No, for reals. In case you weren’t convinced by the whimpering that we did a while ago about all the plastic waste that we generate, there’s a more legit source that you can go to. Not that we don’t think of ourselves as legit, but who are we to compete with Scripps? I might claim to be a pirate, but that is different from being an oceanographer. For example, these are not oceanographers:
Definitely not scientists.
And this guy, although he is pretty badass, is not exactly a pirate:
Jacques Cousteau is actually more like a legend than an oceanographer, but you get the point.
Anyway. Now that we’ve clarified the finer points of differentiating between different types of seafolk (next time I’ll explain the difference between “sailor” and “drunken sailor”), we’ll get to the point. Scripps Institution of Oceanography released a new report Tuesday on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and boy, is it….great. The report documents not only the increase in garbage present in the pacific ocean – which has increased 100-fold over the past 40 years – but also its impacts on marine life and the entire food web. As in the case of many other ecological and environmental problems, see, the issues from plastic aren’t just that it’s present, but the fact that small impacts on one part of an interconnected web (such as the ocean environment…) can have profound impacts across the entire ecosystem.
Check it out. And then, go buy that recyclable toothbrush and reusable coffee mug!
El Peatón
Dan S.
kayraha
El Chupacabra
El Niño
TheGreenLight
