A Picture Worth 1,000 Words

by Cameron Scott · 2010-02-03 13:03:00 UTC
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This devastating photo by Chris Jordan shows the remains of an albatross found on Midway Atoll, near the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. With so much plastic floating around, the birds inevitably eat some bits that look like food, resulting in death from starvation or internal bleeding.

Discovered in 1988, the Garbage Patch has heretofore been the subject of research and awareness campaigns — such as David de Rothschild's upcoming journey through the patch on a boat made almost entirely of recovered plastic bottles — but no effort has galvanized around cleaning up the patch, perhaps because it's twice the size of Texas.

But it's clear what you can do, short of sailing out there yourself to clean it up: Use less plastic, and recycle what you do use. Never toss bottles into or near storm gutters. And support local efforts to ban polystyrene containers and plastic bags.

Photo credit: Chris Jordan

Cameron Scott writes The Thin Green Line blog at SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle).
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