Tired of the Gyres

According to Care2, a group of like-minded people and organizations have issued four challenges to reduce disposable plastic. The ambition and optimism behind the challenges are admirable, and will at least keep the plastics conversation going. Challenge Number One alone has a pleasing loudness to it: Refuse disposable plastic.

Plastic is everywhere including, unfortunately, the oceans. Specifically, billions of tons are spinning around in areas deemed gyres. Eco Ocean's gone off on this in the past:

From August 2010 Eco Ocean, 315 Billion and Counting:

If anyone ever needed a good ocean-related reason to reduce the amount of waste they produce on terra firma, here's one. Scientists from 5 Gyre, an ocean conservation group, have calculated a rough estimate of how much plastic is swirling around in the world's oceans. 315 billion pounds and counting.

According to the article on Discovery News by Michael Reilly: We've all heard about the Texas-sized "garbage patch" swirling in the North Pacific, and recently we've been warned that the Atlantic's got a plastic problem, too. Rather than distinct patches, the planet's interconnected watery parts are effectively a thin soup of plastic refuse, with perhaps larger concentrations of rubbish in five large rotating gyres of water like the Pacific's.

I was going to list a bunch of reasons why this is a bad thing but stopped myself. It's just plain wrong! Disgusting, depressing, shameful, etc. Anyone who needs a list of reasons why we should do what we can to reduce the waste we produce and keep our oceans clean, just doesn't get it.

Read the entire article here and check out the video clip: http://news.discovery.com/earth/how-much-plastic-is-in-the-ocean.html

Check out the 5 Gyres web site too.

Read more about the plastic challenges here.