mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
It’s like something you’d expect to see in a now-classic post-apocalyptic novel by J.G. Ballard or Richard Matheson: The Synthetic Sea, a swirling vortex of plastic garbage the size of Texas; an island of plastic riding atop the cold North Pacific, leaching poisonous chemicals into the ecosystem and being swallowed by fish and birds who mistake the smaller bits for food. Except it’s real. Also known as the North Pacific Gyre (recalling Yeats; I like it), it contains something like 100 million tons of debris caught up by ocean currents in an endless loop between Hawaii and Japan. The reason fish and birds swallow the stuff and die is because small pieces of plastic already outnumber plankton in the gyre/vortex/patch by 6 to one, an imbalance which may increase tenfold in the coming years.
Captain Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, who first discovered the Patch, has artfully dubbed it a kind of “plastic soup,” a concept which this graphic demonstrates rather well. Or, here’s another way of looking at it — this is Captain Moore holding a pint or so of randomly-scooped water from the Patch:
(Photo courtesy of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation )
Captain Moore put it all together during a recent TED talk. Check out this clip:
Comments (10)
Comment
- Follow mental_floss
Let me see if I have this straight: “Riding atop the cold North Atlantic” one finds the “North Pacific Gyre”.
Reminds me of finding on a restaurant menu “Atlantic Salmon from British Columbia”.
posted by Gary on 5-1-2009 at 12:03 pm
I mean Pacific.
posted by Ransom Riggs on 5-1-2009 at 12:06 pm
Just wondering, since the soup is ” caught up by ocean currents in an endless loop between Hawaii and Japan”, why arent the US and Japan out there cleaning it up instead of letting it fester?
posted by cincypete on 5-1-2009 at 12:49 pm
That is not “a pint or so of randomly-scooped water from the Patch.” That is the contents of a filter that has been dragged through the water. It’s condensed greatly. I am not saying there is not a problem, there is a HUGE problem, but that amount of debris is from a filter, not a random scoop.
posted by Sprawn! on 5-1-2009 at 12:58 pm
Guess I should have watched the video first. Capt’n Moore says that no country can afford to clean it up. I have doubts about that statement as it appears that we (as in the united states) have the money but choose to spend it elsewhere. He also stated that cleaning up the plastic would also kill the fish, but it appears to me that the plastic is also killing the fish, probably more fish and wildlife than it would to clean it.
At any rate – good video – worth it to watch.
My five cents.
posted by cincypete on 5-1-2009 at 1:08 pm
Check this out for more footage of the garbage island:
h t t p://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1485308505
It is a 12 part video showing a voyage out to the Pacific and what they found.
posted by Michelle on 5-1-2009 at 4:07 pm
Yeah, I’ve always had this image of going out with a ship with a huge scoop made out of tarp at the end and just scooping it all up, but I imagine that it’s not nearly that easy. :)
As for the expense, well, I’d actually imagine that if you say the U.S. has the money, ANY first world country would. Plus, with the deficits that have existed over the past ten years, what “having the money” means is arguable to begin with…
posted by Random on 5-1-2009 at 8:23 pm
What proof do we have that this exists besides someone (who is getting paid to research it with government grant money I am sure) telling us that it is there.
The size of Texas indeed. What methods were used to make that measurement?
I generally see this story, which has all the makings of an internet myth billed, as here, “an island of plastic”
How are we defining island now? If it were an “island of garbage” wouldn’t we be able to get some great gut-wrenching shots of it complete with the bloated corpses of blue whales, dolphins and seabirds?
Maybe it is a big mess, I don’t know. And it probably is. But it seems like the more people see and hear exaggerations the more cynical (like me) they become.
I haven’t seen any updates or follow-ups to this story, it seems to be the same set of paragraphs re-phrased or simply recopied, along with the same video of the same people telling us the same thing that I heard the last time I heard it.
Does anyone know if this is for real at all or are we just being duped?
posted by Jeremy on 5-4-2009 at 10:38 am
All this trash has been out there for years. Nice to know something is being done about it.
posted by James on 5-12-2009 at 9:59 am
I’ve been reading differnet sites and I thought you might be interested in some of the thought that I have found.
The controversy over the ‘Plastic Island’ (does it exist or is it hype?) is apparently seen by many as simply a pointless squabble. A plastic problem (on some level) is undeniable due to what is showing up on the beaches and in the rookeries around the world.
It has been suggested that plastic and all its faults would serve a better purpose if it was simple added to the other assaults humans are waging against the earth i.e., fouling the air, melting the poles, fishing the oceans dry, burning the rainforests and driving wild life to extinction
One thing I am yet to read however is how the people of the earth are to come to the collective realization that all this foreshadows something dread.
One thought along that line mentioned World War 2 with Adolph Hitler as an example where the peoples of the earth saw a common, global threat and banned together to turn the tables. But that site also wanted it duly noted that Hitler was announcing to one and all his intentions which made people so collectively horrified that they were willing to put aside their differences, no matter how credible, to fight for the common cause, ‘rid the world of Adolph Hitler’. The site also noted that hurricane Katrina was a excellent example of lack of action even when an easy, and obvious answer was staring one and all right in the face, “…why didn’t any of the officials in charge simply drop a couple of tons of food and water on that stadium…(along with National Guard troops of course)”. Well, why didn’t they? The site said we should also keep in mind that this was one incident, in one rather small part of one country.
One of the sites mentioned that they had recently seen a science fiction movie with this premise: Near by plants decided to intercede and save the earth by wiping mankind off the earth before they (mankind) destroyed it. The site went on to say that Bible people had come to their door and said something that reminded them of the movie, “God will bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” When I think of god stepping in to save his creation by removing its destructive elements I have to admit, I find it hard to file. However, the thought that mankind at large will putting aside their difference on so many levels is now starting to sound even less plausible then the thought of an enraged God who has had enough.
posted by Sharon on 5-22-2009 at 2:52 pm