In addition to the other concerns already noted, the white polystyrene wouldn't stay white for long and the ocean surface that would have to be covered to have a significant impact is impractically large. There is no oily or non oily liquid that could be used for this purpose either.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan Whaley" <[email protected]> To: "geoengineering" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 10:27 AM Subject: [geo] Re: A simple idea I thought of Andrew... here is a link to info about this problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch d On Dec 12, 6:49 am, "Ken Caldeira" <[email protected]> wrote: > The consumption of trash in the ocean by marine organisms is already a big > problem. Turtles etc eat plastic bags thinking they are jellyfish and then > die. > > I would not assume that organisms would spit out such particles, although > they could perhaps be designed to promote such a response. > > On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 6:39 AM, Andrew Lockley > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > > > Well I suppose fish might try and eat it but that's the only problem I > > can think of. They'd probably spit it out anyway. I don't think it > > breaks down to anything particularly harmful. > > > 2008/12/12 [email protected] <[email protected]>: > > > > A question comes to mind here. > > > If polystyrene or other material were harmful to marine life, would > > > that not be counter productive? Perhaps further investigation into > > > this idea may produce somethig safe and effective. > > > Keep the ideas coming. > > > Steven Parkes > > > > On Dec 3, 1:15 pm, "Andrew Lockley" <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> If you dropped loads of tiny expanded polystyrene beads into the sea, > > >> these would reflect sunlight. In the Arctic they could also act like > > >> a 'raft' for snow to build up on. They could be made on big ships > > >> that > > >> dropped them into the sea at points where they were unlikely to be > > >> blown away, and could float around for many years in the open ocean > > >> before bio-degrading and/or sinking to the bottom of the sea. > > > >> An alternative method would be to pour an oily liquid into the oceans > > >> that reflects sunlight. It would have to be gas-permeable to allow > > >> oxygen through. I do not know of such a liquid. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
