"Except for a small amount that's been incinerated—and it's a very small amount---every bit of plastic ever made still exists" according to the 2007 article “Plastic Ocean-Our oceans are turning into plastic…Are we?,” by Susan Casey in Best Life magazine.Casey reveals that on August 3, 1997, 800 miles north of the beautiful, picturesque islands of Hawaii, Captain Charles Moore along with the crew of Alguita, discovered "a vast swath of the Pacific, twice the size of Texas, …full of a plastic stew that is entering the food chain." And, it is growing!
Scientists refer to this discovery and its dire implications for human and planetary health, as the "Eastern Garbage Patch." All over the world, plastic is not only blighting the scenery, it is polluting land and sea and entering the food chain with alarming statistics. All sea creatures are endangered from whales to zoo plankton. And, whatever affects marine animals, affects humans. Casey states that the "more invisible and ubiquitous the pollution, the more likely it will end up inside us...that we're ingesting plastic toxins constantly, …slight doses can severely disrupt gene activity."
One of the biggest contributors to the problem is plastic water bottles that can take up to 1,000 years to bio-degrade. Nine out of ten water bottles end up as refuse –at a rate of 60 million per day in America alone or 22 billion a year and rising according to the Waste Management World 2006 article “Down the Drain” by Pat Franklin. Many scientists are encouraging that we be more eco-friendly, recycle, and, most importantly, become less reliant on convenience in order to protect the earth for future generations.
In health,
Stephen
