Months ago, my mom told me about a giant trash mass in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I think she described the size as "double the size of Texas". For this week's blog I chose to research this subject further, & I am completely astounded by the information I have found.
Firstly, the trash mass is not double the size of Texas, but double the size of the continental United States. It is held in place by currents, but can move. When it travels close to the shore in areas such as Hawaii, some of the trash is expelled onto the shore.
Because the trash mass has never come into contact with the shore, it remained unreported/undiscovered for a long time. Eighty percent of the garbage is plastic, and the mass of the debris has doubled in the past five years.
The most pressing problem with this situation is that it has already integrated into our food chain. Another issue is that because the sea is no one country's property, it is likely that noone will take responsibility for the problem. This is another environmental issue that needs to be tackled collaboratively.
A documentary entitled "Garbage Island" was made this year:
http://www.takepart.com/tag/great-pacific-garbage-patch/
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