“and the bright garbage on the incoming wave
best seen at morning rush-hour in driving rain:
‘in the refuse of the world a new world is born.’”
(Derek Mahon 1999, cited in Haughton 2002)
Idea N# 1: Not sure if this one is a goer so please tear it apart or make suggestions. Certainly the scope is too large. Will post other more feasible ideas tomorrow.
For even the most narrow search using the term “Pacific Garbage Patch”, Google returns 642,000 responses; You Tube 1,370 videos; Nexis News database 938 articles; and academic databases Scopus, Web of Knowledge, Ovid, Proquest-SS and Google Scholar give 16, 16, 3, 74, and 268 responses respectively.
By any measure, this is a large social reaction to an issue of environmental pollution by the public, media, NGOs and academia. Reported cases of such responses typically focus on direct human exposure (e.g. Trafigura, Bin Strikes etc). So if out of sight is out of mind, then why such a reaction to the Pacific Garbage Patch that is on the High Seas? Has the PGP itself become an actor?
- Is there a regional difference in reactions Pacific vs other parts of the world?
- How do people imagine the garbage patch vs the scientific reality?
- Why do people care about floating garbage but not the more significant portion on the ocean floor?
- How does this phenomenon reveal peoples relationship with waste, capitalism and the environment?
- What have been the responses by industry, government, civil society, academia?
- How does the PGP challenge our 'modernized' relationship with waste?
The way in which waste as an output of the economic system interacts with politics, society, and the biophysical environment is a recent addition to the political ecology literature principally championed by the research of Sarah Moore. In today’s globalised world, garbage production and its disposal are intimately imbedded in capitalist system, both at local and global scales. How waste is produced, what is defined as waste, and where waste ends up are all important questions with social and political implications, not to mention potentially severe environmental and human impacts. Deeply imbedded within the capitalist system of production which feeds the growing flows of waste is the idea that waste as a commodity can be controlled and traded. Closely linked to this is the cultural imaginary of modernization linked to norms of cleanliness and order that can only be fulfilled with ongoing effort that makes waste disappear from view (at least for some people). The extent to which material conditions meets these expectations can set the stage for social, cultural and political conflict. Moore explores these dimensions in relations to terrestrial waste disposal in Oaxaca, Mexico, where marginalised communities are able to exercise power over local politics through the blockading of waste disposal (Moore 2008; Moore 2009; Moore 2011).
The spatial geography of waste is particularly interesting in this respect. The way in which capitalism deals with waste has been described as a spatial fix which is widely attributed to David Harvey’s ‘The Limits to Capital’ (Harvey 2006). As noted by Harvey, this idea of a fix has often been misunderstood or applied only in part. In his original use of the term, the meaning of fix was that of a junkie, implying that capitalism is addicted to space, to expansion of its limits through restructuring in order to ward off instability and crisis(Harvey 2001). There are also two other derivatives associated with the word fix that are relevant. One is that something has been fixed down to a particular location. For garbage disposal, this usually means collecting in waste from a spatial catchment and concentrating it into a small place that is spatially consolidated, manageable, and effectively hidden from view. In this sense, in order to maintain social acceptability of consumption, capitalism is constantly fighting the entropy of waste objects that are by nature mobile (e.g. wind), long lasting (non-biodegradable), diffuse (created over a large spatial range), and thus can easily accumulate in the environment in such a way that they cannot easily be removed. The third implication of the term fix (Moore 2011), is to fix the problem i.e. simply ship the waste elsewhere which can also contribute to environmental accumulation of waste.
It is my intention to argue that the example of the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch represents the limitation and ultimate futility of spatial fixes for waste disposal in a globalised world, and that furthermore this represents another example of an environmental contradiction of modern capitalism. I suggest this idea because the PGP represents an example of garbage ceasing to be invisible through its concentration by the physics of the Gyre (much like a river concentrates a valley's pollution), and its subsequent reappearance in our public and environmental spaces to which we attach expectations, norms, taboos, emotions and imaginaries. Plastics accumulation in the ocean and increasing public profile confronts us with the waste we produce and out ultimate inability to control it in a globalized world.
The fact that it is on the high seas (global commons) and diffuse (as in many sources), is highly relevant to my claim due to that fact that:
1) It is creating an ongoing hazard for oceanic ecosystems (invasive rafting, ingestion, bioaccumulation), as well as costs for island states (e.g. Hawaii).
2) It is technically infeasible to remove it over such a large area (although wacky suggestions have been made), so supply side action is the only option.
3) I suspect that, there is officially no one legally responsible for creating it and that current practices aren’t adequate to stop it (will investigate by looking at IMO, UNCLOS and other conventions)
4) It would be incredibly difficult to solve without international action as this might be a legitimate commons problem it being the high seas and all.
I think that in light of the social theory employed by Moore do describe public perceptions and reactions to the reappearance of waste. The widespread media reaction to the story of the PGP is interesting. Especially in light of the fact that this sort of environmental problem is not one that easily lends itself to a technical solution. Another interesting thing is the fact that the plastic in the pacific gyre is just a small part of the problem of oceanic waste (the plastic that doesn’t sink), and near shore plastic pollution is even more visible. Arguably in fact there are many more immediate and local environmental problems at had, yet this issue has captured peoples imagination. Why?
To investigate this further, I intend to look at the global media response to the garbage patch using Nexis News and Proquest-Social Science Databases.
Through this I want to investigate the reactions of: The public, NGO's; Industry; Governments. Especially in the Pacific Region, but with a comparison to other regions.
To do this I want to analyse responses using the following categories:
Source (e.g. personal reactions; NGO; Governments etc)
Location (country or state)
Described causes of PGP (description, not-mentioned)
Described impacts of PGP (description, not-mentioned)
Action needed? (Yes, no, not-mentioned)
Who is responsible?
What responses should be taken?
What responses are being taken?
Imagery used of the ocean and waste
I would also like to enrich this information by conducting online interview (skype) and or surveys (e-mail) with a number of key visible organisations and actors that have been set up in response to the discovery of the PGP.
Project Kaisei - http://www.projectkaisei.org/index.aspx
Plastic Oceans - http://www.projectkaisei.org/index.aspx
Seaplex - http://seaplexscience.com/
Junk Craft - http://www.junkraft.com/home.html
5 Gyres - http://www.5gyres.org/
Algalita Marine Research Foundation - http://www.algalita.org/index.php
Plastic Pollution Coalition - http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/
And there’s more!
In this essay, I therefore want to highlight the way in which diffuse accumulation of waste in the environment from the global system of production – subsequently concentrated and distributed by biophysical processes - can challenge such production systems by returning waste to locations and environments that conflict with our cultural norms, ideas and imaginaries; and in ways that we are not able to control. As a result, in the refuse of our world, a new world is born - whether we like it or not.
References and Readings:
Harvey, D. (2001). "Globalization and the spatial fix." Geographische Revue 2: pp. 23–30.
Harvey, D. (2006). The limits to capital, Verso.
Sam. This was an interesting proposal but after our skype chat I know you are moving to a different topic. Will check in to make sure all is under control. Diana
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