Today’s Recipe: Garbage Soup
Where does much of the world’s plastic trash end up? It ends up in a floating, Pacific gyre of “garbage soup” that’s now twice as large as the continental U.S. If the image of the jellyfish wrapped in trash doesn’t appall you, one of the other photos or videos at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation’s Website is sure to do the trick.
Photo courtesy of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation
[...] challenges include climate change, the future of the Earth’s oceans, fresh water supplies, drought, renewable energy research, the threat of global pandemics, the rise [...]
Ugh… these pictures break my heart. Also, the ones where they show all the plastic content in seabirds’ stomachs.
I know, Sharon: browsing the photo gallery at Algalita’s Website is enough to make you ill. It’s almost inconceivable to imagine two continental U.S.’s worth of this waste floating around the ocean.
Two words: Hil-arious.
I think we really need some way of photographing this before it will actually hit home with the general public. “Twice as large as the continental US” sounds impressive, but when it shows up on the world map it will take a lot of people by surprise. A picture is worth….
I’ve seen things about ground penetrating images (radar?) from space that were used to find things buried in the sands of the desert. So I think there must be some way to image this plastic continent.
Steve, not sure what you’re saying there.
Gord, you’re absolutely right. I was thinking the same thing while exploring Algalita’s Website: if only there was some image that showed the full extent of the garbage vortex.
I understand the problem with conventional satellite imagery is that most of the plastic lies just below the surface and is basically translucent when viewed from above. There must be some other way to capture this massive amount of trash on film, though: that would indeed be an image that would probably wake a lot of people up.
[...] Today’s Recipe: Garbage Soup [...]
[...] have ever used and discarded still exists in one form or another, and much of it is floating in a “gyre” in the Pacific Ocean, an area of trash that’s twice as large as the continental U.S. [...]