CEAC – How to stop destructive loss of ocean oxygen?

09 Dec 2019, 09:03 by Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre

Consider;
The shock of an alarming release of the report at the Climate Change conference in Madrid COPs 25 yesterday on the discovery loss of widespread ocean oxygen is another watershed moment that must be recognised as dire for our future survival.

Quote;
“Oceans losing oxygen at unprecedented rate, experts warn of the loss of ocean oxygen at-unprecedented-rate”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/07/oceans-losing-oxygen-at-unprecedented-rate-experts-warn

Quote ;

“Oxygen in the oceans is being lost at an unprecedented rate, with “dead zones” proliferating and hundreds more areas showing oxygen dangerously depleted, as a result of the climate emergency and intensive farming, experts have warned.
Sharks, tuna, marlin and other large fish species were at particular risk, scientists said, with many vital ecosystems in danger of collapse. Dead zones – where oxygen is effectively absent – have quadrupled in extent in the last half-century, and there are also at least 700 areas where oxygen is at dangerously low levels, up from 45 when research was undertaken in the 1960s.”

Losing-oxygen-at-unprecedented-rate-experts-warn Oxygen Level Decrease in Air from Climate Change

A scientist Paul Beckwith University of Ottawa already has a study about this issue in a discussion you tube presentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4ynqsRQcoM

Paul Beckworth states; “Combustion of fossil fuels causes oxygen to decrease in the atmosphere/ocean system.
As does deforestation, exponential population growth and phytoplankton loss in the oceans from warming stratification limiting nutrients at the surface.
It is often said that the oxygen in every second breath you take is produced by photo plankton, that are the true lungs of the planet. I discuss the extend of the oxygen decrease, which is more than you want to know.”

We know already that micro-plastics are detected in our oceans and even deposited in ice packs and alpine snow in many areas of the globe now.

So where could some of the “micro-plastics” come from?

Now a German scientific study has traced the micro-plastics to tyre ‘particulates’ from vehicles, so we are now part of the problem apparently.

Tyres are used in every corner of the globe now, and we have never considered tyre dust to be a threat and a potential pollutant to our environment, have we?

Tyres are made from oil ‘distillate’ products like styrene ,polyethene, nylon, butadiene and many others including formaldehyde, - so we should not be surprised at the sheer problems these “micro-plastics may be causing to our environment now and all living organisms.

So could we find ‘cleaner less toxic materials’ from which to make those tyres from?

We studied this problem and discovered that in 2001 three large international tyre companies came together to fund a study to produce a ‘prototype tyre’ that contained far less toxic chemicals than tyres are currently made from, which consisted of wood, grass and corn derivatives which may be a part solution to our reduction and less use toxic petroleum waste products and those companies are Bridgestone, Michelin, and Yulex Corporation specifically.

From sustainable feedstocks to finished products. at wileyonlinelibrary.com

On the product application font, Bridgestone has recently launched Ecopia EP001S tyre with an A/A rating for wet grip as well as fuel economy in Europe and Japan.

144 Optimized top tread compound with maximum resistance toward aquaplaning and increased stiffness of the tread blocks has led to such improved tyre performance.

In 2012, Michelin had launched the MICHELIN ENERGY EV tyre for electric cars to increase their autonomy, which improves fuel economy and hence contributes toward sustainability.

145 Bridgestone has very recently developed tyre, which is made of 100% Guayule rubber. The company has also set an ambitious target of producing its entire tyre portfolio from sustainable materials.

146 Recently, Yulex Corporation has launched Yulex Pure, a guayule rubber that meets the requisite critical performance standards for many medical, industrial, and consumer applications and surpasses the performance standards of many synthetic lattices.

147 The company is using advanced genomic technologies for commercial production. These are a few instances, which reflect the urge and motivation of various companies toward sustainability.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/app.45701
Perhaps now NZ could become a world leader by finally producing the first ‘new commercially available ‘eco-friendly vehicle tyre composition’ since it has been science tested but yet to go into production here?

‘Eco-friendly vehicle tyre composition’ has been on the scientific horizon and has been known since 2001, - so why is it not in widespread use by now?

