Why can't the put weighted nets on the floating junk and sink it two miles down.

At lease if it's on the surface someone might clean it up some day.

because it is hundreds of square miles

O sorry, I actually took that seriously for a minute.

I was just thinking that tsunami debris would SUBTRACT from Pacific garbage. Who would have expected...?

Vacationed in Monterey, CA a couple weeks ago and they told us the tsunami trash was twice the size of Texas! Not something you could throw nets on and sink.

They are expecting to start seeing some of it on their beaches by October of this year....

I bet this'll be great for sea turtles! Everyone says human impact is bad, but I'm pretty sure a new habitat like this is sure to attract jellyfish; snack time for sea turtles!

How stupid. Take about 30 ships with nets and the whole thing can be history in a week!

HELLO GREENPEACE...CAN YOU HELP, INSTEAD OF BLOCKING COMMERCE???

Why would we sink it two miles down? They don't want it down there! There trying to live!

@mark, we've been trying to get rid of Texas for decades. Please forward any ideas to: pleasesecedeandleaveusthe@!$%#alone.com

Our oceans are doomed because most people just don't give a damn. They are wasteful and pollute like there are no generations coming behind them. Bunch of frikin pigs. For example, most people don't recycle, they just put out four or five cans of garbage every week to fill up the landfills. People litter our streets with no regard to what it can do to the environment. This is reflected also in the way some of our corporations are run.... basically no regard for the environment in which we live, just profits. Pretty sad. Me? I recycle everything I can and I never litter.

Now this is something the tree huger's and the useless U.N. should jump on.

It is not that the mess can not be cleaned up because it can be. The reason it is not being worked on is because there is no money in it . It is not only a mess on the surface but a total disaster on the ocean floor . It is killing anything and everything in it's path . But alas , out of sight out of mind and no money to be made on the effort to clean it up.

Wow, a pile of garbage this size is unreal. Well, unless you consider the pile of garbage that King Obama has laid on the US people.

Oh, please, stop your "its all GWB's fault" garbage. If GWB is so "bad", then why is Kiing Obama trying to continue his programs???? Oh, sorry, didnt mean to ask such a difficult question. I apologize. I dont want to offend any of those "codes of honor" that are obeyed by EVERYONE here (except the moderators like Tyler who has more than enough rude comments that violate "the code") at msnbc. Oh, wait, sorry again, only "everyone else" has to obey, the liberals can say anything and their comments are not even collapsed (unless you look at the Barney Frank "wedding" story, the moderator on that story collapsed aboout EVERYTHING just to make their stats look "fair") and certainly aren't deleted.

Yes, Obama thinks he is a king. Look how he handles appointments. Oh, the Senate is in recess (it wasn't) so he takes Exec. Privilege and appts several posts. Nice. Oh, you dont like my ideas? Well, I'll shove them thru Fed. Depts. like he did with the new "laws" under the Clean Air Act. Read the stories being written on all of his "exec." privileges. That is Obama in a nutshell (repeat - NUT) he does what he wants and EXPECTS everyone to agree with him. Look how he treated the reporter who DARED to ask him a question. Wow, what a little baby our POTUS can be.

Speaking of piles of garbage - what ever happened to Obama's fake birth certificate? Is a .pdf an accepted certificate these days? No, I couldn't even get my drivers license renewed with a copy. The copy has to be certified. See what I am talking about???? The garbage that is accepted everyday, just because the USA media tells us what we are supposed to think. To a liberal - that is great and free thought needs to be censored. To a conservative, we need more free thought and obeying everything that comes out of the mouth of the Socialist Dictator needs to come to an end.

Do not vote for the Socialist States of America under King Obama. Vote for anyone except Obama.

WTF?!? Hey Rwing! This is a story about Tsunami garbage floating around in the Pacific ocean, not about the crazy garbage floating around in your head!! You don't President Obama we get it. Of course one could probably figure that out by the name your using but I know most of your fellow "rwingers" need big clues like yours.

So besides adding to the garbage, does your post have a point?

I think that Japan instead of pumping money into killing whales ... they should divert that money into cleaning up their garbage that the whale curse caused ..............

