8 NOVEMBER 2015
Transpacific Drought and Plastics
When I pick up trash at our local Table Rock Beach, most of what I gather consists of plastics: empty single-use water bottles, snack packaging, and some bags. Since we live along a fairly developed side of the world’s largest ocean, I have come to expect finding discarded plastic refuse on our beaches. However, when my wife and I traveled to one of the most remote and exotic destinations in the entire Pacific world—wild and scenically spectacular New Guinea—recently, we were shocked to see tiny waterfront villages nearly blanketed with plastic debris, mainly emptied bottles. Moreover, villagers there, living amid active volcanoes and lush vegetation in an equatorial zone, are suffering from severe drought just as we Californians are.
Source: The Indy