Pacific Garbage Patch could be cleaned up in 10 years for $7.5 billion, group says

Pacific Garbage Patch could be cleaned up in 10 years for $7.5 billion, group says

Mayhem in Lebanon as thousands of pagers explode. Israel believed to be behind attack.

NATIONAL NEWS

In recent years, environmentalists have been increasingly concerned about a mass of floating garbage in the Pacific that has grown to about twice the size of the state of Texas. Known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, this waste has been accumulating for decades.

The preponderance of plastic waste has polluted the water itself and has been consumed by sea life. This poses serious health risks not only to marine life but also to birds and to human populations who consume fish from these waters. The waste also creates problems for shipping in the area.

For the past 10 years, various groups and researchers have been developing technologies and solutions that could help to clean up this growing environmental disaster. Now a non-profit group called the Ocean Cleanup says they have a solution that could remove all the waste from this part of the ocean. Their method consists of a 1.4 mile-long floating barrier towed between two vessels.

The group has so far removed about a million pounds of waste, which is only about half a percent of the total mass of garbage. Their method would take about 10 years at a cost of $7.5 billion. They are also working on some technological advances which, if they are successfully developed, could clear the great garbage patch even quicker- just 5 years at a cost of $4 billion.

Boyan Slat, Ocean Cleanup’s founder and CEO, says that “for the first time, we can tell the world what it cost, what is needed and how long it would take,” to clear the plastic pollution from the Pacific Ocean. Slat first made headlines over a decade ago when he founded Ocean Cleanup and developed the first passive technology to collect the waste from the garbage patch using ocean currents. He was just 18 at the time.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Mayhem in Lebanon as thousands of pagers explode. Israel believed to be behind attack.

Today, thousands of pagers used by members of Hezbollah exploded all over Lebanon, killing at least nine. At least 3,000 were injured, about 400 of them critically. Members of Hezbollah use these low-tech pager to try to evade tracking and spying by Israel.

It’s not yet clear what caused the pagers to explode. However, Israeli espionage expert Yossi Melman theorized that the pagers, which apparently were recently delivered, either had explosives implanted in them or could have been infected with some sort of malware. “This absolutely has all the hallmarks of a Mossad (Israeli intelligence) operation”, Melman said.

The tactic did not discriminate between members of Hezbollah’s militant wing and its civilian political wing, who also carry the pagers to avoid being targeted by Israel. For example, the son of a Hezbollah parliamentarian was killed. Other children were also killed, and many more children were horrifically maimed. Of the nine so far declared dead, Hezbollah has said only two of them were fighters.

There is at least one disturbing video circulating of a man being maimed by an exploding pager as he shopped for vegetables at a supermarket.

If such an attack were carried out against US civilians, servicemembers, or politicians, it would universally be denounced as an act of terrorism.

A dangerous provocation

While the attack demonstrated Mossad’s ability to infiltrate Hezbollah’s communications and defenses, Melman said that he could not see what was gained strategically by the attack. “It won’t change the situation on the ground, and I don’t see any advance in it”.

One possibility is that Israel is hoping to provoke a massive military response by Hezbollah. This would give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin netanyahu the excuse to mount a full-scale military invasion of Lebanon. This is something Netanyahu has wanted to do for months, but the US has consistently held him back

The attack also comes soon after reports emerged that Netanyahu was considering dismissing his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant has opposed escalating the conflict with Lebanon while Israel was still militarily engaged in Gaza. Israel’s security cabinet, led by Netanyahu, recently announced that their newest war aim was to return tens of thousands of Israeli citizens to their homes on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, nearly a year after they were evacuated.

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Pacific Garbage Patch could be cleaned up in 10 years for $7.5 billion, group says – National & International News – TUE 17Sep2024

NATIONAL NEWS