The Land of Flotsam and Jetsam
Many people dream of vacationing in the South Pacific, but there is one island no one wants to visit. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a floating continent of man made detritus located approximately halfway between Hawaii and San Francisco. Due to a confluence of winds and ocean currents, much of the world’s garbage eventually ends up in this isolated spot, where it goes largely unnoticed by humans but seriously endangers birds and sea life.
Comprised of 80 percent plastic and weighing an estimated 3.5 million tons, this staggering monument to human irresponsibility has been growing tenfold every decade since the 1950s, according to researchers. Twice the size of Texas, it is so big that there is virtually no way to clean it up. The only course of action, scientists and environmental groups advise, is to prevent it from growing any larger by diminishing the use of plastics and preventing waste from entering the environment in the first place.
That or start booking “Love Boat to Love Canal” cruises.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
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