http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/science/04/12/plastiki.kiernan.plastic/index.html?hpt=C1
The stark reality of a throw-away society
By Ian Kiernan for CNN<script type="text/javascript">cnnAuthor = "By Ian Kiernan for CNN";</script>
<script type="text/javascript">if(location.hostname.indexOf( 'edition.' ) > -1) {document.write('April 12, 2010 -- Updated 0708 GMT (1508 HKT)');} else {document.write('April 12, 2010 3:08 a.m. EDT');}</script>April 12, 2010 3:08 a.m. EDTApril 12, 2010 -- Updated 0708 GMT (1508 HKT)
Excerpts:
"(CNN) -- I grew up on the shores of Sydney Harbor and I fondly remember exploring the crystal clear pools, observing the unique and bountiful marine life. Shells and driftwood, cuttlefish bones and dried seaweed littered the sand. That was the only debris from the ocean beyond that I saw.
Fast-forward a few decades and there I was again, on the shores of Sydney Harbor cleaning up a very different kind of litter. It was 1989 and I was leading the first ever Clean Up Day on Sydney Harbor and 40,000 other Sydneysiders were removing hundreds of tons of accumulated plastic, polystyrene, aluminum cans and glass bottles, dumped cars and shopping trolleys.
...
The dramatic change in my life was due to rubbish. What I saw while sailing solo around the world in the late 1980s changed me forever. Instead of the stark beauty of the deep blue oceans, I sailed through nautical mile after mile of marine debris.
Plastic of all types, discarded fishing nets and polystyrene buoys blanketing the surface of the ocean. This scene was repeated in all of the oceans I crossed and the remnants of an increasingly throwaway society greeted me at each port.
...
Turtles with the rings of plastic bottles around their necks, choking to death. Dolphins caught in old fishing nets, drowning because they can't break free. And seabirds drowning because of the fishing line wrapped around their wings. Between 700,000 and 1 million seabirds are killed each year by marine debris such as discarded fishing line and plastic bags. An estimated 100,000 marine mammals are killed each year by plastic in the ocean.
There are two main sources of marine debris. There is the rubbish that comes from the land, delivered by run-off, storm water drains and the wind-blown rubbish that people leave behind. There is also ocean-based debris, and this is just as nasty. It includes fishing lines and nets, offshore oil and gas rig/platform debris, waste from merchant ships, ferries and cruise liners and garbage from recreational and tourist vessels.
...
Most of this rubbish is plastic. This is not surprising because plastic never actually goes away; it simply breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces. Plastic makes up about 80 percent of all marine debris -- plastic shopping bags alone make up 10 percent. And when that plastic breaks down into tiny little pieces, it is often swallowed by marine creatures and enters the food chain.
If all that floating plastic rubbish isn't eaten by marine life, it eventually washes ashore. The currents of the oceans carry the debris far and wide. A recent United Nations Environment Program report found rubbish dumped off Australia's west coast ends up on the east coast of South Africa."
The stark reality of a throw-away society
By Ian Kiernan for CNN<script type="text/javascript">cnnAuthor = "By Ian Kiernan for CNN";</script>
<script type="text/javascript">if(location.hostname.indexOf( 'edition.' ) > -1) {document.write('April 12, 2010 -- Updated 0708 GMT (1508 HKT)');} else {document.write('April 12, 2010 3:08 a.m. EDT');}</script>April 12, 2010 3:08 a.m. EDTApril 12, 2010 -- Updated 0708 GMT (1508 HKT)
Excerpts:
"(CNN) -- I grew up on the shores of Sydney Harbor and I fondly remember exploring the crystal clear pools, observing the unique and bountiful marine life. Shells and driftwood, cuttlefish bones and dried seaweed littered the sand. That was the only debris from the ocean beyond that I saw.
Fast-forward a few decades and there I was again, on the shores of Sydney Harbor cleaning up a very different kind of litter. It was 1989 and I was leading the first ever Clean Up Day on Sydney Harbor and 40,000 other Sydneysiders were removing hundreds of tons of accumulated plastic, polystyrene, aluminum cans and glass bottles, dumped cars and shopping trolleys.
...
The dramatic change in my life was due to rubbish. What I saw while sailing solo around the world in the late 1980s changed me forever. Instead of the stark beauty of the deep blue oceans, I sailed through nautical mile after mile of marine debris.
Plastic of all types, discarded fishing nets and polystyrene buoys blanketing the surface of the ocean. This scene was repeated in all of the oceans I crossed and the remnants of an increasingly throwaway society greeted me at each port.
...
Turtles with the rings of plastic bottles around their necks, choking to death. Dolphins caught in old fishing nets, drowning because they can't break free. And seabirds drowning because of the fishing line wrapped around their wings. Between 700,000 and 1 million seabirds are killed each year by marine debris such as discarded fishing line and plastic bags. An estimated 100,000 marine mammals are killed each year by plastic in the ocean.
There are two main sources of marine debris. There is the rubbish that comes from the land, delivered by run-off, storm water drains and the wind-blown rubbish that people leave behind. There is also ocean-based debris, and this is just as nasty. It includes fishing lines and nets, offshore oil and gas rig/platform debris, waste from merchant ships, ferries and cruise liners and garbage from recreational and tourist vessels.
...
Most of this rubbish is plastic. This is not surprising because plastic never actually goes away; it simply breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces. Plastic makes up about 80 percent of all marine debris -- plastic shopping bags alone make up 10 percent. And when that plastic breaks down into tiny little pieces, it is often swallowed by marine creatures and enters the food chain.
If all that floating plastic rubbish isn't eaten by marine life, it eventually washes ashore. The currents of the oceans carry the debris far and wide. A recent United Nations Environment Program report found rubbish dumped off Australia's west coast ends up on the east coast of South Africa."