One Mile Walk

A solution or maybe a story

         As I've said before, on my blog, to my engineering colleagues, and several environmental alarmists, 'The plastics pollution in the ocean will be solved by some entrepreneur who finds a way to make money with it.'
         Well, according to the December Scientific American, p 18, I believe there is now a way.
         Removing the plastic pollution has morphed into political and engineering problems; to up-scale the techniques, capture the raw materials, and sell the project to the financial/governmental gatekeepers.
         As I've read, the technique called flash Joule heating breaks down the plastic into hydrogen and graphenes, both very valuable to the world. [massive Engineering job]
         The ocean currents, winds, coriolis effects, and geography already transport most of the floating plastic debris into five big gyres: in the North and South Pacific, the North and South Indian, and the North Atlantic Oceans. [Engineering a skimming/retrieval process]
         Convincing self-interested nations to wave protectionist copyright and treaty concerns. [Political/financial].
         Anybody who can float a massive processing flotilla can go there and harvest the trash. Heck, those Gyres are in international waters, maybe pirates will steal the trash.
         In the future, hydrogen will be fueling the transportation industries when it becomes available at low cost. Graphenes already have a market for everything from electronics to cement.
         But, wait a minute. Rather than simply write a prediction of a possible solution to the plastic problem, why don't I write a story (SF of course) about the reactions to the solution, the government interference (taxes, licenses, treaties), the corporate patent rights fight (over who should own the technology), the billionaire frauds, scams, (maybe murders too) for funding, the political careers (radical voters for and against), and the unexpected consequences on marine life (maybe DNA will adapt some).
         Wow! The movie 'There Will Be Blood' might be tame for comparison... Or 'Giant' for my generation.