Vice: Humans Have Finally Ruined the Ocean
Here’s the scariest quote we came across all day: “There is a Texas-size section of the Pacific Ocean that is irretrievably clogged with garbage and it will never go away.” In Thomas Morton’s piece for Vice Magazine, he details his boat trip to the centre of the North Pacific Gyre.
As long as it’s existed, the middle of the Gyre has been a naturally occurring point of accumulation for all the drifting crap in its half of the ocean. Once upon a time, flotsam circled into the middle of the Gyre and (because up until the past century everything in the world was biodegradable) was broken down into a nutrient-rich stew perfect for fish and smaller invertebrates to chow on. Then we started making everything out of plastic and the whole place went to *&^%.
More after the jump.
The problem with plastic is, unless you hammer it with enough pressure to make a diamond, it never fully disintegrates. Over time plastic will photodegrade all the way down to the individual polymers, but those little guys are still in it for the long haul. This means that except for the slim handful of plastics designed specifically to biodegrade, every synthetic molecule ever made still exists. And except for the small percentage that gets caught in a net or washes up on a shore, every chunk of plastic that’s dropped into the Pacific makes its way to the center of the Gyre and is floating there right now.
Nathan was thinking green at 7:52 AM on March 11, 2008
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