Karma is oh so powerful!

Mother Nature evolved us into existence. We are not her enemies.

Hey KevinOffSite since all humankind is such a toxic threat to Mother Nature be a chivalrous gentleman and kill yourself. Do the right thing, just do it.

You folks that are saying they should clean it up have no idea what you are saying. This patch of trash is HUGE. They didn't even know about it until fairly recently. Why not recycle your plastic? That would help some. As far as the tsunami debris, that sounds like bigger stuff, yet more plastic trash. What people don't get is that the food chain is so senstivie. The plankton is the bottom. When it goes, we go. Please, please recycle.

To the dude going off on 'King Obama'...take it somewhere else. People like you should just go away.

@andthehorseyourodeinon...Troll, go {uck yourself (and the horse you rode in on). Your comments reek of the intelligence of Rick Perry.

But seriously folks...how about we divert a billion or so from Afghanistan to clean up this mess...we could put thousands to work collecting and recycling/disposing of this crap. Something humankind has not figured out yet, is that ignoring sh!t doesn't make it go away...the pile just gets bigger. We should start cleaning it up now.

great, more trash from japan- products and services arn't enough? Great, now we have to spend time and money cleaning up their mess.

Rw is about the biggest troll on the vine. Kinda pathetic that he choses this thread to go off about Obama. Republicans don't respect our planet, the garbage in the Pacific doesn't bother them. All of our resources are finite, and Republicans like that, there's not much money to be made if a product is cheap and renewable, but if we rely on fossil fuels, as the supply gets smaller, the price gets higher. We have the technology, but the right wing suppresses it in the interest of greed.

Disrespect the planet long enough, eventually the planet will no longer provide you with life.

All the suggestions are good folks, but, we can start right here in own back yards. I live at the beach in Carlsbad, CA., about 35 miles north of San Diego. I have 7 Grandchildren. We go to breakfast almost every Saturday morning and then to our beaches and pick up trash including a lot of plastic and styrofoam so it DOESN'T end up at the Pacific Convergence Zone off our coast. We get on average about 25 pounds of trash a week that is 1,300 pounds a year, multiply that by a million or two and it equals 1.3 to 2.6 BILLION pounds. At THAT rate the garbage patch could be shrunk considerably in a few years. Everybody no matter where they live could make sure plastic and styrofoam are recycled or at least disposed of properly. Every little bit helps. Peace.

A Veteran

Thanks.

Agnomad - It's my pleasure, gets me and the kids involved and I get to see them every Saturday, kind of like a Grampa's dream come true. Peace to you.

Yep

Why can't large ships hang nets over the side between tow ships and tow it to the North Pole ?

Why can't a large satellite use lazer beans to burn the junk in to tiny particles ?

It all began when Obama was about 10 and he threw a plastic bottle into the ocean.

I recall seen ' a raft ' of junk, primarily composed of lightbulbs, which was a little over three miles long and better than a mile wide. The sunlight was reflecting off of these lightbulbs, and until we got close we couldn't figure out what it was, because the lightbulb reflection could be seen from ten miles away.

Lightbulbs, because of their shape won't break in the open water, because if they collide against each other, they only touch at one point. They will break readily if a wave smashes them on a beach. Certain types of "stuff" collects in certain areas, such as styrofoam beaches, due to wind and current. The higher out of the water an object rides, the more subject it is to wind waves. The deeper in the water it sets, it is subject to water currents. So water over distance has the tendency to separate out stuff dependent upon specific gravity of the object, and therefore the styrofoam will over time and distance separate out from let's say, lightbulbs.

Lightbulbs will break when they hit the beach, the glass turning back to sand. Styrofoam won't shatter when it hits the beach, and yes it might break down to smaller particles, but if they dry out, are subject to be blown behind the storm berm to accumulate there. A glass bottle carrying a toxic substance, will then wash across the ocean, probably not collide with something which can shatter the glass, but the glass will shatter on the beach across the ocean, releasing it's toxin and poisoning worms and clams and such. You'll never find much trace of the glass because in many cases it is turned back to sand as the glass shards are eroded mechanically by the waves striking the beach and moving the pieces of glass along. The styrofoam pieces on the other hand will form a styrofoam beach.

