In the Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king who was cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity.

A beach cleanup on Midway Atoll made us feel just like Sisyphus.

There are millions of tons of plastics present in our oceans, and these are constantly fragmenting into smaller and smaller pieces which are scattered throughout the water column and present, in different densities, throughout all the worlds oceans.

Contrary to what many people believe, there are no visible islands of trash anywhere –even if some areas, the gyres, accumulate higher densities of plastic pollution. In actuality, what is happening is much more complex and scary: our oceans are becoming a planetary soup laced with plastic.

To make thing worse, these tiny pieces of plastic are extremely powerful chemical accumulators for organic persistent pollutants present in ambient sea water such as DDE‘s and PCB‘s. The whole food chain, invertebrates, fish, sea turtles… are eating plastic and /or other animals who have plastic in them. This means that we are. Like the albatrosses on Midway, we carry the garbage patch inside of us.

Cleaning up this mess is not feasible, technically or economically. Even if all the boats in the world were put to the task somehow, the cleanup would not only remove the plastics but also the plankton, which is the base of the food chain, and is responsible for capturing half of the CO2 of our atmosphere and generating half of the oxygen we need to breathe.

But even if this problem was solved too somehow, the amount of plastic that we could capture, at an immense cost, would be a drop in the bucket as compared to the amount that flows into the ocean every day.

No matter how hard we push, in terms of technology or money, the boulder will be rolling back down the hill, throughout eternity, unless we stop putting more plastics into our environment.

The good news is that we can do this. We can do this now. We need to start a social movement that spreads virally and creates a critical mass of concerned citizens who pledge to move away from our disposable habits, and who raise their voice to reject and reverse a throwaway culture that might be profitable, but whose consequences are intolerable.

Video by Jan Vozenilek
Written and narrated by: Manuel Maqueda
Music by Christen Lien www.itsnotaviolin.com

Click here to see a satellite image of the exact location of this video (click on ‘view map’ and zoom all the way in.)

This footage was broadcast by the CHBC News channel for the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada, and posted on the internet on November 2nd, 2009. Link to original news post and footage here.

This video was premiered on October 24 at a private event in Malibu, California convened by the Plastic Pollution Coalition and hosted by our friends from  The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.  Composer and viola player Christen Lien played ‘15 Aftermaths‘ live, a piece she composed at the age of 15.

These photographs were captured by  Chris Jordan during Midway Journey, an expedition to Midway Atoll to document the effects of plastic pollution on baby albatrosses.  The PPC was a supporter of this effort.  Midway Journey expedition team members Victoria Sloan Jordan, Jan Vozenilek and Bill Weaver joined us for this event.

Poet Victoria Sloan Jordan read a powerful poem she wrote on Midway.  Some of the plastic objects seen inside of these baby albatrosses were displayed during the event.

An HD version (recommended) can be viewed here.

The original quicktime file (103 MB, great for education or events) can be downloaded fron this link.

Christen’s debut album, Battle Cry, is available for sale on her website.

Images and video: Chris Jordan. Music: Christen Lien .

In this interview, Angie Coiro asks Manuel about his recent trip to Midway Atoll with Chris Jordan, which leads to a discussion about plastic pollution in the ocean.   During the talk, Manuel has the opportunity to clarify common misconceptions regarding the possibility of cleaning up the ocean, recycling plastics, or switching to biodegradable plastics.

Manuel says it loud and clear: all of the above are “ways to avoid the question”.  “What we can do now is to stop single-use disposables” made out of plastic.

You can download this MP3 here. Original unedited podcast can be found here.