Post by jody on Sept 27, 2012 13:18:46 GMT 10
This is all a bit sad. 
Plastic pollution of the world's oceans is a more urgent problem than climate change, according to a marine activist who says even Antarctica is no longer pollution-free.
French research ship Tara has revealed it found thousands of plastic fragments per square kilometre in the waters off Antarctica, which has been considered the world's last pristine continent.
Captain Charles Moore, who in 1997 discovered an area of the Pacific Ocean strewn with floating plastic debris known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, says now none of the world's oceans are plastic-free.
Plastic junk has floated to the ocean current that flows around Antarctica and is now present in the continent's aquatic ecosystems, he says.
"The sad thing is we thought Antarctic waters were clean," he told AAP on Thursday.
"We no longer have an ocean anywhere that is free of pollution."
The Hawaii-based oceanographer says the world has produced more plastic in the first decade of the 21st century than the 50 years before it, the equivalent of 300 million tonnes.
"We're just in the dawn of the age of plastic," he said.
"If it's this bad and we've only been at it half a century, what's it going to be like half a century from now?"
The captain, who is in Australia to discuss his book Plastic Ocean and a recent expedition looking at Japan's tsunami debris, argues the plastic problem is more urgent than climate change.
"We're killing more animals, right now, in the ocean with our plastic waste than climate change is killing," he said.
news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8539460
Plastic pollution of the world's oceans is a more urgent problem than climate change, according to a marine activist who says even Antarctica is no longer pollution-free.
French research ship Tara has revealed it found thousands of plastic fragments per square kilometre in the waters off Antarctica, which has been considered the world's last pristine continent.
Captain Charles Moore, who in 1997 discovered an area of the Pacific Ocean strewn with floating plastic debris known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, says now none of the world's oceans are plastic-free.
Plastic junk has floated to the ocean current that flows around Antarctica and is now present in the continent's aquatic ecosystems, he says.
"The sad thing is we thought Antarctic waters were clean," he told AAP on Thursday.
"We no longer have an ocean anywhere that is free of pollution."
The Hawaii-based oceanographer says the world has produced more plastic in the first decade of the 21st century than the 50 years before it, the equivalent of 300 million tonnes.
"We're just in the dawn of the age of plastic," he said.
"If it's this bad and we've only been at it half a century, what's it going to be like half a century from now?"
The captain, who is in Australia to discuss his book Plastic Ocean and a recent expedition looking at Japan's tsunami debris, argues the plastic problem is more urgent than climate change.
"We're killing more animals, right now, in the ocean with our plastic waste than climate change is killing," he said.
news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8539460