Thanks for that. It would be good if we could collect and recycle. I am sure there are potential raw building materials in the mess. Logistics, logistics, logistics. Some interesting ideas here about nets and ships and such.

Steve -

where can I find one of these styrofoam beaches you speak od? I would like to visit there.

mpa... Gulf Coast. That's why "shipping peanuts" aren't common like they once were, and bubble wrap is used for mailing instead. The packages were opened, the styrofoam shipping peanuts would blow out, get into the storm drains, into the rivers, into the major tributaries... and on down the mighty Mississippi. Very same process that the other nutrients enter the Gulf. Read up on Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zones". The Ohio River, The Missouri River, Mississippi River and tributaries drain a lot of storm sewer runoff into the Gulf of Mexico, basketballs, fast food containers, plastic grocery bags, besides the naturally occurring stuff like tree leafs and grass clipping compost.

Yes. In a word. It is. Yes.

I assume some smart alec Admirals with a high school diploma already decided five atomic bombs would not melt the plastic ?

Alex, excuse me for interfering with your night time TV time, but you contribute to getting rid rid of the giant Teas size floating state of Rick Perry in the Pacific.

Judge Bill your post make no sense or at least nonesense. Oregon, California and washingtion otherwise know as the left coast should send the bill for cleanup to japan. Maybe the DOJ sue them for slow and obnoxious instead of fast and furious

Why can't we use large flame throwers to melt and burn the junk in the ocean ?

Because its all wet, better yet. Why doesn't Greenpeace, the US Navy, Ships from Japan and other nations send scooper ships and begin picking it up and dispose of it properly? Since its all in a pile instead of scattered around.

Judge Bill: why can't you come up with a BETTER solution than three things that STILL LEAVE THE RUBBISH IN THE SEA? This thing is hundreds of miles.... damn: that's one hell of a clean-up bill. I'll wager no one wants to foot that bill, either. WHERE did the majority of this trash come from in the FIRST place? That's the country that should ante up the starter funds to remove this mess and recycle it on land. If that is the US, well then - time to stop gawking at it and at least make a START on removing it.

Its HUGE: no doubt about that, but my dad always told me that 'you can consume a whole elephant, one bite at a time'....

Why can't we use the Navy to blow up all the garbage?

Myqi -

I Googled 'scooper ship." WTF are you talking about?

How about large ships with recycling facilities built on-board? After the materials are sorted, melted down, and packaged they can be shipped to land and sold. Not economically feasible?

The garbage was made from the earth and so shall it return to the earth.

Plastic is man-made....Duh!

Duh! ...... Pastic is made from matter of the earth. You big dummy.

BigJim: don't worry - it sounds as if you're on the path to inherit that same Earth (capital 'E' by the way as a proper noun) with your meek, do-nothing attitude....

earth (small 'e' because I said so and earth is just a small speck in the universe) The earths only purpose is to give humans a place to live and have dominion over it.

There are times I wonder if you people are just trying to be obtuse or if you really are that stupid.

big jim, "earths" should be "Earth's". You intentionally make yourself look like a fool?

Oh wait, based on your statement about Earth's purpose, yes, you are dumb as hell. Based on your ignorance of even the most basic grammatical skill, it's not surprising that you would believe such horse sh1t.

Yes, if you want to eat fish that glow in the dark. :-O

I think you just answered my questions. It's stupidity.

Our government couldn't find its way out of a paper bag. Better to let private industry do the clean up. We definitely need to ask Japan for help with this since it is their garbage. If they refuse, then tax every Japanese citizen $50 every time they fly into the US to visit or on business. Add a tax to goods imported from Japan to make up the difference. Send the proceeds to the states doing the clean up on their beaches.

The trash washing up on the beaches from the tsunami are akin to those damned plastic grocery bags - once they hit the air currents, they 'belong' to where ever they land. I know the folks along the west coast aren't the full cause of the mess - but they are the most impacted. So, if that damned plastic grocery bag stuck on a limb of a tree in your backyard REALLY bothers you - go out there and deal with it.

