• NullPointer
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      4 months ago

      does that 5% include all the garbage the US exports that then ultimately ends up in the ocean?

      plus a third of all of that is unidentifiable

    • @[email protected]
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      94 months ago

      One guy from the Netherlands is cleaning a lot of that shit up though. Look up Boyan Slat. It’s not only about stopping the pollution, but also about how to help cleaning it up.

    • @[email protected]
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      4 months ago

      All you’ve really demonstrated is that China and Japan are well represented in one very specific pollution phenomenon but not why that is. There are a number of reasons that those two could be overemphasized that aren’t “these guys are doing all the plastic pollution”. For example, ocean currents probably play a big role, in combination with the location of the patch itself.

      You cannot extrapolate this out into a representative sample of the sources of all plastic pollution, it’s statistical gymnastics. Hell, the article you linked even offers an alternative explanation for why Japan is so high:

      One of the reasons that Japan is thought to contribute so highly was that the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami washed large amounts of debris offshore.

      It’s at the end of the article though so I can see how you might have overlooked it in your rush to place all the blame on foreigners.

    • @[email protected]
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      34 months ago

      5% is still 5%, gains are good and may get other countries working towards the same goals.
      Just because we can’t do it all in one go doesn’t mean we shouldn’t even start.