Related Posts
The Garbage Patch just grows and grows
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, that stew of broken down plastic trash that lies in the middle of...
Dutch eco architects want to turn Pacific Garbage Patch into a sustainable island
It sounds like a complete fantasy and it probably is, but a group of Dutch environmental designers at...
New study highlights plastic waste in the Atlantic
A recent study attempting to measure the amount of plastic debris in the Atlantic has shed more light...
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: The Parabolic Toilet of the Environment"This is the most shocking thing I have seen"
- Oprah Winfrey
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean there...
Garbage Patch news – giant seabirds gorge on plasticThe massive area of floating plastic and trash, collectively referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is...
Get your Eco Starter Kit
Create an account and start harvesting Carbon Credits! Exchange your Carbon Credits for green goodies, like the Eco-Hatchery Starter Kit!
-
Green network users
3,056 Users - Show All
Green Directory
Tip of the Day
When given the choice, take the stairs instead of the elevator to save energy and workout at the same time!
What a load of rubbish: New garbage patch found in Atlantic
Destined for the Atlantic Rubbish Patch? Photo by Horia Varlan (source: Flickr Creative Commons)
Not to be outdone by its fellow large expanse of sea and longtime nemesis, the larger Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean can now claim a colossal plastic garbage patch of its own.
According to reports from the BBC and AP, the Atlantic ‘Rubbish Patch’ – located within the latitudes of 22 and 38 degrees N in the North Atlantic Ocean – is comparable to the better-known Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The researchers carried out 6,100 tows in areas of the Caribbean and the North Atlantic – off the coast of the US. More than half of these expeditions revealed floating pieces of plastic on the water surface.
–BBC News
The Pacific Garbage Patch, or more accurately Garbage Patches, are situated in the North Pacific Gyre; one between Hawaii and Japan with the other lying somewhere betwixt Hawaii and California. The ‘Patch’ momentarily shocked millions of reasonable people last year when Oprah, CNN and various news and scientific journals ran stories about the Texas-sized soup of plastic bags, bottles and toys. But then there was Michael Jackson and Susan Boyle and Tiger Woods… I mean we can only care about so much, right?
The study’s principal investigator said Tuesday the findings are based on more than 64,000 tiny bits of plastic collected over more than 22 years by Sea Education Association undergraduates.
–AP
The problem with plastic is that it absorbs pollutants and toxins that have been legally and surreptitiously dumped the ocean. After plastic trash breaks down into small plankton-like beads it then gets eaten by tiny marine animals and jellyfish, which in turn get eaten by larger animals, thereby poisoning the entire food chain. And guess who sits atop the food chain, eating concentrated poison and pollutants? Well not me – I’m a vegetarian and therefore prefer to eat genetically modified soya and crops sprayed with poisonous pesticides. In your face, food chain!
Seriously though, I guess we always knew it was there. It would have been foolish to think that that only one enormous swirling vortex of plastic trash exists in the world’s oceans. Hell, there are probably several of them. Just wait till they do some research in the Indian Ocean. Maybe they’ll find my old collection of Star Wars figures. I’ve heard they’re worth millions.
by Graham Land
Additional resources:
Garbage Patch news – giant seabirds gorge on plastic
Tags: AP, Atlantic, BBC, garbage, great, north, ocean, Pacific, Patch, plastic, poison, pollutants, rubbish, sea, trash
Other Greenfudge.org posts
Greater Mekong Tigers Face Crisis Situation
Tigers in the Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia are facing a most dire situation. The population of these tigers, which stretches across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, has plummeted from approximately 1,200 in 1998 to about 350 today. According to the WWF, that’s a drop of more than 70% in only 12 years—and certainly cause for alarm. A report released by the WWF went further to explain that the world’s wild tiger population is at an all-time low. Their...
