We really should be proud of ourselves. At this time, there is now an island TWICE the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean. Also, plastic particles now outnumber plankton 6 to 1.

It really is pitiful that we have sunk to this level, where wild animals can no longer go about there lives without being constantly bombarded by the plastic bags that we don’t even need to use.

Paul Goettlich | Living Nutrition

Anyone who gets email has seen the one containing fraudulent predictions of Nostradamus. About four years ago, I received a similarly suspicious email stating that a researcher had found six times more plastic than plankton floating in the middle of the Pacific. This one struck a chord with me because of my knowledge of plastics. I wanted to find out if it was just a prank or, heaven forbid, the truth.

I tracked down the source, which was Captain Charles Moore, the founding director of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF). He sent me a study he coauthored: “A comparison of plastic and plankton in the North Pacific central gyre” from Marine Pollution Bulletin[1] — a well-respected, peer reviewed, scientific journal. The study substantiated his claim that “the mass of plastic was approximately six times that of plankton.” A large percentage of that is made up of tiny bits of plastic — called nurdles — that have not yet been made into a product. Read the rest of this entry »