Related Stories
Full scale of plastic in the world's oceans revealed for first time
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Guardian
Posted: December 22nd, 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/10/full-scal...
More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the worlds oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found. Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a minimum of 5.25tn plastic particles in the oceans, most of them micro plastics measuring less than 5mm. The volume of plastic pieces, largely deriving from products such as food and drink packaging and clothing, was calculated from data taken from 24 expeditions over a six-year period to 2013. The research, published in the journal PLOS One, is the first study to look at plastics of all sizes in the worlds oceans. We saw turtles that ate plastic bags and fish that ingested fishing lines, said Julia Reisser, a researcher based at the University of Western Australia. But there are also chemical impacts. When plastic gets into the water it acts like a magnet for oily pollutants. Its hard to visualise the sheer amount, but the weight of it is more than the entire biomass of humans." The research, the first of its kind to pull together data on floating plastic from around the world, will be used to chart future trends in the amount of debris in the oceans. But researchers predict the volume will increase due to rising production of throwaway plastic, with only 5% of the worlds plastic currently recycled.
Note: Ocean acidification was number one on 2014's top 25 stories subjected to press censorship.
Related Stories
Latest News
Key News Articles from Years Past
