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<div class=Section1>
<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Earth's
Eighth Continent<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><!-- Start "Related Media" --><img width=240 height=160
id="_x0000_i1040" src="cid:image001.gif@01C830DD.0378E760"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=imgcaption><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>North Pacific Gyre traps flotsam.</span></font></span>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<!-- End "Related Media" -->
<h3><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>It
swirls. It grows. It's a massive, floating 'garbage patch.'<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<h6><!-- start /util/contributor_list.mc --><span class=authorname><b><font
size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><a
href="http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/11/21/PacificGarbagePatch/"><!-- start contributors and pub date -->http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/11/21/PacificGarbagePatch/</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></span></h6>
<h6><span class=authorname><b><font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:7.5pt'>By <a href="http://thetyee.ca/Bios/David_Reid"
title="Bio page for David Reid">David Reid</a></span></font></b></span><br>
<!-- end /util/contributor_list.mc -->Published: November 21, 2007<br>
<a href="http://thetyee.ca/forward/4161" title="email a friend"><span
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src="cid:image003.jpg@01C830DD.0378E760" alt="print this story"></span></a><o:p></o:p></h6>
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<h3><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>The <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Phoenix</st1:place></st1:City><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><!-- index --><!-- Start "Page" -->Located
in the Pacific Ocean between <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State> and <st1:State
w:st="on">Hawaii</st1:State> and measuring in at roughly twice the size of <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:State>, this elusive mass
is home to hundreds of species of marine life and is constantly expanding. It
has tripled in size since the middle of the 1990s and could grow tenfold in the
next decade.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Although
no official title has been given to the mass yet, a popular label thus far has
been "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>As
suggested by the name, the island is almost entirely comprises human-made
trash. It currently weighs approximately 3.5 million tons with a concentration
of 3.34 million pieces of garbage per square kilometer, 80 per cent of which is
plastic.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Due to
the Patch's location in the North Pacific Gyre, its growth is guaranteed to
continue as this Africa-sized section of ocean spins in a vortex that
effectively traps flotsam.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Few
visitors</span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The cause
for the Patch's relative lack of acknowledgment is that the portion of the
Pacific it occupies is almost entirely unvisited. It lacks the wind to attract
sailing vessels, the biology to encourage fishing, and is not in the path of
major shipping lanes.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>What
little air movement there is blows inwards, further trapping the garbage.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>According
to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Marcus Eriksen, a director at the
Algatita Marine Research Foundation, said that "with the winds blowing in
and the currents in the gyre going circular, it's the perfect environment for
trapping."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>While the
trash is in the ocean, it is doing what could be irreparable harm to sea life,
the water it's in, and eventually humans.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Plastic
resists biodegrading. Instead, a plastic shopping bag or pop bottle will
photo-degrade over time, meaning that it will break down into smaller and
smaller pieces but retain its original molecular composition.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
result is a great amount of fine plastic sand that resembles food to many
creatures.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Unfortunately,
the plastic cannot be digested, so sea birds or fish can eventually starve to
death with a stomach full of plastic.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Even if
the amount of plastic in a creature's body is not enough to block the passage
of food, the small pellets act as sponges for several toxins, concentrating
chemicals such as DDT to 1 million times the normal level.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>This
concentration then works its way up the food chain until a fish is served at
our dinner table.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A
deadly shining</span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Some
birds, attracted to the shining in the ocean, approach the Great Pacific
Garbage Patch in search of food. Marine researchers have commented that
pelicans dissected in that area have stomachs so full of lighters that they resemble
convenience stores. Sea turtles are also prone to mistaking plastic bags for
jelly fish, which then cause their deaths or sit in their guts for the decades
it takes the bags to break down.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In total,
267 species have been reported to have eaten from, or become entangled in, the
Patch.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>According
to Chris Parry of the California Coastal Commission, regrettably little can be
done to clean up the Patch, although many urge that a decreased reliance on
plastic is the first step.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"At
this point," said Parry, "cleaning it up isn't an option . . . it's
just going to get bigger as our reliance on plastics continues."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
long-term solution is to stop producing as much plastic products at home and
change our consumption habits."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Cleaning
up the Patch will likely cost billions of dollars and, as an approximation, be
more difficult than vacuuming every inch of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The plastic and
garbage reach more than 30 metres down into the ocean and a great number of
organisms would be destroyed in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>So far,
no country has so much as proposed a solution, presumably because no nation
wishes to claim responsibility.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Even if
all plastic usage were to stop immediately, future geologists would be able to
clearly mark the stratum designating the 20th and 21st century by an indelible
layer of plastic coating the world's oceans.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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