Latest news with #GreatPacificGarbagePatch
Sydney Morning Herald
26-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Apocalyptic comedy recreates Brisbane landmarks, and destroys them
Begun by Morton and Nicholas Paine in 2009, Dead Puppet Society has an international reputation for exquisite, machine-like puppets in theatrical productions. Their creations have ranged from robotic pelicans in Storm Boy and Galapagos tortoises in The Wider Earth to a huge bear for Brisbane Festival production Holding Achilles. We All Gonna Die! began when Dead Puppet Society put an open call out to playwrights to submit ideas. 'Our stories usually have a social or ecological justice message, and so we put that out as a parameter,' Morton says. Playwright and journalist Maddie Nixon (Cooladdi, Food Fight) answered the call. Loading 'Maddie wrote this pitch about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch becoming sentient and attacking Brisbane, and we were like, obviously we have to do this.' La Boite came on board to produce the show as part of its 2025 100th-anniversary season. Dean Hanson from Ball Park Music has composed and curated the music, with classic Brisbane songs by the Saints, Powderfinger and the Veronicas, and Morton is designing and co-directing the show with La Boite artistic director Courtney Stewart. 'We studied together [at QUT], and actually lived together for 18 months of our degree,' Morton says. 'We have a similar sensibility and approach, it's an awesome partnership.' A cast of five portrays more than 30 different characters between them. The city's skyline appears on automated tracks complete with LED lights. Shadow puppetry is deployed, flying creatures zoom around the stage, and the sea monster is a six-metre inflatable. With so many technical challenges to solve, problems inevitably arise.
The Age
26-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Apocalyptic comedy recreates Brisbane landmarks, and destroys them
Begun by Morton and Nicholas Paine in 2009, Dead Puppet Society has an international reputation for exquisite, machine-like puppets in theatrical productions. Their creations have ranged from robotic pelicans in Storm Boy and Galapagos tortoises in The Wider Earth to a huge bear for Brisbane Festival production Holding Achilles. We All Gonna Die! began when Dead Puppet Society put an open call out to playwrights to submit ideas. 'Our stories usually have a social or ecological justice message, and so we put that out as a parameter,' Morton says. Playwright and journalist Maddie Nixon (Cooladdi, Food Fight) answered the call. Loading 'Maddie wrote this pitch about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch becoming sentient and attacking Brisbane, and we were like, obviously we have to do this.' La Boite came on board to produce the show as part of its 2025 100th-anniversary season. Dean Hanson from Ball Park Music has composed and curated the music, with classic Brisbane songs by the Saints, Powderfinger and the Veronicas, and Morton is designing and co-directing the show with La Boite artistic director Courtney Stewart. 'We studied together [at QUT], and actually lived together for 18 months of our degree,' Morton says. 'We have a similar sensibility and approach, it's an awesome partnership.' A cast of five portrays more than 30 different characters between them. The city's skyline appears on automated tracks complete with LED lights. Shadow puppetry is deployed, flying creatures zoom around the stage, and the sea monster is a six-metre inflatable. With so many technical challenges to solve, problems inevitably arise.
DW
17-06-2025
- Science
- DW
What's the state of our oceans? – DW – 06/10/2025
Climate change, plastic pollution and overfishing are taking their toll on oceans, biodiversity and livelihoods. Can the UN's ocean conference underway in France find solutions to help protect them? Earth's oceans are home to more than 250,000 species, among them tiny plankton, colorful coral reefs and the gigantic blue whale. Over a billion people rely on food from the sea as a significant source of nutrition. The international community is now meeting in Nice, France, to hash out solutions to better protect the planet's vulnerable and plundered ocean waters. But what are the areas of concern at the UN Ocean Conference? Warmer oceans mean fewer underwater inhabitants As the planet heats up, huge swaths of underwater life are at stake. With rising temperatures, corals lose their color as a stress response and these crucial habitats can then die. Coral bleaching affects about 84% of all reefs. If ocean temperatures were to rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times, most reefs would die. "With anything higher than 2 degrees Celsius, destruction would be inevitable," said Katja Matthes, director of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel in northern Germany. Warm water also absorbs less oxygen and that puts many more underwater creatures at risk. New research shows that oceans are already warming to a depth of 2,000 meters (about 6,600 feet). Deep-sea squids are found at depths ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 meters Image: Courtesy Everett Collection/picture alliance "That means plankton, fish and marine mammals run out of oxygen. We see death zones here in Germany's Baltic Sea where life is virtually unable to exist anymore," said Matthes. Overfishing puts stress on marine ecosystems Excessive and unregulated fishing also puts a strain on marine ecosystems. Environmental organization WWF estimates the number of overfished stocks globally has tripled in the past 50 years. Fish populations have no chance to replenish if they're overly exploited. The problem is especially dire in the Mediterranean Sea, where over half of fish populations, such as herring, sardines and anchovies, are considered