Thread by @RebeccaRHelm

FAKING SUCCESS? Did The Ocean Cleanup fake their latest video? What we should really be talking about it this: what would it mean if they DIDN'T.
🧵thread ⬇️
newsweek.com/ocean-cleanup-…

First, this isn't the first time scientists have been skeptical of The Ocean Cleanup's 'evidence'. Here's a picture the company posted a few years ago of their supposed plastic catch. See all the orange tags on the plastic? Yeah, that's now how it usually works...

Like others, I have no doubt that they staged the video in some way, but that's different from faking. Staging could mean catching the best angle, removing inconvenient footage, prettying things up. But let's imagine for a moment that it's all true...

https://twitter.com/DrAndrewThaler/status/1493797566898753538

If they're doing all they claim, then they're doing a really bad job, and have been for 10 years.

Scientists said their original ideas couldn't work & they didn't. Then we warned that they shouldn't be done because of harm to marine life & the company's own independent assessments backed that up. Now they're dragging a net behind two boats...

This is a wildly ineffective strategy. If The Ocean Cleanup crew went to the beach every day & picked up 15 kg of plastic for the same amount of time they would have cleaned an equal amount of plastic. Without 600 METRIC TONNES of emissions & more than ~$1,000,000 per trip...

And other groups can and are doing SO MUCH BETTER. By literally every metric. This organization caught twice as much plastic both per day and total using A SAILBOAT...

https://twitter.com/RebeccaRHelm/status/1276932823249637376

There are SO MANY groups doing amazing work on this front. Cleaning plastic and making a real difference...

https://twitter.com/kendyjnelly/status/1493731442127376388

To the good people at the company, the donors, the public, I hope we can focus on the amazing work that's being done for so much less, on the organizations that are collecting so much more, & ask ourselves: Is dragging a net behind two boats the way to make a difference? [end]