Thursday, October 14, 2010

Ocean plastic is "everywhere"

Forget everything you learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's wrong.

From the experts at the Dubuque, Iowa Telegraph-Herald:
The famed Texas-sized garbage patch swirling in the Pacific Ocean doesn't exist, according to Dr. Marcus Erikson, of the Algalita Research Foundation in Long Beach, Calif.
"There is no island of plastic trash," Erikson said. "It's actually much worse than that. The truth is, it's a confetti of waste spread over the entire ocean surface."

I'm worried, but mostly about the metaphor. The great ocean confetti doesn't sound nearly as awful as the garbage patch. How will we get people motivated to rid the ocean of confetti?

2 comments:

Jason R said...

Patch isn't a much better a term. It sounds innocuous. A patch of grass. A rough patch. Something small and insignificant. Patch even has another meaning, as something that can be quickly fixed or solved. Patch a tire. Nicotine patch. I never thought it was a good expression.

For a similar reason, I don't know why they call it "marine debris." Call it pollution or garbage or trash. But call it debris and it sounds like some kind of fluff you'd flick off a coat sleeve or wipe from a boot.

Wikipedia suggest "Pacific Trash Vortex" as an alternative. At least vortex conveys something menacing.

garlo said...

we are looking for pictures & videos to make a "PLASTIC" clip
more infos at the bottom of this page :
http://www.cipaudio.com/eng_garlo_and_sainkho.html