The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

I've mentioned this to various people in locations ranging from the depths of Kuala Lumpur to the Andaman Sea. There is a giant garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean. And I hope you don't think I'm exaggerating by calling it giant, because this is what it looks like:

That's right. It's rubbish soup. It's twice the size of the United States. I'm not kidding. It stretches from Hawaii to Japan. It was discovered in 1997 by Charles Moore, and ten years on, people apparently still haven't done anything about it. Personally, I'm not quite sure how this didn't make front page news. Although I suppose people losing money and markets crashing probably buried it in the back pages.

As to what it actually consists of, from The Independent: The world's rubbish dump: A garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan:

The "soup" is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk – which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags – is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from land.

It's dangerous to humans and to animals, both aquatic and non-aquatic. The reason it's all clumped up there is because of the currents that swirl around the area, bringing trash from other parts of the ocean and keeping it there.

Want to know more? Here:

1. HowStuffWorks: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
2. Wikipedia: The Great Pacific Gyre
3. The Independent (UK): The world's rubbish dump
4. News.com.au: Floating rubbish dump 'bigger than US'

NB: The reason the date says 'Monday' is because I was drafting out this entry on Monday but didn't have time to finish it until today. Yes, I had work to do. No, don't ask.