Is there really cause for panic due to (climate) change caused by human actions?

in #pollution6 years ago (edited)

pollution_drina_plastic_waste_natural_pollution_garbage_environmental_sins_fog_sad-1115089.jpg!d.jpgMany people challenge climate change effects, and cite some old apocalyptic warnings by UN and facts they did not come true.

I pay attention to some other things.

Let's do some simple math.

Let's start with available resources, for example, total water on Earth.

https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/how-much-water-there-earth?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects

(1) All water (largest sphere over western U.S., 860 miles (1,385 kilometers) in diameter)
V = 4/3πr^3
V = 1,388,055,696 km^3

Every minute 1M single use plastic bottles are produced.

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/single-use-plastic-bottles-daily-waste-generation-1599073-2019-09-14

Christ of Redeemer height is 38 m. Let's try to estimate the volume of this cone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_repose

angle A = 35 degrees

If you don't know math, you can use online tools, i.e.:
https://www.triangle-calculator.com/?what=rt&a=a%3D38+A%3D35&submit=Solve

r = 54.27 m

Now we can calculate the volume of the cone:

V = (πr^2h)/3

V = 117201 m^3 = 0.000117201 km^3

Above is per minute!

There are 1440 minutes in a day, 1.4 billion bottles in a day.

There are 525960 minutes in year, 525 billion bottles per year.

Volume of single use plastic bottles per year is:

V = 61.64 km^3 in a year.

In 100 years it is 6164 km^3.

That is 1/10th of fresh water volume (see the first link above).

Much of it goes to landfills, so not fresh water. However, I will explain below why I started with water.

**Also, this was calculation for single use plastic trash ONLY! **

Reality vs theory:

Go to Bali, or some other tropical island in the middle of an ocean, and see for yourself level of pollution both on beaches (brought by waves and tides) and in the sea.

*So let's modify calculation a bit. Instead of all volume, let's consider volume near the surface only (much of plastic garbage floats). *

https://www.answers.com/Q/What_percentage_of_Earth%27s_surface_is_covered_by_water

https://www.universetoday.com/25756/surface-area-of-the-earth/

S = 4πr2
S = 510000000 km^2

Surface of water is S * 0.71 = 362100000 km^2

To get volume, let's get top 1m, or 0.001 km. Multiplying we get:

V = 362100 km^3

Dividing our yearly plastic bottle trash with above volume of near surface water, we get:

6164 / 362100 ~ 0.02

So we will pollute almost 2% of surface water in 100 years.

***This means that in 100 years, out of every 100 m^3 of water surface, 2 m^3 will be filled with plastic, completely. ***

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=diffusion&t=ffab&ia=web

***This means, given laws of physics, bottles from those 2 m^3 will be spread out over all 100 m^3, and there will be bottle in every m^3. You will not be able to go anywhere, or swim anywhere as there will be bottles everywhere. ***

Now lets think about plastic bags, fishing nets, other trash not mentioned here and how much they are being produced and dumped.

Should I mention straws which some idiots try to use as red herring to distract from everything else mentioned above?

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