Plastic now outweighs plankton in the ocean

Revisiting the Great Pacific Garbage patch.

Study: Plastic in 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' increases 100-fold

They say in the video that there is now 48 times more plastic than plankton in the Pacific Ocean. Wow. Last I checked, plastic is not part of the food chain. And think about it: we've only been dumping plastic in the ocean for about 60 years. Probably safe to assume that in another 50-60 years there will be at least 100 times more plastic than plankton, if things don't change. Yikes.

Also:

The scientists also pointed to a previous Scripps study that found nine percent of fish had plastic waste in their stomachs.

Almost one out of every ten fish in the ocean is eating the plastic already. 50 years from now, 1 out of 5 fish? Assuming there are still fish.

This is insane!
When are we going to realise that for now this is the only home we have and that we need to look after it! I can only wonder what, if we just dumped our rubbish in our backyards the way we dump rubbish in the ocean, our neighbourhoods would look like?

All I can say is reiterate what an old lecturer I had years ago said "Do you know where your empty coke bottle is?"

Because, it's not just bad people polluting the ocean and creating this gyre of plastic, it's every one of us that consumes.

I try to recycle as much as possible, but I know that my actions will have no impact. It's the common nonchalant regard of our environment that created the problem, and it's the continuing ignorance of so many people that causes it to continue.

The plastic island, last time I checked, was larger than the entire continental united states - estimated. No one, at least to my knowledge, has actually been there to check. From the sea surface, it is apparently hard to guage, and only from high above do you get an idea.

But that is just how wde it seems. Seen from above. It reaches down to extreme depths, and as it does, it breaks down into smaller plastic particulates. Like plasterscene at the bottom, easily sucked into the gills of many marine life, which end up on our plates.

Funny all the ire about oil spills, nuclear reactors failing, etc, yet most people vent their rage over a keyboard, while sucking down litres of sprite and red bull..

Why hasn't recycling already been made mandatory by all governments?

I read an article... think it was either NG or similar, that said that if a human being were to give a good effort, he/she could literally walk on the garbage for a span of over 1200 miles in the Pacific and never get wet.

That's troubling.

This is disturbing and disgusting on all levels possible.

Why do people insist on killing Mother Earth?

I hope that soon, people will realize that she is alive, and she is getting tired of people destroying her.

You can only learn from love. You can never learn from hatred.


Thank you for posting this. S&F

More people should read this...maybe then they will learn to recycle.