Sea of Plastic Dooms Oceans, Expert Says

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. (More garbage stories.)