The Hawaii Independent
The De-Plastic Chronicles

Plastic included

Plastic included
The Pacific Gyre
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Before we can think about it, plastic enters our lives in some shape or form and sometimes on a daily basis.  At the recent UH Sustainability Summit, Captain Charlie Moore, the discoverer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, painted a grim picture for mankind and peeled back the realities of adding to this repository of debris that nature has no process by which it can biodegrade it.  Macroplastics—pieces of plastics we can see—eventually photodegrades or breaks down into tiny pieces of plastics and float along side water molecules.  The harm associated with synthetic polymers roaming the seas is when it enters the food chain.  Captain Charlie Moore enlightened the audience by introducing a new food web hierarchy in which plastics have become prey and ocean life its predators.

And this makes sense when considering that scientific research has determined that plastic particles outnumber plankton in the ocean six to one.  If we have indeed reached a tipping point when it comes to plastics in our environment, life on Earth will eventually be defeated and on our accord.  So, are you ready to move towards a life where plastic is not included?

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