How to keep drivers Safer and cities Happier
City driving is frustrating to put it simply; stop and go traffic every other block, pedestrians walking in front of cars without regard for safety, even cars weaving in and out of lanes as if they own the road. These annoyances can turn into increased stress for drivers on the road today and a major factor in causing that stress might just be the city they’re driving in. Part of the issue with added stress while driving is found within the...
New 10:10 film – Watch Gillian Anderson get blown up
Check out ‘No Pressure’, the new darkly humorous and somewhat disturbing film from the 10:10 climate change campaign, written by Richard Curtis. Warning: If seeing a bit of blood puts you off you may want to think twice about watching it, but if you don’t mind a bit of gore, get ready for an amusing, edgy treat. Whippersnapping climate campaign 10:10 teams up with legendary comic screenwriter Richard Curtis - you know, Blackadder, Four Weddings, Notting Hill, co-founded Comic Relief - and...
CNN’s top green moments of the decade
CNN has compiled a list of what they consider to be the top 10 environmental issues or moments of the last decade. Culminating in the COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen, CNN's green list includes extreme weather events such as Hurricane Katrina, the entrance of 'carbon footprint' into common parlance, the IPCC's climate change report, the birth of 'cap and trade' policies, and the growth of renewable energy sectors. Also mentioned in the CNN article entitled 'Top 10 environmental moments of...
Breaking News: Oil Spill in San Francisco Bay
Not 30 minutes ago, the US Coast Guard reported an oil tanker leaking fuel into the San Francisco Bay. The slick that was caused is at least a mile long so far, and still expanding. Oil was leaked from the Panama-flagged Dubai Star during a fuel transfer this morning, and they are unsure how much exactly was spilled. Coast Guard water and aircraft are currently on the scene, about 2 ½ miles southeast of the Bay Bridge. Updates will be...
U.S. smog standards get stricter under Obama
The United States Environmental Protection Agency – or EPA – has proposed new smog regulations that are tighter than those under the previous administration. An article in the Guardian describes smog standards as 'lax' under the term of George W. Bush, a period during which environmental concerns went largely ignored in favor of corporate interests, such the fossil fuel lobby. 'The proposed new standard would set the acceptable ozone limit in the air at between 0.06 and 0.07 parts per million....
Would you consider living in a dumpster?
You might if you saw this one. It doesn’t smell of rotting fish or have a layer of decomposed banana peels lining the floor. Quite the contrary – it’s got hardwood floors, a granite and stainless steel kitchen, a hideaway toilet, shower and a pop-up roof with windows. It’s even got an outdoor barbeque for those sunny days when you just don’t feel like cooking inside your dumpster home. Berkley, California artist Gregory Kloehn, who is apparently descended from Abraham Lincoln, took...
UK environmental policy: Government greenwashing?
Ready for some negative news? The 8.6% fall in UK greenhouse gas emissions last year was down to the economic slump rather than government initiatives. According to an article in the Guardian, the government needs to take significant action over the next year in order to reach legally binding emissions targets (34% on 1990 levels by 2020). The head of the Committee on Climate Change says these actions must come in the form of improving the energy market, making homes more energy...
The green argument for cities
High population density equals less waste, fewer emissions and more efficient use of resources. In short, urban living is more environmentally friendly than rural or suburban lifestyles. This is the argument of David Owen, author of the book Green Metropolis: What the City Can Teach the Country About True Sustainability. This isn't an argument that naturally corresponds with typical images of environmentalists: fresh air-breathing activists who have abandoned the cities for solar powered houses with organic vegetable patches and compost toilets....
Bad biofuel breakdown: Efforts to ‘Green up’ palm oil face too many blocks
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – or RSPO – is an organization made up of companies involved in the production, processing and trade of palm oil and environmental as well as social/developmental NGOs. The aim of the RSPO is to iron out environmental standards concerning palm oil, particularly relating to greenhouse gas emissions in light of the approaching UNFCCC in Copenhagen, aka COP15. But prospects on reaching any significant agreement look dim. Certified ‘Green’ palm oil products, such as biodiesel...
View all articles
You can also log in to post a comment.