foreign countries. We've effectively gone from medium-strict to weak.

    It's disturbing to realize that we could reduce pollution by weakening our regulations.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @10:49PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @10:49PM (#595389)

      That was not the problem, the real problem was that other countries had lax regulations. The only disturbing part is that we allow sociopaths to run industries.

      • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday November 10 2017, @11:23PM

        by MostCynical (2589) on Friday November 10 2017, @11:23PM (#595403) Journal

        Sociopath may therefore be another word for "shareholder" as much as for CEO.

        Profit/dividend is everything: customers, the environment, the employees be damned!

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @12:31AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @12:31AM (#595417)

        We control our own regulations. Unless you propose to invade China, we don't control Chinese regulations. The same goes for India and Africa, the other places mentioned for this pollution.

        We can choose moderate regulation, or we can effectively choose weak regulation by making ourselves uncompetitive. When we try to choose strong regulation, we just end up with pollution and jobs being produced elsewhere. Business mostly will not do this work in places with strong regulation.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @04:21AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @04:21AM (#595493)

          And this is the tragedy of the commons that makes me listen to nationalists every now and then.

        • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Saturday November 11 2017, @05:40PM

          by DeathMonkey (1380) on Saturday November 11 2017, @05:40PM (#595654) Journal

          We control our own regulations.

          Yes, we do. We could use those regulations to ban the practice of outsourcing all our pollution.

          Of course, this is all begging the question anyway. The only people getting a pass on global pollution treaties these days is the US.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday November 11 2017, @06:18AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 11 2017, @06:18AM (#595512) Journal

        The only disturbing part is that we allow sociopaths to run industries.

        I know! We could allow non-sociopaths to run industries too! Another problem solved by the internet.