How many people...on a daily basis....see trash on their beaches and just walk on by??? Maybe some self-initiative first?? Or is all about sitting back and waiting for the 'government' to clean it up??

Alan290 - If our government can't find it's way it's way out of a paper bag why and how could the Japanese government which is also a democratic government based on a system much like ours fix the issue? And if you haven't been paying attention for the past 10 years or so, Japan and it's government are more or less yesterday's news, complete with an ineffectual government.

Mark440 - Have you even been to the west coast?? I have been to beaches on the East, Gulf and West coasts and by far, the west coast has the cleanest beaches, part of this is yes because the Pacific states have tougher environmental laws but also because if you'd go out there and take a very early morning walk you'd noticed people walking around picking up the trash they find.

But then a conservative type would never see that because he/she/it is still in bed sleeping from that long night of sitting in front of the PC posting on the internet and writing Democratic lawmakers hate mail.

Every morning at Long Beach and Ocean Shores, you'll see people, 20, 30, sometimes 40 an hour, walk down the beach carrying black plastic garbage sacks. They pause, pick things up, deposit them in their bags, and walk on. These are private American citizens, just doing what they feel is right.

I saw an interview with an oceanographer who estimated tsunami debris will be coming onshore to West Coast beaches for the next 60 years. Maybe we should all grab a garbage bag, and take a walk. Doesn't have to be on a beach, just do it in your neighborhood. Make a difference.

Hey, it wouldn't be the first time we've dealt with a "Japan problem" with nukes...

So, if we can nuke problem areas full of trash, I guess "Joisey" is gonna glow!

miqy123 , now I have a pea brain ? The garbage patch is not as big of a problem as it is made out to be. Pollution made of toxic waste is a different matter. Elements like Lead or Mercury consentrated in an area would be something to worry about.

Jim,

Polystyrene foam is a major component of plastic debris in the ocean, where it becomes toxic to marine life. Foamed polystyrene blows in the wind and floats on water, and is abundant in the outdoor environment. It can be lethal to any bird or sea creature that swallows significant quantities.

So, gee this stuff is toxic. Also currently polystyrene is made from petroleum, (oil). So if you think this stuff isn't toxic, I invite you, since you claim to be from Texas to head on over to an oil well or refinery and take a big ole swig of that stuff. Please write back, or have you widow, next of kin, etc. write back and let us know how that went.

There was a story on i-reporter a while ago, and yes, it is huge. But much of the plastic is not above the surface, just at the surface, so you wouldn't see some of it if you aimed a camera at the water. The i-reporter story from the middle of the gyre above Hawaii (not just a few miles from L.A.) showed so much garbage a boat could hardly get through it, but most boats won't go so far out there into it. The point is, the plastic is spread out so far that some can be found just off the coast of California, and that is truly disturbing.

lzbeth -

Huh?

Lizbeth -

can we count on you to train our scientists and chemists? Your demonstrated knowlledge is awesome!

<sarcasm>

The Pacific ocean is the biggest, and is very polluted. And, the gargage patch didn't form yesterday. Or the day before there was a tsunami in Japan. It's been there a long time. However, sharks have been there a few million years longer. But they're not at the top of the food chain. Humans are. Why? Because we eat sharks. And guess what? Sharks don't get cancer. We do. They just eat poly-vinyl-chloride, old license plates, humans, and a nice school of tuna on special night out with their significant other. And we eat them. This is noke joke folks; we are done unless sharks can figure out what can be done with us. Also, (just a side note), OPEC.

How much fuel does a ship require to sail out there to do this job? How much energy would be required to retrieve the trash and to transport it back to the mainland for further transport and processing? Not a very energy or cost-efficient idea there, sorry.

Elizabeth, two things: First, you're not going to able to convince most of these people of anything, even though this tends of be left leaning news site, the conservative geniuses dominate here and they of course know EVERYTHING. Second, no fish, including salmon poop in the woods, evolution hasn't taken them far enough to flop up out out of the water and crap behind a tree.

Draft silly teenage emo girls to clean it up. I'll even supply them with the leg weights to make cleaning up the bottom easier.