Eclipsed from the headlines by the ongoing carnage, there is an active
civil resistance in Iraq that opposes the occupation, the torture regime
it protects, and the jihadi and Ba'athist 'resistance' alike.
Submitted by Joseph Brenner (not verified) on Wed, 12/05/2007 - 04:13.
I would not suggest that plastic debri in the oceans is not a serious problem, but apparently some details of this story are grossly exaggerated (e.g. "twice the size of Texas").
The original source on that story is this one from the SF Chronicle, and this story cites as a source: "Marcus Eriksen, director of research and education at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach".
If you look up this guy's bio: Marcus Eriksen, PhD you'll find out that his PhD is in "science education" (one might've hoped for Marine Biology)
And according to the wikipedia article (yes, I know) on North Pacific Gyre, the "twice the size of Texas" bit from the Chronicle has no factual basis.
Perhaps notably, the wikipedia article discusses this as the findings of one researcher,
Charles Moore, who turns out to be associated with the same outfit ("Algalita") as Marcus Eriksen.
Evidently, the NOAA is going to start studying this, but hasn't done much yet: "Bamford said she has noted some 'gaps in the research' that suggest the affected area is not as large as Moore estimates."
Anyway... in summary: I would guess there's a real problem here, but the research supporting it (1) comes from a relatively undistinguished team of people and (2) does not appear to have been replicated by anyone else as of yet.
Sorry if this seems kind of pendantic, but I'm of the opinion that the tendency of activists to exaggerate doesn't help any one in the long run, and it's a good idea to watch out for it.
(A tip passed on to me from friends who have PhDs: they regard people who append "PhD" to their name as complete idiots.)
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some details here may be exaggerated
I would not suggest that plastic debri in the oceans is not a serious problem, but apparently some details of this story are grossly exaggerated (e.g. "twice the size of Texas").
The original source on that story is this one from the SF Chronicle, and this story cites as a source: "Marcus Eriksen, director of research and education at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach".
If you look up this guy's bio: Marcus Eriksen, PhD you'll find out that his PhD is in "science education" (one might've hoped for Marine Biology)
And according to the wikipedia article (yes, I know) on North Pacific Gyre, the "twice the size of Texas" bit from the Chronicle has no factual basis.
Perhaps notably, the wikipedia article discusses this as the findings of one researcher,
Charles Moore, who turns out to be associated with the same outfit ("Algalita") as Marcus Eriksen.
Evidently, the NOAA is going to start studying this, but hasn't done much yet: "Bamford said she has noted some 'gaps in the research' that suggest the affected area is not as large as Moore estimates."
Anyway... in summary: I would guess there's a real problem here, but the research supporting it (1) comes from a relatively undistinguished team of people and (2) does not appear to have been replicated by anyone else as of yet.
Sorry if this seems kind of pendantic, but I'm of the opinion that the tendency of activists to exaggerate doesn't help any one in the long run, and it's a good idea to watch out for it.
(A tip passed on to me from friends who have PhDs: they regard people who append "PhD" to their name as complete idiots.)