For those who can’t get enough of shock in the face of the plastic et al. that floats around in our seas, I highly recommend the UN Environment Programme’s recent report Marine Litter – A Global Challenge. The report spells it all out pretty clearly – there’s trash in all our seas. We don’t know how much it is, or exactly how damaging it is, but we know that it’s terrible.
The report makes a number of recommendations, such as the ever needed raised awareness (garbloggers 4-ever!), but the significant components if you ask me are spelled enforced legislation and incentives not to dump in the sea (or the rivers that flow out to sea). Enforcement is not only punishment though, its also about preventive measures, such as ship and industry control. I. e., governments must step in and force the private sector to behave when the invisible hand fails to do so.
Lastly, a new lovely abbreviation (actually a combination of two): The NOWPAP MALITA (The North West Pacific Marine Litter Activity).
everydaytrash 