Great Pacific Garbage Patch

I looked up the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", aka the gyre of garbage in the north pacific ocean on wikipedia, and while there was suprisingly little information on it, I did discover something even more disturbing than the mere presence of plastic floating. The disturbing element is the process of photodegredation. Photodegradation is the breaking up of a material due to the absorbtion of solar radiation. While the radiation breaks the material up, it does not break it down, and so while the plastics in the ocean are being continually broken up into smaller and smaller pieces, they remain pieces of plastic, not simpler and less harmful elements. The problem is that these particles of plasctic are now small enough for fish and other organisms to ingest and so the plastic contaminants enter the food chain. We are in fact poisoning the waters and creatures of our oceans, and so eventually ourselves. Aah, geography can be depressing.

Read about it here.