overexploited. "That has an impact on the food chain of bigger marine mammals and in turn affects an entire ecosystem," said Matthes. Fish are the most important source of protein for over a billion people. Over 600 million people depend on oceans for their livelihoods — especially in China, Indonesia and India. More plastic than fish in oceans by 2050 By 2050 the weight of all fish combined could be exceeded by something else: plastic waste. Every year, about 8 to 10 million tons of plastic ends up in the water. That's according to estimates by the World Resources Institute , a nonprofit organization based in Washington D.C. A big pile of garbage known as 'the Great Pacific Garbage Patch' is floating around in the North Pacific Ocean Image: Ocean Voyages Institute/ alliance It can take hundreds of years for plastic to break down. The persistent waste and microplastic particles are causing increasing problems for marine life. Rising sea temperatures affect weather patterns Global ocean currents have a major influence on monsoon periods in South America and Asia and Europe's relatively mild climate. The Gulf Stream, for example, as part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), brings warm water from the tropics to the North Atlantic Ocean. This helps regulate Europe's mild air temperatures and, thus, is central to the continent's high agricultural yields. According to researchers, rising temperatures could alter the AMOC. There are signs that the Gulf Stream is already slowing down. Without it, northern Europe would be 5 to 15 degrees Celsius colder, according to Germany's environment agency UBA. Oceans as an 'ally in the fight against climate change' Sea surface temperatures set new records in 2023 and 2024, according to the latest report from Copernicus, the European Union's Earth observation program. Water expands as it warms. This is one of the main reasons for sea level rise, alongside melting land ice. The sea is getting warmer, because it absorbs CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. It's sucked up about a third of human-made emissions. "Without this storage function, the temperature in the atmosphere would already be unbearable," said marine scientist Carlos Duarte, who's based at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. "The ocean is our ally in the fight against climate change," said Matthes, "but only as long as we maintain its function." As water temperatures rise, oceans absorb less CO2. And higher CO2 levels turn the sea acidic, killing off mussels and corals, Matthes added. Adjusting to more acidic conditions is hard on many creatures, and means they can lack the energy needed to grow and reproduce. How are oceans protected right now? To counteract these threats, countries have established marine protected areas. The largest of these is located off the coast of Hawaii in the US. The kind of protection provided in such zones varies from country to country. Wind farm construction and fishing are often prohibited. Currently, there are protected areas in less than 9% of the world's oceans — but fishing is prohibited in just 3% of these. Goal of cutting down on plastic in oceans "We can't solve all the problems with marine protected areas. These zones don't matter to climate change or the plastic floating in the ocean," said Duarte. The UN has pushed for an international treaty for years to cut down on plastic pollution. Recent negotiations stalled thanks to oil and gas producing nations such as Saudi Arabia and Russia. The next round of talks is scheduled for August in Switzerland. Research into alternatives to conventional plastic is another avenue scientists are pursuing. Japanese researchers have developed a substance that is supposed to dissolve in ocean saltwater within hours. However, such new alternatives offer no solution to the already huge amounts of plastic waste in oceans. Who is allowed to exploit ocean resources? About 40% of the oceans are governed by national law. These are the areas within a radius of approximately 370 kilometers (about 230 miles) around a state. Beyond this line are the high seas, which don't belong to any nation and are often referred to as the "common heritage of mankind." For the longest time, this area wasn't regulated at all. "As a result, many of the ocean's resources were plundered without anyone being held accountable," said Duarte. So far, only 1% of the high seas is protected because the international community could not agree on any other region besides Antarctica. The International Convention on the High Seas, signed by 134 nations in 2023 after 15 years of negotiations, aims to close this gap. However, it only becomes binding when at least 60 countries have ratified the treaty. So far, 49 have done so, among them many smaller countries, as well as Bangladesh and France. Germany and the US have not yet ratified the treaty. The international community has also agreed to protect biodiversity. The goal is to place 30% of the oceans under protection by 2030, so within the next five years. That's ambitious, said Duarte, adding: "It will take time for our current actions to have a noticeable impact in the future." Nevertheless, he said he's optimistic. "If we agree on this protection now, we will be able to leave our children and grandchildren an ocean in 2050 that looks roughly like the one our grandparents knew." This article was originally published in German and was adapted by Sarah Steffen. Edited by: Anke Rasper
Atlantic
08-06-2025
- General
- Atlantic
Oceans Awash in Plastic Waste
