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September 5, 2008 9:01:57 PM CDT

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Sea of Plastic Dooms Oceans, Expert Says

Posted Mar 5, 08 4:16 PM CST in World,  Science & Health,  Technology 

(Newser) – A noted oceanographer says the aquatic pollution in the Pacific Ocean is too significant to be cleaned up. “We are damned to a future of pollution by plastic,” Charles Moore said after showing that the amount of Pacific plastic has ballooned fivefold in the last 10 years. A garbage patch twice the size of Texas is old news, but Moore found a “highway” that makes the polluted area as large as Africa.

Moore says there are 2.5 million square miles of pollution, creating new habitats and poisoning sea creatures, CNet reports. The plastic may also speed global warming, creating a canopy that hinders plankton growth. The oceanographer does not have much faith in clean-up methods—noting the ocean’s 2-mile depth in some parts—and is alarmed that only 3% of plastics are currently recycled.

Source CNET

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A heron looks for food amid the trash dragged ashore by the polluted waters of Guanabara Bay, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on February 25, 2008. "We are damned to a future of pollution by plastic,"...   (Getty Images)
A boatman in a wooden canoe fishes plastics from the river as he earns his living, along the polluted Marilao River in Bulacan province, 12 October 2007. "There's no evidence it will end in a millennium,"...   (Getty Images)
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Investigating Ocean Pollution   (SIOExplorations (YouTube))
Re: Plastic Pollution in Our Oceans   (usenetposts (YouTube))
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global warming  • pollution  • ocean  • recycling  • plastic  • garbage  • Pacific Ocean  • green revolution


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