I made a brief mention of this story on the weekend in "Short Takes", but I came across a more detailed accounting of what is happening from Pacific Magazine which is worth a read. In summary - rising oil prices are pushing smaller countries like the Marshall Islands that generate power using diesel to the (economic) brink. In this case they are taking the novel approach of considering using OTEC to supply their energy needs.

With spiraling fuel costs threatening the government’s ability to maintain power services in Majuro, Ebeye and other islands, the Marshall Islands declared a state of emergency Thursday afternoon to address the deteriorating economic situation.

Government officials said that declaration of a national state of economic emergency is aimed at fast-tracking domestic energy reduction and cost cutting measures, while lending weight to appeals by the Marshall Islands to donor countries and regional lending agencies for help.

“The national power utilities are projected to face an estimated shortfall of $17.5 million to $21 million over the next 12 months assuming the global trend continues,” said President Litokwa Tomeing in a nationally broadcast statement Thursday night. This deficit amounts to close to 20 percent of the entire national budget.

The government’s utility companies have raised power rates three times since January, but revenues have fallen as customers have cut back energy use or been disconnected for not being able to afford power costs that now range from 39 cents per kilowatt hour for “lifeline” residential use to 47 cents for businesses.

The Marshall Islands has enough diesel on island to keep the lights on until the end of August. But if it cannot come up with $8.5 million by next weekend to pay Seoul-based SK Networks for last month’s diesel shipment and a down payment on the next shipment, the likelihood of power rationing — and the possibility of running out of fuel — is looming.

The Marshalls Energy Company told Cabinet last week that without an immediate cash injection, it cannot raise the $8.5 million by next weekend. ...

While over the past three years a big alternative energy push has led to nearly half of the remote outer atoll homes getting donor-funded solar units, the state of emergency has ordered government agencies to redirect their alternative energy efforts to the two urban centers to help get people off costly electricity supplied by the government’s diesel-fired power plants.

The Cabinet has called for an fast-tracking a study on the feasibility of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) as an alternative to using fossil fuels for power generation, while also ordering the cost-cutting measure of parking government vehicles immediately after work to end the current practice of workers using government vehicles for personal needs after working hours.

TreeHugger has a post on the gigantic meal of rubbish soup being prepared by eddies in the Pacific ocean - slowly collecting the vast torrents of rubbish we discard. Luckily it isn't all wasted - fish eat some of it, then we eat them...

Deep Sea News' Kevin Zilnio points us to a great piece in The Independent describing what has become known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," or "trash vortex" - essentially a floating expanse of waste and debris in the Pacific Ocean now covering an area twice the size of the continental U.S. Believed to hold almost 100m tons of flotsam, this vast "plastic soup" stretches 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan:

"The "soup" is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk – which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags – is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from land."

David Karl, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, believes the "plastic soup" may actually represent a new habitat; he plans on organizing a research expedition later this year to examine its size and nature. Plastic waste is one of the most significant sources of marine pollution: According to UNEP, plastic accounts for 90% of all debris floating in the oceans - with every square mile containing close to 46,000 pieces.

The pernicious effects of this "trash vortex" aren't just limited to the marine ecosystem either. Every year, hundreds of millions of nurdles, tiny pieces of plastic, are dumped into or lost at sea, where they eventually make their way into the food chain by acting as sponges for a variety of anthropogenic chemicals (e.g. hydrocarbons and DDT).

Marcus Eriksen, research director of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, put is thusly: "What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. It's that simple."