An estimated 11 million metric tons of plastic enter oceans each year, according to the U.S. State Department—and some of it accumulates in highly visible ways. Şebnem Coşkun / Anadolu / Getty Turkish free diver Şahika Ercümen dives amid plastic waste on the Ortaköy coastline to raise awareness of plastic pollution in the oceans, and to observe the conditions in the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 27, 2020. Nhac Nguyen / AFP / Getty A Vietnamese woman gathers shells in a coastal forest littered with plastic waste that stuck in branches after it was washed up by the rising tide, in Thanh Hoa province, about 150 kilometers south of Hanoi, Vietnam, on May 18, 2018. Nina Gomes recovers a discarded plastic bag from ocean waters near the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on March 19, 2024. Bags of plastic waste and garbage recovered from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are unloaded at the Port of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on July 23, 2024. The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit organization founded in 2013 that develops and deploys technologies to rid the world's oceans of plastic. A plastic ball floats in the Strait of Gibraltar, about 6.8 miles (11 kilometers) away from the nearest shore, near Barbate, Spain, on July 31, 2018. Bhushan Koyande / Hindustan Times / Getty Children walk through tons of plastic waste on a shallow shoreline near Badhwar Park in Mumbai, India, on June 4, 2025. Raşid Necati Aslim / Anadolu / Getty A giant 11-meter-long whale sculpture called Whale on the Wharf , made of recycled plastic waste, is placed in London's Canary Wharf area on April 15, 2025, to draw attention to plastic pollution in the oceans. In this photo taken on October 22, 2019, plastic and other debris sit on a beach on Midway Atoll in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. According to a study released in 2020, more than a million tons a year of America's plastic trash isn't ending up where it should. The equivalent of as many as 1,300 plastic grocery bags per person is landing in places such as oceans and roadways. In this photo from October 22, 2019, small pieces of plastic waste are shown in the decomposed carcass of a seabird on a beach on Midway Atoll. In one of the most remote places on Earth, Midway Atoll is a wildlife sanctuary that should be a safe haven for seabirds and other marine animals. Instead, creatures here struggle to survive as their bellies fill with plastic from faraway places. Josep Lago / AFP via Getty This photo taken on January 12, 2024, shows plastic nurdles at La Pineda beach in Tarragona, Spain. Cem Ozdel / Anadolu / Getty Modou Fall, a Senegalese environmental activist also known as 'Plastic Man,' is raising awareness about environmental pollution with his costume made of hundreds of plastic bags. He's shown here in Dakar, Senegal, on March 27, 2025. The 55-year-old Plastic Man organizes discussions and various events to educate the public about environmental pollution and climate change. Wearing his plastic outfit and carrying a note on his chest reading Africa is not a trash can , he walks the streets and beaches of Dakar to highlight the impact of plastic use on the environment. Olivier Morin / AFP / Getty This photo shows several dead herring trapped in a plastic packaging net on May 3, 2023, near Pietarsaari, Finland, as the late spring's sea ice was melting slowly. Benson Ibeabuchi / AFP / Getty A view of a canal that empties into Lagos Lagoon, clogged with rigid foam and single-use plastic, at Obalende in Lagos, Nigeria, on January 23, 2024. Agung Parameswara / Getty Small pieces of plastic that washed ashore on Kedonganan Beach and were collected in Kedonganan, Bali, Indonesia, shown on February 2, 2021. In Bali, known for its beaches and sunsets, the northwest monsoon brings vast amounts of plastic waste to its world-famous shores. Volunteers from a nongovernmental organization hold hands after cleaning the São Conrado beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 8, 2023, as part of World Oceans Day. Tahsin Ceylan / Anadolu / Getty Divers from the Turkish Underwater Sports Federation and Kas Underwater Association team carry out underwater cleaning operations off the coast of Antalya's Kas district on May 4, 2025. During the sea-cleaning operation, a large variety of items such as cellphones, plastic chairs, plates, forks, hats, glass, and plastic bottles were removed. Mladen Antonov / AFP / Getty A wave carrying plastic waste and other rubbish washes up on a beach in Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand on January 19, 2021. Li Xinjun / Xinhua / Getty Primary-school students clean up garbage at Binhai Park in Rongcheng City, in east China's Shandong Province, on June 4, 2025.
Time of India
03-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Sabuj Mancha on plastic pollution threat to rivers
1 2 Kolkata: Physical surveys conducted across districts of Bengal by Sabuj Mancha reveal that riverbeds in the region are choked with plastic waste, putting freshwater aquatic biodiversity under severe existential threat. If these riverbeds continue on this trajectory, they risk turning into dead zones—akin to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—spelling disaster for Bengal's freshwater ecosystems. "Almost every day, tonnes of plastics are being dumped in the rivers, much of which is flowing into the sea. The microplastics are easily entering our food chain through fish. However, the riverbeds, which are the greatest aquatic biodiversity zones, are fast turning into dead zones. It is high time citizens take action and hold both rural and urban local bodies to task," said Naba Dutta, secretary, Sabuj Mancha, an umbrella organisation for environmental groups and individuals. Dutta said that no water body is spared from plastic pollution, be it a pond, canal, or lake. The main reason is that none of the 128 municipal bodies have adopted the Waste Management Rule, 2016, in its totality. Moreover, the steps against the manufacturing of single-use plastic are not only slack but non-existent in most places.
