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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-39931042
An uninhabited island in the South Pacific is littered with the highest density of plastic waste anywhere in the world, according to a study.
Henderson Island, part of the UK's Pitcairn Islands group, has an estimated 37.7 million pieces of debris on its beaches. The island is near the centre of an ocean current, meaning it collects much rubbish from boats and South America.
Researchers hope people will "rethink their relationship with plastic".
The joint Australian and British study said the rubbish amounted to 671 items per square metre and a total of 17 tonnes.
http://m.pnas.org/content/early/2017/05/09/1619818114
Wikipedia has coverage of Henderson Island and notes:
Henderson Island (formerly also San Juan Bautista and Elizabeth Island) is an uninhabited island in the south Pacific Ocean. It is one of the world's last two raised coral atolls whose ecosystems remain relatively unaffected by human contact, except that they are now subject to tonnes of plastic pollution that collects there, as observed in 2017[3]. Ten of its 51 flowering plants, all four of its land birds and about a third of the identified insects and gastropods are endemic – a remarkable diversity given the island's size.[4]
Measuring 9.6 kilometres (6.0 mi) by 5.1 kilometres (3.2 mi), it has an area of 37.3 square kilometres (14.4 sq mi) and is located 193 kilometres (120 mi) northeast of Pitcairn Island.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:51PM (3 children)
Why should I care? I don't live there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:35PM (2 children)
Ah, the voice of apathy (or a bored troll?) --
1. See a shrink and do something about your depression?
2. Wake up and realize that the Earth is a closed ecosystem. While you may not live "there", we all live "here".
3. Stop using excess packaging and recycle when possible.
4. Given a choice, go for durable goods, not plastic throwaways.
...
Cleaner Earth = Profit!
...except for the companies that make crappy plastic stuff--but I don't work there so why should I care (grin)?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:11PM (1 child)
Cleaning up places I don't live just for some millennial crybabies seems like a waste of resources.
1. See a shrink about your desire to make people work for free.
2. The Earth is a big place.
3. I'll buy what's cheapest, thank you. I see no reason to spend $50 dollars for a loaf of bread at Whole Foods like a millennial hipster. No wonder they can't afford to buy houses.
4. I still have a socket set I bought for a summer job when I was 14 in 1952, back when people used to work for a living. Millennials just make throw-away crap that doesn't last after 2 uses.
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Wednesday May 17 2017, @10:10PM
> I'll buy what's cheapest [...] Millennials just make throw-away crap that doesn't last after 2 uses.
Cheap goods don't always last a long time, in the sense of keeping their usefulness. The broken bits of plastic, of course, can persist in the environment for a long time.