Way out in the Pacific Ocean, in an area once known as the doldrums, an enormous, accidental monument to modern society has formed. Invisible to satellites, poorly understood by scientists and perhaps twice the size of France, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not a solid mass, as is sometimes imagined, but a kind of marine soup whose main ingredient is floating plastic debris.
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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has now been tentatively mapped into an east and west section and the combined weight of plastic there is estimated at three million tons and increasing steadily. It appears to be the big daddy of them all, but we do not know for sure.
Dr Pearn Niiler of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute in San Diego, the world's leading authority on ocean currents, thinks that there is an even bigger garbage patch in the South Pacific, in the vicinity of Easter Island, but no scientists have yet gone to look.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk - Drowning in plastic: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of France
Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Twice the Size of France!
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Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Twice the Size of France!
Ever think that throwing that plastic bag in the ocean doesn't do harm? You might want to re-think that, as ocean dumping is leading to the creation of a floating garbage dumps, including one that's twice the size of France in the Pacific!
- Slayer
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Re: Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Twice the Size of France!
lol what do they mean theres nothing they can do? cant they get it out of the sea and recycle the plastic or even melt it down? i cant believe what im seeing liturally
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Re: Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Twice the Size of France!
Essentially, that's the case, as collecting the existing trash from the oceans is quite difficult and time-consuming. What makes it even worse is that plastic (which a lot of sea garbage is composed of) is not biodegradable, meaning that it can't be broken down by any living organisms.Slayer wrote:lol what do they mean theres nothing they can do? cant they get it out of the sea and recycle the plastic or even melt it down? i cant believe what im seeing liturally
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Re: Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Twice the Size of France!
lol mabey whales will be able to eat plastic one day ;D
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