Our big oceanic toliet

Disgusting

I read Rachel Carson's 'The Sea Around Us' when i was a kid, growing up on the then relatively clean beaches of Long Island. Over the years I've watched as we have gradually turned our oceans into cesspools. What have we learned? Will our species ever wake up to its self-destructive behavior??

Will our species ever wake up to its self-destructive behavior??

Stan, good question and I hope the answer is a strong maybe. We've truly come a long way in many parts of the world with recycling and banning certain substances that harm the environment. However, for every step forward there continually is some offsetting challenge in another direction.

The continued education of the young on the prevention and correction ideas has excellent possibilities in turning or at least slowing the damage world wide. However we know gross population may once again be the offsetting factor overall. Just too much consumption and waste for the planet to deal with.

I work at sea and I remember navy boys telling me they used to make a chain and men would pass rubbish from man to man to be thrown over the side. They would even clear out unused paint from the paint locker emptying tons of paint into the water. Nowadays that wouldn't happen on a Navy ship as there are far stricter controls over disposal of waste. However problems still linger, because the population of the planet is getting larger there are more ships at sea and many that do not adhere to the same rules. I think on the whole most people I work with are a lot more thoughtful.

If we don't do something, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may become the Seven Seas Garbage Patch.

Stan. I grew up on the other side of Long Island Sound and the water was brown and disgusting in the 60's. Would not even consider swimming in it. Today it the water is blue and is relatively clean in comparison. Then again, each year our town has a river cleanup and a ton of thrown away plastic and other garbage is collected. Guess we've learned not to pollute the water, but people still use it as a garbage can.

Yes, I think locally there have been some success stories. Unfortunately I think the overall trend has been downward. I hope those lessons learned can be expanded for the bigger picture. When I moved to LI as a kid, I heard stories of schools of dolphins being seen in LI Sound in the recent past (probably 60s or 70s) It would be great if we could bring back that environmental diversity. Instead it seems all you hear about is the threatened extinction of various species--sharks, tuna etc.

Stan, probably no bigger dump and all around abuse of our water ways then the Valdez disaster 25 years ago now. Albeit a man made accidental disaster of sorts, it sure does not matter to that pristine area........

Stan, we seem to live on this planet as if we have another one to go to. Maybe one day but not in the near future.

stan, you shouldn't get me started on this ... i've spent the past twenty years seeing nothing but humanity's destructive - and consequently - self-destructive behaviour; in response, i've been trying to get people to learn (they don't) and change (only some can but don't try the economists and politicians). i believe there are ways but currently they are so far removed from mainstream thinking that it'll be years (and more destruction) before they are adopted (if, indeed, ever because they would challenge the status quo within politics as it is currently played). long stories, best told around a campfire under the stars with a glass of good whisky in one's hand ...