Where Our Garbage Ends Up – the (not so) Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Remains of an Albatross chick showing plastic it had likely been fed by its parents. Likely suffocated or starved because it could not expel the plastic.

This is merely one example of the plight of the natural world at the hands of what man has earned. At the cost of fauna and flora, ecosystems, and the health and integrity of the entire planet we’ve chosen the “convenience” of simply tossing out things we no longer need. While the sad reality is that we never needed them in the first place.

We lead such a horrible consumerist lifestyle that we are blinded by how much garbage we are literally feeding the planet whence we become board of our gadgets and our belongings. We end up creating such a horrible mess, leaching toxins, and killing wildlife, while we live our oblivious lives, ignorant of the giant impact we have on the planet. I’m talking about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which really is not a great thing at all. It’s horrible.

Simply and quite frighteningly, every little bit of garbage we either intentionally dump in the ocean, or that “un-intentionally” reach there from our littering the lands and waterways get drawn into the North Pacific Gyre. This gyre, like any other, is simply a vortex, a whirl-pool, in the ocean caused by the cyclical ocean currents, wind, and the rotation of the Earth.

North Pacific Gyre - Now a vortex of garbage.

More after the break including a beautiful picture of a Laysan Albatross Chick>>>

Where Do Your Gadgets Go?

A couple of entries ago I wrote about a then newly released eco-friendly MacBook Air for my fellow tech enthusiasts out there. The new MacBook Air, boasted a new standard of tech eco-friendliness beyond the energy-wise approach by building the MacBook Air with less toxic components, and reducing harmful chemicals.

Not that you are ready to throw out your brand new MacBook Air, but here’s a quick slide show of what’s happening with yesterday’s nasty waste today.

“And do not cause ruin on the Earth after it has been ordered, but call on Him with fear and longing: for the Mercy of Allah is (always) near to those who do good. ” – Qura’an – Al-A’raaf 7:56