OSU assistant professor Angelicque “Angel” White says reports of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch have been grossly exaggerated.
OSU assistant professor Angelicque “Angel” White says reports of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch have been grossly exaggerated.
Previously reported to be twice the size of Texas, White says the floating garbage is is actually less than 1 percent the geographic size of Texas.
There’s definitely too much plastic in the ocean — it “doesn’t belong there,” White says, and many varieties degrade slowly.
But the hyperbole about the problem undermines scientific credibility, she says, and drives a wedge between the public and scientists.
White participated in a 2008 scientific expedition funded by the National Science Foundation to survey plastic debris.
Read more at OregonLive.com.
{biztweet}ocean garbage{/biztweet}
