At Large in an Ocean of Plastic

The above is an excerpt from Plastic Ocean. In 1997, a veteran sailor named Charles Moore was making his way home from the Los Angeles-to-Hawaii Transpacific Yacht Race. Curiosity drew him to a new route across the Pacific and into what is now known as the “Eastern Garbage Patch” – a swirling mass of plastic and debris that is the result of consumption and pollution. It took Moore a week to sail past this sea monster.

Moore’s experience is just one example of growing awareness about plastics in the environment. Since that experience, he has become a diligent activist to save the oceans from plastic. But it is an enormous undertaking…

A June 2006 United Nations environmental program report estimated that there are an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic debris floating on or near the surface of every square mile of ocean... excerpt from The Plastic Sea

So what can you do? Reduce consumption of plastic products wherever possible. This not only reduces ocean pollution, it will help save natural resources and avoid unnecessary waste.

Approximately 1.5 million barrels of oil—enough to run 100,000 cars for a whole year—are used to make plastic water bottles, while transporting these bottles burns even more oil…TreeHugger

Think you can’t live without bottled water?

• 5 Reasons Not to Buy Bottled Water at Lighter Footstep
• Ground Water & Drinking Water FAQs at EPA
• Reusable and non-leaching SIGG Eco-Friendly Kids Bottles on Inhabitat, a very stylish way for the whole family to kick the plastic water bottle habit.

Want to be true to blue? It’s easy go here.

You can take a good look at the state of our oceans with Altered Oceans – a Pulitzer Prize winning series from LA Times, part 4 focuses on plastics in the oceans and what people are doing about it, among them Surfrider.