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March 23rd, 2018: Henderson Island
Henderson Island is one of and 86% 0f the land mass of the four islands in the Pitcairn group.
It’s a UN World Heritage Site, nobody lives there or even visits.
Being 3,500 miles from South America and 3,500 miles from New Zealand it’s about as far from civilization as you can get.
But there’s a problem…
| On those beaches, the team ended up finding more than 53,000 pieces of human-made debris. By their estimate, the island’s 14 square miles are home to more than 37 million pieces of junk, weighing a total of 17,000 kilograms. Every square meter of Henderson’s beaches has between 20 and 670 pieces of plastic on the surface and between 50 and 4,500 pieces buried in the topmost 10 centimeters(4 inches). Also, the junk keeps on coming. Lavers estimates that every day, at least 3,750 fresh pieces of litter wash up on the island’s north beach—an accumulation rate that’s 100,000 times greater than what’s been reported at other places. |
| The total junk on Henderson—all 17,000 kilograms of it—represents just 2 seconds of the world’s plastic production, which has increased by 180 times over the last six decades. “We need to factor the environmental costs into that production, so that it’s not just 1 or 2 cents to buy a straw, or a takeaway container,” says Lavers. “We use plastic in every single aspect of our society, and we can’t just change one or two things.” |
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Undertoad Friday Mar 23 12:43 AM
OK so the article says you can go on Google Maps walkabout on this island, so I did. Here's a particularly trashy part of it:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/He...4d-128.3271112
I walked a good half mile. Nasty area
Very consistently, amongst the trash, are two things: pink basketballs, some covered in netting; and, wadded up section of green netting and rope.
It's not all plastic. There are a lot of wooden planks.
In this area, there is a large flight-ready trunk and full-size suitcase in good condition; I'll bet that's where the Google team started from.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/He...4d-128.3271112
xoxoxoBruce Friday Mar 23 02:36 AM
I think most of the balls are fishing net floats.
Griff Friday Mar 23 07:56 AM
Where's Wall E when you need him?
glatt Friday Mar 23 08:07 AM
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Originally Posted by Undertoad
OK so the article says you can go on Google Maps walkabout on this island, so I did. Here's a particularly trashy part of it:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/He...4d-128.3271112 |
Clodfobble Friday Mar 23 12:15 PM
I guess there's something about the ocean currents that drags all this stuff onto this particular beach?
xoxoxoBruce Friday Mar 23 02:48 PM
The ocean circulates and Henderson is smack in the middle of the South Pacific Gyre.
mrputter Saturday Mar 24 04:14 PM
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