Garbage Island

Leading up to Earth Day, I'm going to try and find environment-related stories on which to comment. This one struck me, big time:

I came across an alarming video/report on the CNN website. Apparently there is this large area of plastic floating in one remote part of the Pacific Ocean. It has a name: Garbage Island.

It seems that in this area, northeast of Hawaii, conditions are such that boats don't really go there - what does go there is plastic of all descriptions. It gets caught in the swirling water where there is little wind and just stays there. The 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' is now twice the size of Texas.

As if that weren't bad enough, the report says, the plastic photodegrades. It's still plastic, but it breaks into little pieces. It makes the water look like the inside of a snow globe.

These little pieces, it continues, are gobbled up by small fish. The cycle continues until we get to the part where we humans have a nice piece of fish on our plate.

Eighty percent of the garbage found in the ocean comes from the land.

I have just one word for you: recycle.