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Comment by Alupis | Hacker News Reader

Anyone know why there were dumped into the ocean instead of being destroyed? I'd wager a great deal of the dumped ordinance is still in-tact at the bottom of the ocean, albeit corroded. The plethora of buried mines and other unexploded ordinance still being found from WWI and WWII speak to munitions longevity.

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After WW II dumping into the ocean was seen as destroying it. Our modern understanding of "The Environment" post-dates that time period. In 1950 there were about 2.5 billion people in the World, and that was a big new thing. The petrochemical industry was still in it's youth. Colorful car paints were the new thing. Colorful, synthetic fabrics were just being developed. A lot of our current understanding is the result of our past mistakes. Like lighting rivers on fire.

Exactly. Consider ... lead paint, everywhere. Leaded gasoline was the norm, EVERYWHERE, with little exception.

Well, that's a different issue, having to do with the also relatively recent understanding that trace amounts of a substance can also be toxic over long intervals.

It's exactly the issue. Trace amounts of military weapons in the ocean are probably a bad idea, too. The whole business of environmentalism is post-war. Mostly since Rachael Carson's "Silent Spring".

So... the solution to pollution is dilution?

Out of sight, out of mind.

Quantity and time, some of these dumps have well over 10,000 tonnes (the largest point looks to have 200,000 tonnes). Loading them on ships and scuttling them out in the ocean is quick, the alternative is having them all sitting around in warehouses for years while they're slowly decommissioned, and hoping an accident or terrorist doesn't bathe half the country in mustard gas.

Price.

Dumping something in the sea is far more economical that expending money properly disposing it.

Of course they did not solve the problem. They just make their grandchildren pay for it.

6th Fundamental Truth of Networking: It is easier to move a problem around than it is to solve it.

... RFC1925 via https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup

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