tags: North Pacific Gyre, plastics, pollution, Pacific Ocean, streaming video
The center of the North Pacific Gyre is a relatively stationary region of the Pacific Ocean (the area it occupies is often referred to as the horse latitudes). The circular rotation around it draws waste material in and has led to the accumulation of flotsam and other debris. While historically this debris has biodegraded, the gyre is now accumulating vast quantities of plastic and marine debris. Rather than biodegrading, plastic photodegrades, disintegrating in the ocean into smaller and smaller pieces. These pieces, still polymers, eventually become individual molecules, which are still not easily digested. Some plastics photodegrade into other pollutants. Scientist Miraim Goldstein studies these pollutants and I am sure she'd be thrilled to answer your questions.
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I like your blog and the topic is important but man... that video was crud. I'm just going to tear into it a bit and hopefully the person who made it can take a hint.
The editing technique was so 1980's. The maker would do well to learn techniques that take advantage of NLE and modern software. The random distortions to simulate "water", the less then smooth screen capture, and the lightpen style circling on the map went out a decade ago. Someone should have gone over the voice over text to make sure it flowed correctly, and well, the voice over just sounded bad. Hand-held shaky video clips much? And WTF was up with the cows? A simple intro to video editing class and a session or two of voice training could make a world of difference. Actually, if he still hasn't figured out how to turn on the anti-shake feature, and that you don't include random clips in a video just to match the script timing he might be a lost cause.
Anyways, thanks for the post GrrlScientist, but please, can you find videos that are a bit easier on the eyes and ears?
sorry about that. i was so tired when i found this that i was more interested in the fact i'd found something to share than in realizing the quality might not be "all that". today's video is much better, i think, and it was created by a friend of mine, too, so be sure to post your comments so she can read them.
Robert, it's Youtube. Get over it. This wasn't a Discovery channel piece. If you find this sort of thing so totally jarring as to ignore the message, get off the net before you get hurt. If you really want the poster to make improvements, leave them a comment on their video. Good luck with that.