I am calling bullshiat on anyone pushing this type of stat - "there will not be more plastic than fish and mammals by weight in the ocean by 2050". It is interesting that all the stories on this nonsense provide no numbers on the weight of the plastic. In fact I will bet the weight of fish extracted from the ocean globally in a single year will greatly outweigh the worst case scenario of the weight of plastic in 2050. I am not saying that the dumping of plastic in the ocean is not a problem (it is), but pushing this type of nonsense detracts from the problem when the asserted statistics land up being complete bullshiat - in fact it undermines the case for cleaning up the ocean and stopping dumping... which is sad.
You know what's sad? It's the people that knee-jerk reject science because science often conflicts with their cherished delusions.
Once again you have no facts to back your assertions. First let's start with 1) What is the current amount of plastic in the ocean by weight? 2) What is the projected amount of plastic in the ocean by weight in 2050? The lack of these figures make articles like this pure alarmist nonsense which undermines legitimate efforts to clean up pollution.
Let's walk through some basic math. I know dealing with facts and math is hard for you. The amount of current plastic in the ocean is 28 billion pounds (high estimate in 2010). The amount of fish caught each year in weight is 0.51 trillion tons or 1020 trillion pounds (low estimate in 2010 paper). Anyone who thinks that the amount of plastic in the ocean is going to outweigh all the fish and mammals in the ocean is nuts. It is not even close to outweighing the fish caught each year. In fact if you took every bit of plastic produced between now and 2050 and tossed it in the ocean you still would not come anywhere close to the weight of the all the fish and mammals in the ocean.
Well damn gwb, I'm impressed. But have you considered the rate of increase in plastic pollution vs the rate of decline of fish stocks? And it's still true that some people knee-jerk reject science because science sometimes conflicts with their cherished delusions.
Currently the world produces 299 million tons of plastics each year (2013). A figure that rises 4% per year on average. Approximately 20 million tons of plastics are added to the ocean each year. Even if we put every last piece of plastic produced in the ocean until 2050 and assumed the fish stocks in the ocean declined at 4% per year - the weight of plastic in the ocean would be a tiny fraction of the weight of fish & mammals in the ocean. Note that I am not saying that pollution of the oceans via plastic is not a problem (it is - and I am probably the strongest advocate on ET for taking steps to minimize real pollution of our oceans). What I am saying is the easily-refutable alarmist nonsense like this article making absurd claims undermines the cleaning up of our oceans rather than helping it.
This link says 65 billion tons per year marine fishes harvested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_fisheries_production Use of plastic has increased 20-fold in the past half-century; production of the ubiquitous material is expected to double again in the next 20 years (and nearly quadruple over the next 50). And, CNN Money reports, nearly a third of all plastic packaging "escapes collection systems." As for where the rest goes, more than 8 million tons of plastics end up entering our oceans each year, where the pieces can survive for hundreds of years. There are believed to be 165 million tons of it in the ocean right now. We're dumping the equivalent of one garbage truck's worth into the ocean per minute; that's projected to jump to four per minute by 2050, according to a report released Tuesday by theWorld Economic Forum and Ellen MacArthur Foundation. And that report has an ominous warning: We're on track to have more plastic than fish, by weight, in the world's oceans by 2050. (Right now, the ratio is about 1:5, plastics to fish.)http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/01/24/oceans-more-plastic-than-fish/79267192/ I highly doubt that the World Economic Forum and Ellen MacArthur Foundation. would get something that wrong.
I will let you try to walk through the math. The assertion that we will have more plastic than fish in the ocean by weight in 2050 simply does not add up. No matter how you slice or dice the numbers. This type of alarmist nonsense from Ellen MacArthur Foundation undermines reasonable conservation efforts - it is a hindrance rather than a help.
NASA warns ‘global warming’ means ‘anything could happen’ — Huh?! So if ‘anything’ happens it proves ‘global warming!?’ Read more: http://www.climatedepot.com/#ixzz3yM5MJ2Sw
Even assuming that you are right. Guess what? It doesn't matter. No one will notice and the essential point of plastics pollution becoming a huge problem is valid nevertheless.