No, not Australia.
It hits the news off and on every decade or so. If you don't recall, it's an area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas that is filled with garbage. You can read more about it online or in this article:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/16/vbs.toxic.garbage.island/index.html?hpt=C1
Anyway, this group of newsies took a boat ride out there and filmed some of it. Much of the videos is kind of dull (it's mostly an hour of people floating on a boat in the middle of the Pacific reflecting on how much it sucks to be floating on a boat in the middle of the Pacific), but the parts about the water samples are grotesque. It's like liquid cancer out there.
Nice.
Video 1 of 3:
http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/toxic-garbage-island-1-of-3--4
Video 2 of 3:
http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/toxic-garbage-island-2-of-3--4
Video 3 of 3:
http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/toxic-garbage-island-3-of-3--4
It hits the news off and on every decade or so. If you don't recall, it's an area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas that is filled with garbage. You can read more about it online or in this article:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/16/vbs.toxic.garbage.island/index.html?hpt=C1
The Garbage Patch is located at a natural collecting point at the center of a set of revolving currents called the North Pacific Gyre. The middle of the Gyre is more of a meteorological phenomenon than an actual place: a consistent high-pressure zone north of the Hawaiian Islands that, combined with the extremely weak currents, helps keep the ocean surface as placid as lake water.
Flotsam has been sucked into this area from the encircling currents for as long as the Pacific's existed, but up until the last century this process ended with the refuse safely biodegrading and being reabsorbed into the food chain as nutrients. With the advent of plastics, however, the Garbage Patch has transformed from a fertile feeding ground to the oceanic equivalent of a desert. And a particularly crap-strewn desert at that.
Anyway, this group of newsies took a boat ride out there and filmed some of it. Much of the videos is kind of dull (it's mostly an hour of people floating on a boat in the middle of the Pacific reflecting on how much it sucks to be floating on a boat in the middle of the Pacific), but the parts about the water samples are grotesque. It's like liquid cancer out there.
In 1997, the U.S. Academy of Sciences estimated the total input of marine litter into the oceans, worldwide, at approximately 6.4 million tons per year.
Nice.
Video 1 of 3:
http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/toxic-garbage-island-1-of-3--4
Video 2 of 3:
http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/toxic-garbage-island-2-of-3--4
Video 3 of 3:
http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/toxic-garbage-island-3-of-3--4