A book I recently read entitled "The World without us" by Alan Weisman has a
whole chapter on the issue of plastic in the ocean and the environmental
impacts of it. The following is an excerpt from the chapter "Polymers are
forever"... "His personal worst was astudy on fulmar carcasses washed ashore
on North Sea coastlines.Ninety-five percent had plastic in their stomachs-an
average of 44 pieces per bird. A proportional amount in a human being would
weigh nearly five pounds." The chapter then goes on to discuss the types of
plastic pollutants in the ocean and the effects they have on all organisms
in the food chain, all the way down to tiny zooplankton which have been
known to ingest microscopic plastic fragments.
The scary thing about many man made polymers is that no one knows how long
they take to decompose, if at all.
By reading this book you're in for an eye opening experience, although by
the end of it you'll probably find youself in a state of depression brought
on by an indepth look at the distaster which the worst plague species to
have ever roamed the planet has brought upon itself.
Regards,
Kurtis Lindsay
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