Perreault Magazine - 106 -
What specific event or experience triggered your passion and interest to get involved with the plastic pollution problem?
Plastics were a novelty when I was a kid, but now they have become a plague in the ocean. Since the middle of the 20th Century we have seen an ever-increasing avalanche of plastics in the sea, and I’ve seen it firsthand, over and over again, diving all around the world. We are seeing a heap of indifference. Enormous "garbage patches" of plastic blight the sea, some sinking into the depths, some cast ashore in great windrows and all destined to be permanent evidence of our carelessness.
Plastics still serve us well in so many respects. It’s not all plastics that are the problem, but single-use plastics where you use something once and throw it away. It’s a really bad habit that we’ve gotten into that has to stop, not just because of problems for the ocean. It isn’t just trash—not just the unsightliness of it, or even just the entanglement of animals that is the problem. It is also the influence on the chemistry of the ocean. Many toxins are introduced, toxins concentrated around bits and pieces of floating plastic that degrade over time.
"It seems like a thankless task,
but the ocean thanks you."
Dr. Sylvia Earle
Sylvia Alice Earle is an American marine biologist, explorer, author, and lecturer. Since 1998 she has been a National Geographic explorer-in-residence.
Dr Earle is also the Founder of Mission Blue.