You can raise awareness about the garbage patch without having to lie. It's largely made up of microplastics, not discarded fishing gear like what the woman in this picture is standing on
The microplastics that make up the pacific garbage patch are kept there by a series of ocean currents called the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre and are drawn into the center of the fringes of the gyre where they are concentrated into these garbage patches
More than 12 million tons of plastic end up in our seas every year. Plastic pollution plagues every corner of the ocean and despite growing awareness, the problem is only getting worse. Fishing gear accounts for roughly 10% of that debris: between 500,000 to 1 million tons of fishing gear are discarded or lost in the ocean every year. Discarded nets, lines, and ropes now make up about 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
So there's the source. He wasn't entirely accurate, but his sentiment is close.
94% of the pieces are microplastics does not mean 94% of the mass are microplastics
If I had 1 piece of fish and some steamed rice on a plate you could say that 99% of the pieces of food on my plate are rice, and 50% of the food mass is fish.
it's not really intuitive but the Potato Paradox is even crazier
Hey dumbass, if you make a claim, you are responsible for showing evidence. It's the most basal form of keeping yourself from looking like a conspiracy nutjob.
So while I agree that the statement was wrong, I honestly don't agree that it you make a claim, you have to provide evidence.
Like I can say black men are jailed more frequently than white men and if you want proof, all you have to do is Google, imo. I mean I'd make such a comment based on fact, which I know is where it's different from this case, but just wanted to say it's also not always my job to like educate people who disagree with me.
Yeah you're right, context matters. But there is a lot of nuance that goes into it as well. Especially in topics that create false narratives like the seaspiracy. In the end no one ever actually "just googles it" after being told too though, it more commonly reaffirms their misguided beliefs because they think "oh they didn't actually have proof, they just told me to find some" even in obvious points like the example you gave.
But unfortunately, when you provide research, it doesn't necessarily make the person agree any more with you, in my experience. So there's kinda no reason to go through the effort when they are probably dug in their opinion anyway
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u/seaspirit331 Aug 12 '21
You can raise awareness about the garbage patch without having to lie. It's largely made up of microplastics, not discarded fishing gear like what the woman in this picture is standing on