More Trash

GPGP

 

A young monk seal on Laysan Island holds a plastic fragment in his mouth. (The Ocean Cleanup/Matthew Chauvin)

    This is just an update to let you know that my recent alarming post about pollution was not alarming enough (see: Flotsam and Jetsam).  From now on when you see the initials GPGP you are likely to get the Heebie-jeebies. They stand for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.The titles of these two articles will explain everything and are all you need to read to ruin your day:

“Earth's Biggest Cluster of Ocean Trash, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Is Now 3 Times the Size of France,”  By Amanda Schmidt, AccuWeather staff writer Mar. 28

“The new analysis reveals the region contains as much as 16 times more plastic than previously estimated, with pollution levels increasing exponentially.”

World's Largest Collection of Ocean Garbage is Twice the Size of Texas,” Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, March 28, 2018.

Post Script:

    The more prurient among you were probably expecting real trashiness because of the cleverness of the title. Those of you who are actually interested in the growing global garbage problem may want to know more about the study which forms the basis for the articles above: Lebreton, L., Slat, B., Ferrari, F., Sainte-Rose, B., Aitken, J., Marthouse, R., … Reisser, J. (2018). Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 4666. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22939-w