The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

[Workingman]

Some time back I mentioned the problem of plastics in the Med. Now research has been done in the Pacific into plastic waste covering an area of hundreds of square miles.

Just like a Dyson cyclone vacuum cleaner the sea currents of this region of the Pacific swirl around one spot drawing everything in. It is mostly large pieces but the Sun's ultra-violet light is gradually breaking it down into microplastic particles that get into the food chain and are passed on to us.

It is another indication of the many ways we are destroying the planet.

[Nanna]

[Workingman]

Nanna those of us who follow these things also cry with frustration.

The Yellow River basin is drying up because the industrialisation of China needs water. So much is being taken out that agriculture is under threat. That means less produce (food) for an expanding urban population that also needs water to survive.

The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtse has created a depression on the Earth's surface. It has also increased the deposits of sediment further up the delta with increased flooding of the natural flood plain.

In the US the Mississippi was geoengineered over decades to prevent natural flooding of its flood plain. There is now a $5.7bn scheme for more geoengineering to protect New Orleans from the sea because the old scheme destroyed the wetlands.

There is a hell of a lot of evidence that in trying to mitigate a problem we originally created causes other unforeseen problems down the line.

[TheOstrich]

There is a hell of a lot of evidence that in trying to mitigate a problem we originally created causes other unforeseen problems down the line.

So true. I feel much the same about pesticides ....

[Workingman]

Do not forget the nitrates and fertilisers that feed blooms of algae that deplete oxygen and leave vast "dead zones" in the seas off river mouths and deltas. In one way they increase food production and in other ways the deplete it. Clever eh?

[Suff]

And they talk about Geoengineering a fix to the biggest abuse we have done to the planet. Namely CO2.

Let's see the reality of that. The entire human race has been pumping out CO2 for 200 years at an increasing pace via just about every single machine we use. And we're just going to "fix it" with a quick geoengineering fix????

Yeah right, that'll work. Well probably make it worse. Even better we could overshoot and drive the planet into a deeper ice age than has been seen in billions of years.

All we actually have to do is take the foot off the pedal, plant a few hundred million square miles of forest, flood the areas of the planet which are still below sea level (even if the owners of property there complain) and transition to clean energy over two decades.

But, they yammering monkeys will insist on "monkeying" with things instead of letting the natural balance of things take over. We overpopulate so we over farm. We over fertilise to gain more food from the same land and we kill the sea from which we get a lot of food and half our oxygen.

We create plastics which are convenient then we thrown them in the sea and create dead zones.

I must admit that I am torn. If we carry on the way we are going there will only be 2 or 3 billion of us left in 2100. I'm trying to work out if that is a good thing or not.... Never mind how to ensure my grandchildren and great grandchildren survive it.

[Suff]

Of course the US is also going through what Australia went through with 11 years of drought with the Colorado River issue.

Not helped by this...

[Workingman]

Things only get worse for the Mid-West

27% of irrigated land in the US takes water from the aquifer, but it supplies 30% of all irrigated water. If it runs dry it will take over 6,000 years to replenish. The area is one of the the most agriculturally productive places in the US, but it does not get enough rainfall to support the intensity of the farming carried out there.

Its waters are also used in Fracking and oil production and these are already causing severe damage, as this article shows.

The Ogallala is predicted to run dry around 2028. Then what?

[Workingman]

And if anyone thinks it is only a US problem take a look at Punjab

[KateLMead]

I have been reading about the beautiful Whale his or her face and body covered in plastic hardly able to breathe who went along side a fisherman so boat obviously seeking help. These fisherman proceeded to remove the damnable plastic and the Whale was docile as they did so.. How wonderful, when free he or she turned and showed thanks by bobbing up and down until out of sight. I found the story and pictures very moving.