Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

I saw a hilarious video today on YouTube narrated by Jeremy Irons that mocks nature films and describes the life of the "majestic plastic bag". Then when I started to recall the truth about this video, a phenomenon known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it made me sad. There is a floating mass of plastic trash in the north Pacific that some estimates state is the size of Texas. There are some very disturbing pictures here. Or you can just Google Image "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or "North Pacific Gyre" or "Pacific Trash Vortex". That's the last time I forget my reusable bags in the car. How depressing.

Other wasteful human behaviors visible in my community that enrage me:

1. Running your unnecessarily large truck for 45 minutes when the outside temperature is a devastating -1C.
2. Producing 4 full garbage bins of waste every week for a family of 3.
3. Throwing out easily recyclable materials like paper and cardboard.
4. Driving past a collection of 3 houses where no special events, holidays, or birthday parties are occurring, only 1 family lives in each house, yet there are over 10 vehicles parked outside.
5. Making 4 even more depressing, driving down a residential street on which every single house has a double car garage but not a single one has a vehicle parked in it. The garages are full of stuff that long ago lost all utility even though when they were purchased they were considered a "need".

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