Not too long ago a colleague mentioned to me a website where he saw a disturbing graphic displayed about an alleged Styrofoam Island as big as Texas. Of course the idea of same floating about in the Pacific Ocean seemed feasible, given all we have seen in our lifetimes. It may not be so long before my grandiose headline up there rings true.
Fast forward to now. A nice lady sends me an infographic, one which discusses plastic bags and the supposed “suffocation” of good old Mother Earth. On a busy news day, I sat and pondered for a moment. Yep, this is one we need to show!
In the US alone some 280 billion plastic bags are used yearly. Now that’s a lot of Walmart shopping, but enough bags to reach around the Earth 30,000 times? Before I go on, check out the aforementioned infographic from Learn Stuff.
As for that urban legend of a Styrofoam Island as big as all Texas? As it turns out the story is true except for the fact the Island is actually twice as big as the Longhorn State. The feature image you saw on landing here is of so called “rubbish soup” massive garbage heaps covering vast areas of the world’s largest ocean. You see the ocean currents tend to distribute all that rubbish we toss into the creek, that flows down to the ocean, into one basically solid heap of our crap. And, just because you and I don’t see it, why it does not exist, right?
I leave you with the graphic again from Greenpeace.
About Phil Butler
