Caught in the Pacific Trash Vortex

Images speak a thousand words as documented by visual artist and social activist Chris Jordan who has been following the fate of albatrosses on some of the remotest islands on Earth, the Midway Atoll... Ironically what should be paradise is nothing more than paradise lost... in plastic!

Source: All photography by Chris Jordan. Midway displays signs of human civilisation in all its tangible horror, where plastic fantastic is an aberration of pharaonic proportions. In this part of the world, the trash vortex - a superposition of plastic debris swirling around and causing devastation and suffocation not only to marine life but also to sea birds - is the size of Texas, itself slightly bigger than France... Where better to look out for proof than in the stomachs of decomposed corpses, so no need for NCIS to get their shiny dissection instruments out to determine the cause of death. Oh, and while we're at it, enjoy your dinner! Now according to Bag It (Jim Hurst) who's also been involved in the Midway Project, 'In the United States alone, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil is used annually to make the plastic bags that Americans consume. The United States International Trade Commission reported that 102 billion plastic bags were used in the U.S. in 2009.' Makes you ponder, doesn't it?