Oceanic Rubbish                                     

The Australian Aboriginal people lived for 40,000 years in the Dreamtime. ...Barely a trace of this continual habitation survives.

 The industrial world has existed for 150 years and has created a mass of debris or rubbish - in a single Pacific Ocean gyre – the size of the combined area of France, Spain and Portugal………………………..…………………………………………….All gyre currents have large debris fields

The effects of the rubbish in the Ocean

El Nino and La Nina

The waters off the coast of western Mexico have been cited as causal to incredible, often severe changes in weather. The El Nino and La Nina effect is the large temperature range caused by the Ocean temperature displaying irregular temperatures. This can lead to changes in the amount of moisture in the air, leading to droughts or serious flooding in Pacific Rim nations – even as far as Australia, 10,000kms away.

The El Nino and La Nina effect started coming more into influence during the late 1980’s. What is interesting is the perhaps less than co-incidental rise in Ocean debris after the generation from the 1960’s when plastic products and containers commenced becoming the normal household and commercial vessel. The debris field in the western Pacific Ocean gyre occupies a similar amount of ocean as the part of the ocean responsible for both La Nina and El Nino.

The Pacific Ocean debris field has never been placed under study for its capacity for thermal interference with the natural environment. The huge area of rubbish can be seen in many respects to be acting like a giant Pool-cover. Clearly there will not be anywhere near percentages used in the examples of swimming pool covers used below in terms of evaporation and heat retention, however the area of the debris field – twice the size of France in the western gyre alone - makes this a significant factor.

Plastics and other rubbish have different heat capacities than seawater – the items heat up and cool down at different rates in comparison to water. The most measurable way of seeing the debris is actually through thermal imaging, the area where the debris is measurably warmer. Synthetic materials are often found in insulation. Plastic underwater retains thermal energy in the same way as it does on the surface, trapping heat rising from underneath slowing the heats escape into the atmosphere. Much of the rubbish is said to be at depths or layered up to 30 metres deep, providing a high degree of insolation.

This is general statistics of Swimming Pool-cover performance available on the internet:

• Heat loss by pool covers is 75% less than normal, in an Ocean this means the sea temperature will climb affecting eco-systems and the worlds mean temperature.
• Swimming Pool-covers reduce evaporation by 97%. Evaporation is seen as reducing heat from a pool by 60-70%*, 20-30%* is lost through radiation and 10% by the concrete of the pool (*figures vary).

The debris field - due to its size - can be seen as a contributor to global climate change, potentially as much or more than El Nino and La Nina. Exactly how much of a contribution is debatable. The heat able to escape through carbon particles in the atmosphere is much greater than heat trying to escape through plastic particles; the debris field thereby is a significant global issue

Again, the area of warmer water in the Pacific Ocean, west of Mexico creating the El Nino and La Nina weather systems is comparable in size to the area of the Pacific Ocean Debris Field. The best way of seeing the debris field is via thermal imagery.

Given the effects of El Nino changes in weather patterns and climate change dictated by the debris field could be seen as being as severe. This can be seen as particularly relevant considering there are large debris fields in the other four ocean gyres worldwide.

The mass of debris insulates the water beneath it.

• 1.    Heat is trapped beneath the debris and rubbish and heat remains in the Ocean. Due to the pile of rubbish being over so great an area this heat change component is high.
• 2.    Any heat change will affect the ecology of the sea, which - due to the size affected - will have a net effect on the total ecology of the planet. This means breeding cycles are changed, marine migration is changed, and hierarchy balance is changed. Since fish migrate for hundreds of miles, this can have a larger overall impact

Marine life ingesting rubbish which is consequently maimed or killed

• Death from unnatural circumstances effect ecological balance: this includes birdlife as well as sea creatures.
• Suffering caused by accidental ingestion is well documented. There are documented cases where birds such as Albatrosses and Pelicans have been found with hundreds of pieces of plastic inside them. Whales may be affected by ingesting plastic too.
• Water temperature changes mean changes to migration, breeding and fertility. The net result is less sea-life in already over-fished waters.
• Plastics can get caught on necks and bodies of marine life and strangle them. Seals were found more than twenty years ago killed by strangulation from plastic.
• As plastic bags break up into particles they get caught up in a fishes gills, choking them or causing tumours.

Conversely, the North Eastern side of the United States has been experiencing record numbers of bait type fish and sea birds in the last several years, though possibly this may be due to there being less predators, such as fish caught by commercial fisheries. There have been numerous birds found in other parts of the world with a large amount of ingested plastics, in isolated places such as Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea.

The rubbish reduces evaporation of the Ocean surface.

• 1.    Reducing rainfall downwind.
• 2.    Reduces cloud formation.
• 3.    Reduces the airs purification process.
• 4.    Interferes with weather system development.
• 5.    Increasing solar energy differential with fewer clouds regulating day/night temperature.
• 6.    Evaporation is what regulates the sea temperature.

It must be noted again effects may be small contributing to a larger problem. The area involved makes the debris’s effect on the weather significant. Statisticians would argue only small differentials need apply before greater consequences take place –annual temperatures only went up a fractional amount prior to glaciers melting at a much faster rate, for example - as seen in Chaos theory.

The study of Chaos theory showed how just a small decimal point change can radically change a number progression in comparison to that of the normal figure. In just ten to twenty cycles the two numbers can be completely different. With Earth’s temperature under the effects of climate change climatologists have shown how a small rise in temperature affects polar ice caps and the sea level as a result. Clouds producing shade usually lowers ground temperature significantly, even if evaporation is reduced, clouds are reduced. Conversely, this enables more heat to  escape at night, unless it is being trapped by  an insulating layer. 

Reduced sunlight beneath the rubbish in the ocean changes sea-life activity

• While certain marine life species may benefit from the rubbish, the majority of life in effected areas is used to the former conditions.
• Migration patterns change, meaning species which prey on the migrations suffer also, including mammals such as whales. Sea-born Algae is known to reduce greenhouse gases by a large percent. 
• The growth of Algae will be lowered due to reduced sunlight filtered through the water and rubbish than pure seawater. Less Algae, less carbon reduction.

The mass of rubbish reduces wave activity

• Waves clean the ocean.
• Waves assist in the maintenance of ocean temperature and the movement of the sea.
• Waves can aerate the sea much like a pool pump aerates a pool preventing the water from stagnating.
• Waves generate salt spray, which induces rainfall.

The amount of effect depends upon the density and depth of the rubbish. This point is based upon how seamen used oil slicks to reduce the swell: a layer of rubbish will have a similar effect, particularly over a large area. This data is all about human interference with nature with often unseen consequences due to the lack of scientific research.

The salt spray from the ocean, whipped up by the wind is reduced 

• Sea-salt spray was found to induce rainfall by Israeli scientists involved with cloud-seeding experiments.
• Downwind rainfall patterns change.
• There is less atmospheric scrubbing, meaning more pollution stays in the atmosphere for longer periods of time.

Salty air helps scrub the atmosphere clean, less sea spray is produced when covered by debris: salt also helps establish rainfall. The salt crystals capture atmospheric particles including carbon. Sea-salted air promoting rainfall is unsurprising given salt is one of the better producers of rain in cloud seeding, particularly at equatorial locations. Salt reduces the temperature in clouds producing condensation, salt crystals also form silvers to which moisture particles can adhere to.