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Citations provided in original comment. Take it up with national geo if you have isssues with it.

jopsen 8y ago
The articles talk about "the great Pacific garbage patch". It's not clear that this goes for all garbage in the oceans. Still very surprising though, seems like something that could be regulated.
titzer 8y ago
Note the article refers to the GPGP. FTA: "Microplastics make up 94 percent of an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch. But that only amounts to eight percent of the total tonnage. As it turns out, of the 79,000 metric tons of plastic in the patch, most of it is abandoned fishing gear—not plastic bottles or packaging drawing headlines today." 79,000 tons < 8 million tons.
titzer 8y ago
Meanwhile, from the other link (which also has numbers in the 10s of thousands of tons, not millions): "Cutting down on the amount of plastics we buy and learning to use this tricky material sensibly is still one of the most effective things we can do to live responsibly, help the planet, and inspire others to do the same. To find out how you can help make a change, check out One Green Planet’s #CrushPlastic campaign!" Please don't distract by blaming fishing. And please read your own links. Fishing nets are a huge problem no doubt, but looking at numbers, we need to stop single-use plastics.
- notacoward 8y ago
  Those statements are not mutually exclusive. Cutting down on the plastics we buy might still be one of the most effective things we as consumers can do even if fishing nets are an even bigger problem. Just like buying low-emissions cars might be an effective thing to do as a consumer even if most pollutants are emitted by industry. The fact is that we need to address both fishing and consumer use. Over-focusing on either one could be seen as distracting from the other, but it's not particularly helpful to bash other environmentally aware people over it. The problem is the people who don't even know or care.

The articles talk about "the great Pacific garbage patch". It's not clear that this goes for all garbage in the oceans. Still very surprising though, seems like something that could be regulated.

titzer 8y ago

Note the article refers to the GPGP. FTA: "Microplastics make up 94 percent of an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch. But that only amounts to eight percent of the total tonnage. As it turns out, of the 79,000 metric tons of plastic in the patch, most of it is abandoned fishing gear—not plastic bottles or packaging drawing headlines today." 79,000 tons < 8 million tons.

titzer 8y ago

Meanwhile, from the other link (which also has numbers in the 10s of thousands of tons, not millions): "Cutting down on the amount of plastics we buy and learning to use this tricky material sensibly is still one of the most effective things we can do to live responsibly, help the planet, and inspire others to do the same. To find out how you can help make a change, check out One Green Planet’s #CrushPlastic campaign!" Please don't distract by blaming fishing. And please read your own links. Fishing nets are a huge problem no doubt, but looking at numbers, we need to stop single-use plastics.

notacoward 8y ago
Those statements are not mutually exclusive. Cutting down on the plastics we buy might still be one of the most effective things we as consumers can do even if fishing nets are an even bigger problem. Just like buying low-emissions cars might be an effective thing to do as a consumer even if most pollutants are emitted by industry. The fact is that we need to address both fishing and consumer use. Over-focusing on either one could be seen as distracting from the other, but it's not particularly helpful to bash other environmentally aware people over it. The problem is the people who don't even know or care.