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Yes, it is a prototype, but in a press conference like this, one must assume that anything not specifically said doesn’t make the project look good. Because if that, I have serious doubt about that ‘promising’. That it catches plastic IMO isn’t that surprising; main questions are at what rate and how close they are to having a reliable device that they can leave for years at sea. I have my doubts about that reliability, too. This prototype set sail about 100 days ago (on June 18; https://theoceancleanup.com/milestones/system001/), and now they show what it captured in “a couple of days”. If they had it working for a month, I would think they said it, so we must assume it only worked for about a week so far. Part of the difference is moving the device to its location, but they don’t give that data, either. Perhaps not surprisingly, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ocean_Cleanup#2019 has more info than this press conference: ”In mid-June, after four months of work, the revamped system (001/B)[32] was redeployed.[33] This too failed. In August, the team announced that after trying multiple alternatives, a water-borne parachute attached to slow the boom and expanding the cork line used to hold the screen in place would be tested.[34] In October it became clear that the new system successfully holds plastic, and even microplastics.” |
I always detect this really doubting vibe in comments regarding this project, why ?
What is the reason a young man who started this project out of almost pure love and compassion and in my opinion, has been completely transparent about other failures be seen as sneaky ?
What would there be too gain for him ?