3 ms·
Every single news organization has read the original study wrong or parroted another article about the 90% figure. The full quote from the study [1] is "the top
by Scaless 8y ago
Every single news organization has read the original study wrong or parroted another article about the 90% figure. The full quote from the study [1] is "the top-ten rivers with the highest loads contribute ~90% of the total river-driven plastic inputs into the sea."
The top 10 rivers contribute 90% to RIVER-DRIVEN plastic input, not TOTAL input. It is still a large problem, but a vast amount of ocean trash is dumped by coastal cities in Asia.
[1] https://www.ufz.de/export/data/2/149396_EGU_2017_Schmidt.pdf https://www.ufz.de/export/data/2/149396_EGU_2017_Schmidt.pdf