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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/18/your-plastic-is-here-how-easter-island-rapa-nui-copes-with-500-pieces-of-rubbish-an-hour-washing-ashore>
"From a distance, the colourful beach at Ovahe seems a postcard-perfect mosaic
of natural beauty. Craggy volcanic boulders, pockmarked from bubbling lava, jut
from the sand, garnished by a necklace of pastel-coloured corals and seashells
pounded to pieces by the wild, crashing surf.
As the waves pull back, however, another reality emerges. The sand holds few
corals or shells. Instead, the high-tide mark is a multinational carpet of
plastics polished into an array of bleached Coca-Cola reds and Pepsi blues.
“Look at all this,” says Kina Paoa Kannegiesser, 22, using a kitchen sieve to
scoop up bottle caps, shampoo bottle shards and disposable razors. The ocean
rubbish is crammed into every nook and cranny along this remote beach on Easter
Island, a 163 sq km speck of land.
About 2,300 miles west of central Chile, Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui)
is among the most remote spots on Earth – and among the most polluted.
It is estimated that 50 times more plastic washes ashore on these beaches than
on the Chilean mainland, largely a result of the vast spiralling current known
as the South Pacific gyre.
This current acts like a funnel, sucking in plastic from as far away as the
Galápagos Islands and New Zealand and, with every tide, depositing a wave of
floating rubbish."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