Perhaps ‘Big Oil’ felt it would damage their financial status after an oil free component vehicle tyre may be popular as they can be made of grass, trees, corn, and perhaps no petrochemicals may be needed to build the first “Eco-tyre?
(QUOTE) “According to the Rubber Manufacturers Association, each tire produced takes 7 gallons of oil”

These two documents provide the evidence to show about “road dust from tyres is an overlooked pollutant of our waterways.
Tyre dust is micro-plastics.
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/277na4_en.pdf
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es400871j
• If the world is to limit the effects of global warming, drastic changes must be made and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/ Executive Summary.

• All must be taken seriously now along with; “Comparison of Tire and Road Wear Particle Concentrations in Sediment for Watersheds in France, Japan, and the United States by Quantitative Pyrolysis GC/MS Analysis” report on sediments for watersheds.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es400871j
QUOTE: “Comparison of Tire and Road Wear Particle Concentrations in Sediment for Watersheds in France, Japan, and the United States by Quantitative Pyrolysis GC/MS Analysis

Abstract
Impacts of surface runoff to aquatic species are an ongoing area of concern. Tire and road wear particles (TRWP) are a constituent of runoff, and determining accurate TRWP concentrations in sediment is necessary in order to evaluate the likelihood that these particles present a risk to the aquatic environment. TRWP consist of approximately equal mass fractions of tire tread rubber and road surface mineral encrustations. Sampling was completed in the Seine (France), Chesapeake (U.S.), and Yodo-Lake Biwa (Japan) watersheds to quantify TRWP in the surficial sediment of watersheds characterized by a wide diversity of population densities and land uses. By using a novel quantitative pyrolysis-GC/MS analysis for rubber polymer, we detected TRWP in 97% of the 149 sediment samples collected.

Plastic carpeting?

When we looked into the humble household carpet for any emissions of “micro- plastic particulates we were again shocked that 95% of the standard carpeting today is made from oil based derivatives again such as ‘Nylon 6’ and it’s many volatile organic chemical components. https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/sites/default/files/knowledge_-_toxics_in_carpets_eu_review_anthesis_final_study.pdf

What Toxic Substances are Present in Carpets according to the EU.
Plasticisers:
Phthalates.
Alkyphenol
Ethoxylates:
Nonylphenols (NPs)
Nonylphenol Ethoxylates (NPEOs
Biocides:
Antimicrobials
Flame Retardants
Stain Repellents: Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS
Heavy Metals & Metal Compounds
Dyes and Pigments.
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)
Other VOCs – “New Carpet Smell”.
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC).
Styrene Butadiene Rubber Latex (SBR Latex)
Polyurethane

This potentially toxic combination used in carpeting was only produced since woollen carpeting was less aggressively marketed as a floor covering for insulation during the 1970’s although the performance of insulation using wool was three times more thermally efficient than ‘Nylon 6’ plastic acrylic carpeting insulation is.

Now any nylon carpeting dust is linked to many health concerns, and is regarded as a human toxic exposure if the dust particles and VOC gasses released are breathed into the lungs and consumed in food consumed. The nylon dust from walking and wear will become a ‘micro-plastic’ when we are walking outside and removed from our shoes then washed down drains by rain. Did we ever think of this?

Then we have now according to this UN press release below;
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1912/S00017/decade-ending-2019-likely-to-be-hottest-on-record.htm
Wednesday, 4 December 2019, 9:34 am
Press Release: UN News
“Exceptional global heat driven by greenhouse gas emissions mean this decade will most likely go down as the warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) which released its provisional statement on the State of the Global Climate on Tuesday.”

So if our every day use of plastics in ‘every walk of life’ is not checked for ‘micro-plastics’ then we are part of today’s problems that are causing climate change.

Big question is; - ‘How to firstly stop destructive loss of ocean oxygen’?

We have always advocated to Government for our transport to return using rail as our prime mover ‘of people and freight’ around our country.

With rail we have no transport tyre ‘micro-plastic’ emissions, as micro-plastics are seen as the worst enemy causing climate change in the articles above.

So less ‘transport micro-plastic dust’ is considered as a major plus - and only ‘steel wheels on a steel track’ will do the job to deal with Climate change, so if we lower the micro-plastics emissions in our environment we will make our lives healthy again then.