As time goes on...
...It seems technology improves and we believe that humanity has advanced to a higher standard. Sadly, I don't think this is so after seeing this article today. Not only just from this article, but we still use such primitive technologies by using fossil fuels and electricity. There are technologies that are cleaner, more efficient, and sustainable, but the government will not allow it to just be given out to assist in making this planet better overall. Too much money and politics are tied into these types of decisions, among many other unforeseen variables. As many know, we have plastic patches of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean. There has been talking about a cleanup of this as well. This article points out that a lot of life is living and thriving in this terrible garbage patch, yet the studies conducted and plans drafted do not include some of these life forms. A drastic cleanup would clearly destroy this habitat and kill off more life. This neuston ecosystem is now at risk.
The neuston is home to more than blue buttons and bright snails. Erupting through the lawn of blue are crackling purple, red, gold, and yellow strands. These are Portuguese man o' wars, whose tentacles stretch like lightning from the meadows of blue and pink. And among them, dragons roam.
Small nudibranchs, known as blue sea dragons, feast on blue buttons and man o' wars, using their winglike cerata to grab and hold onto their tentacled prey. There are sea anemones, barnacles, copepods, color-changing crabs, specialized bacteria, even bugs, all living in this inverted reef in the middle of the open ocean. (Organisms that live exclusively by floating at the surface of the water are called pleuston, while neuston is a broader term, referring generally to the sea-surface ecosystem, which is why I chose to use it here.)
Just like reefs on the seafloor, this ecosystem does not stand apart from the open ocean around it. The neuston is a nursery for multiple species of larval fish and a hunting ground for paper nautilus octopuses. It supports sunfish, leatherback turtles, and diverse ocean grazers, which frequent these islands, relying on them as a food source. At night, soft-bodied jellies rise up to join the neuston, sparkling like fireflies. But all of this, from the blue sea dragons to the by-the-wind sailors, is in peril.
Source
The article points out the following:
When I learned about the Ocean Cleanup project's 600-meter-long barrier with a three-meter-deep net, a wall being placed in the open ocean, ostensibly to collect plastic passively as the currents push water through the net, I thought immediately of the neuston. How will it be impacted? But in the 146 pages of the Ocean Cleanup's environmental-impact assessment, this ecosystem isn't mentioned once.
Apparently, there was "evidence that the Ocean Cleanup knows about the neuston is clear from a table reporting animals in the vicinity of the Ocean Cleanup deployment area, where both blue buttons and by-the-wind sailors are listed. But the ecosystem itself is never discussed." From the article, the author went looking at some studies of the "whole -ocean neuston ecosystems" and found the following:
Savilov described seven unique neuston meadows in the open ocean, each with its own unique composition of animals. Just as rainforests differ from temperate forests, these neustonic ecosystems are unique. And one of them, Neuston Ecosystem 2, is in exactly the same spots as the 'garbage patches' where the Ocean Cleanup plans to operate. This makes sense: The neuston ecosystem is entirely passive—floating just like plastic—and evolved over millions of years to thrive within these regions, where surface-bound objects collect. But these ocean gyres are precisely where the Ocean Cleanup project intends to operate, and where it is currently testing its first system.
Source
The Ocean Cleanup project has high goals and good intentions of cleaning up our wasteful and unsustainable way of living, but the author makes a good point here...
Even without an environmental-impact assessment, it's easy to imagine what will happen if the Ocean Cleanup succeeds. Neuston and plastic co-occur: They're in the exact same spots. Cleaning up 90 percent of the plastic using the current method means potentially destroying 90 percent of the neuston.
The fact that we don't have a solid understanding of the neuston ecosystem is even more worrying: We will have very little "before" data to compare the Ocean Cleanup's impact against. By deploying its system right now, the project could rob the world of an entire ecosystem that we don't understand and may never get back.
Of course, people try to recycle but it obviously isn't working or it isn't enough. This author also contacted those in the Ocean Cleanup project about this issue and "the organization was responsive, but said that its assessment had already estimated impacts to relevant groups of animals based on the best data it could find." The author's solution? It was a bit bigger than recycling and it was the following with an explanation.
Here is one alternative solution: Place a modified design closer to plastic sources—river mouths and bays—to catch plastic before it enters the open ocean. Choose a place where it can be monitored and corrected for environmental impact. It seems too great a risk to disrupt the whole surface ocean ecosystem so severely, when it is also one we barely know. The neuston is an alien world, as bizarre as it is beautiful. It's still possible to avoid destroying this strange ecosystem, wedged between sea and sky.
Clearly, by the way we have been living has had more damage than good. We continually coverup our planetary messes with band-aids as the Earth is hemorrahging. We're not tackling the root issues. Thankfully, one day soon, Christ the Messiah will come and cleanse the Earth and make it new once again, free of the damage humanity has caused. Since Christ's Holy Spirit returned nearly 8 years ago now, soon he will take his throne and rule this planet the way it should be ruled!
Note: All images not cited are my own or created by me.
Be well!
For more information and truths about End Times check out Sanctuary-Interfaith, ABN, and The Coming of the Messiah
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