This may be the only lasting monument of the human race – our garbage. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the second
man made object to be visible from space (China’s Great Wall is the other).
The vast patch of
garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean is far worse than previously thought,
with an aerial survey finding a much larger mass of fishing nets, plastic
containers and other discarded items than imagined.
The heart of the
garbage patch is thought to be around 1m sq km (386,000 sq miles), with the
periphery spanning a further 3.5m sq km (1,351,000 sq miles). The dimensions of
this morass of waste are continually morphing, caught in one of the ocean’s
huge rotating currents. The north Pacific gyre has accumulated a soup of
plastic waste, including large items and smaller broken-down micro plastics
that can be eaten by fish and enter the food chain.
As a record-breaking
sailor, Dame Ellen MacArthur has seen more of the world’s oceans than almost
anyone else. Now she is warning that there will be more waste plastic in the
sea than fish by 2050, unless the industry cleans up its act.
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