A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.
Yes, dear readers, you read that correctly.
The vast expanse of debris -- in effect the world's largest rubbish dump -- is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.
6 comments:
I'm surprised you haven't blogged about the patch before. The following video is a nice primer on it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=QJvifVrGi8o
Justin--
I'm surprised you haven't blogged about the patch before.
Actually, I have. I guess I've developed a morbid preoccupation with it. Plus, it seems to get bigger every time I check ...
Ah, I stand corrected. It's too bad the patch doesn't receive as much attention as things like Peak Oil and Climate Change. Its at least as horrifying.
Woops, that should read "It's".
What's really most alarming is that as this vast mass of plastic materials degrades, it doesn't organically break down in the environment.
It becomes dispersed as plastic micro bits and molecular debris that is taken up into the food chain to some extent. The real question is how it may be affecting micro to macro life forms over time.
Ugh... I wondered how big it was when I read about the Garbage Patch before. It's even bigger than I imagined. *shudder*
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