Flotsam Found
What 29,000 Lost Toys Have Told Us About Our Oceans? Our oceans sure look pretty from afar, but if you take a closer look, you’ll find plenty of gross stuff lurking around. There are as many as 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in each square mile of ocean, threatening the health of our seas, especially the marine wildlife inhabiting them.
But there is at least one good thing scientists can get from all this junk: a better understanding of the behavior of complicated ocean currents, which are shaped by a number of disparate forces and affect, among other things, the climate and the distribution of Earth’s life forms. By studying the movement of ocean flotsam—in particular, the movement of 29,000 bathtub toys that were lost from a cargo ship in 1992—retired oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer has uncovered quite a bit about our ocean’s currents and the places they carry litter.
Join WIRED Science host Ziya Tong as she and Ebbesmeyer explore the mysteries of surface currents and discover just how much bathtub toys and messages-in- bottles can tell us about our beloved oceans. Learn, too, about a section of the ocean appropriately called the “Great Garbage Patch” and about a piece of software called OSCURS that can determine, from just its starting point and date, exactly where a lost piece of plastic will end up years later. (Excerpt from pbs.org)
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Every time i hear global warming due co2, the level of credibility i give to the hole program-related to awg or not, drop a lot.
Ok, true story time:
My brother and I put a message in a bottle and threw it into the swollen Coast Fork of the Willimette River near our house after a big storm. We were just kids. He included our names and how to contact us, and a note that “Jesus loves you” to help evangelize someone far far away.
Maybe five years later while fishing on the same river (or perhaps even 10 years later). We saw a bottle in some flood trash high up on the shore and could see a note in it. How exciting! We opened it up and OMG! You guessed it! Our “Jesus loves you” message only floated about 100 feet before being cought in a garbage clog on the shore that stayed for years! So very disappointing to find your own evangelism note you thought floated all the way to China to encourage someone within eye shot from the very bridge you threw it from. :-(
Lesson learned? Pollute when the river is low, not when it’s at a once-in-a-blue-moon roaring monster if you want your “foatism” to reach China, or at least the next city downriver. :-)
this program is about holes?
i didnt even notice, keen eye arkeron!
Charles B;
“So very disappointing to find your own evangelism note you thought floated all the way to China to encourage someone within eye shot from the very bridge you threw it from”.
maybe the lesson learned here is that you should keep your religion to yourself instead of throwing your **** around like a monkey.
Well said Ted. I agree.
Could not have said it better myself Ted.
well there is my plastic teddy bear, i knew, I’d put it somewhere! I LIKED TED’S COMMENT.
well said ted, want some head in bed by lips painted red or ted would you reather shed some of your liquid lead onto the top of my head while i butter your bread? :)