Will the coast of California be affected by the tsunami in Japan? University of Hawaii scientists believe so. All the cars and homes that got washed out into the Pacific Ocean from Sendai are believed to be headed East from Japan towards the West Coast of the US. Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner from the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have created a model (seen above) based on the behavior of drifting buoys that were deployed over the years for scientific purposes. This model shows the estimated spread of debris from Japan's coast towards the US from March 2011 to March 2016. These models can be used also to help guide clean up and tracking of the process. Even prior to the tsunami, marine debris has become a bigger issue globally. The debris and oils have been washed out to sea or come off of tourism or shipping vessels and are harming the wildlife as well as industries like fishing, marine science and shipping.
Maximenko's work has also been able to track currents and can predict where debris, that doesn't wash ashore, collects. These regions where debris sinks to the bottom of the ocean are known as "garbage patches." The location of these "garbage patches" is important to helping clean the oceans.
Hopefully, Maximenko's work will help the marine clean up and keep the CA beaches safe from the ruins coming east from the Sendai area. This hopefully will help keep the oceans cleaner and keep the marine organisms from eating the garbage. Any thoughts? Do you think the remains will make it all the way across the Pacific to the US coast?
11 comments:
The debris from the devastating tsunami will likely make it to California's beaches in the coming years, but it is also likely that there will be trash coming in from the Pacific Garbage Patch as well as the tsunami debris carries trash from the area away. I think a big question for californians will be who should pay for the cleanup of the debris, the us government or the state government because if nothing is done to pick up the debris than many marine coastal ecosystems could be threatened.
Yea i also believe that the garbage patch is currently a bigger threat then the japan tragedy, as far as california beaches are concerned. although i feel that way, i think the aftermath of the current situation will surely affect the wildlife in the pacific. all the debris, once it makes it's way over to the california coast, will wreak havoc on the natural environment..hopefully planning can begin sooner rather than later, and money can be appropriated
I think that if we act fast, we can clean up the debris before it reaches the California coast. Maximenko and Hafner's research is the first step in getting the job done: recognizing the problem. If we focus on this issue and take action, I believe that the debris floating over from Japan will be a managable problem.
The debris causes an environmental issue that must be addressed, but traveling debris doesn't really have an enormously direct impact on the U.S. until it reaches U.S. territory/waters. Although it's quite callous to say, I doubt much will be done in the near future because the debris is still in it's process of traveling. With so many concerns the government must already address, the environmental hazard from the debris may be pushed down the ever-changing list of issues on the agenda because it will still take time for the debris to travel. It's easy to say that we should begin appropriating money for the effect that the debris will have on California, but it's much harder to implement the necessary actions to get money for the issue.
The question I have is: Who holds the responsibility to clean up garbage patches in the ocean?
The environmental issue is of utmost importance, but I doubt any nation would volunteer to clean up the ocean for the good of wildlife, which will come to effect humans.
i think the debris will eventually wash up and it should be interesting what does. its so unfortunate for the wildlife that also suffers from the disaster. but as for cleaning it up, the us coast guard comes to my mind
I would like to to disagree with Andrea's last statement. I think that once the immediate danger of the nuclear plants die down a little bit, the US and Japan and other countries will cooperate to clear up the debris. This is a little idealistic but I think people care enough about the enviroment to push their governments to help clean up becasue the enviroment does affect humans. So as Tony said, recognizing the problem is a start and acting fast will be help with cleaning up the debris therefore protecting the enviroment.
This is the sad truth about horrific events such as the Japan tsunami and earthquake: the environmental affects are often overshadowed by the great and tragic human loss of devastating events. I hadn't even thought about the environmental damage caused by this disaster until this post. I do think that the priority right now is helping the people, aiding them all we can. However, it is sad that the environment must take a back seat. The graphic of this post showed how far into the future the debris would continue to affect our beaches, wreaking more damage on the environment. And the nuclear power plant disaster will also have a profound affect on our planet for decades (if not centuries) to come. The Japan earthquake was clearly and obviously a very tragic event for the people of Japan and the people of the world. Yet it's easy to forget about the long term damages our planet will suffer when the human suffering caused by such an event is so great. I think, however, that we can and should try to learn from this tragic event. I think there are steps that can be taken to protect a population from such damage again, and while I admittedly do not have a clear answer for how that can be done, I believe it is possible. I also believe that steps should be taken to protect the environment. Firstly, something should be done about the spent fuel rods in nuclear plants across the globe. The Japan disaster showed us that when everything goes how we want it to, things are good. But when something unexpected happens, as it obviously will, we must be prepared. Building highly radioactive nuclear power plants on the coast of a low-lying, tsunami prone country should be seriously scrutinized. While the cleanup processes for the floating debris and the nuclear power plants may exist, I believe we should try, if possible, to prevent these things from happening rather than having ways to solve them once they've happened. Admittedly, there may be no solution to debris floating across the oceans after a massive tsunami, but I think we should consider all the environmental effects this disaster had and reconsider our impact on our planet.
In response to Alice's post, I do agree that building a nuclear plant in a earthquake/tsunami prone area is not the smartest idea. But, the maintenance and backup plans for the plants are far better than most of the nuclear plants around the world because of the threat of natural disasters. And I would like to point out that nuclear energy is the alternative green energy source. The damage done to the fukushima power plant is so devestating that Tokyo has to have planned black outs everyday to prevent overconsuming energy (and the lack of energy is expected to continue well beyond this summer). Also, yes the enviroment has to take a back seat for this disaster but the nuclear plant isn't to blame for the debris. Even if the disaster happened somewhere else, there will be a large amount of debris poured into the ocean because not everything we consume is biodegradable.
"its real but it ain't exactly there." -that daily dish video from the next post..idk, i thought itd fit
it would be nice if someone could step up and clean the thing up... both the big pacific garbage patch thats just swirling out there (you'd think hawaii would be in the middle of it, haha) and that bigger mess from japan but like, nobody's gonna do it unless somebody actually gets to see it.
japan oughta take care of it, afterall its there mess. BUTTTT, there tryna save their island.. so i'd say they got bigger things to worry about for now than saving the environment.
if the u.s. government steps in.. well, public opinion's mostly likely gonna give them heat for focusing on something that does not immediately affect them.. that model thingy dont say it'll hit for a couple of years. i feel bad for them people down in baja california... not too sure if they got the means to clean up something like that when it does hit.
then there's of course, there's the freerider problem (STAY AWAKE IN SILTON'S CLASS, YOU'LL LEARN SOMETHING)
no one's really gonna make the floating mess a priority until it becomes a more visible threat, so till then, enjoy the beaches while you still can
-Raymond Lim
Various kinds of wildlife would be endangered if the remains of post-earthquake debris make it to the western coastline of the United States. I think that Maximenko's work is a good step towards trying to tidy up mess the earthquake made. Just a few hours after the Japanese earthquake occurred, I heard that entire houses and cars got washed out to sea. Therefore, it is vital that we start removing the junk that's in the water as soon as possible or face the consequeunces of ending up with a landfill or junkyard twenty-thousand leagues under the sea. However, I think Maximenko's idea is easier said than done. It is very costly and time consuming to bring trash up to surface using the current technology that is available for underwater cleanup purposes. If he really wants to clean the ocean, it would be wiser to collect the debris before it has a chance to sink to the bottom of the sea.
I think the garbage will eventually come to California even if a lot of the debris were cleaned, there will always be some debris leftover from clean up and end up in the beaches of California. Hopefully people will start cleaning up the debris soon and getting rid of some so that the animals and wildlife living in the oceans aren't harmed and animals won't die out.
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