MIDWAY a Message from the Gyre
Beautifully shot, but terribly sad. How plastic waste is harming wildlife in the oceans.
https://vimeo.com/25563376
MIDWAY, a Message from the Gyre is a short film. It is a powerful visual journey into the heart of an astonishingly symbolic environmental tragedy. On one of the remotest islands on our planet, tens of thousands of baby albatrosses lie dead on the ground, their bodies filled with plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch. Returning to the island over several years, our team is witnessing the cycles of life and death of these birds as a multi-layered metaphor for our times. With photographer Chris Jordan as our guide, we walk through the fire of horror and grief, facing the immensity of this tragedy—and our own complicity—head on. And in this process, we find an unexpected route to a transformational experience of beauty, acceptance, and understanding.
2 comments:
It is a beautiful film, but it is misleading. NOAA has set up a "NOAA Marine Debris Program."
Writes Carey Morishige, Pacific Islands Regional Coordinator, NOAA Marine Debris Program (se map at blog):
https://marinedebrisblog.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/garbage-patches-what-we-really-know-part-1/
QUOTE
First, the name “garbage patch” is a misnomer. There is no island of trash forming in the middle of the ocean, and it cannot be seen with satellite or aerial photographs. While it’s true that these areas have a higher concentration of plastic than other parts of the ocean, much of the debris found in these areas are small bits of plastic (microplastics) that are suspended throughout the water column. A comparison I like to use is that the debris is more like flecks of pepper floating throughout a bowl of soup, rather than a skim of fat that accumulates (or sits) on the surface.
Second, marine debris concentrates in many areas of our oceans. These concentrations have been noted not only in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ (aka N. Pacific Subtropical High), but also off the coast of southern Japan (Kuroshio recirculation gyre) as well as in an area north of HawaiĘ»i (N. Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone) [where Midway Island is]. It’s possible that there are other areas in other oceans as well, as ocean features (e.g., eddies, windrows, convergence zones) and winds concentrate marine debris.
ENDQUOTE
It was Charles Moore, the oil heir and now plastics-in-the-ocean activist, who declared in 1999 the plastic garbage patch an actuality (from a 1997 trip), declared that it was so large that it could be seen in satellites--1st he said twice the size of Texas, then he upped it to it to twice the size of the US until a reporter called him on it, and he denied he said either--and declared that it was so solid you could walk on it. All this, without photos. People just believed him. I remember taking him at his word. Hell, I believed it for 16 years, including the commercials it spawned, until I started reading oceanographer/scientists, NOT ADVOCATES or ACTIVISTS, in 2015 who were tired of the hype and ridiculed the activists for not understanding the oceans they were claiming to speak for.
When reporter Suzanne Bohan interviewed Moore in 2011, he changed his tune. See "Pacific Ocean 'garbage patch' exaggerated, new analysis asserts." http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_17037052
From Bohan's article: Angelique White is an assistant professor of oceanography at Oregon State University who joined a NSF-funded ship that sailed from Hawaii to southern California through the northern gyre during the summer of 2008 to study the situation. She
"challenges the notion that the patch is Texas-sized. It was first described as the size of the state about a decade ago, and ultimately it doubled in size in media portrayals and in pronouncement by some advocacy groups, she said.
"'There is no doubt that the amount of plastic in the world's oceans is troubling, but this kind of exaggeration undermines the credibility of scientists,' White said. 'You can be truthful and accurate without having to hype.' She said the actual field of debris, gathered together, would cover less than one percent of Texas."
Midway Island is right in the middle of the subtropical convergence zone where this shit eddies. See NOAA's description here: http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/discover-issue/movement
This image shows the actual placement of the two garbage patches in the northern Pacific convergence zone (near Japan and California).
https://marinedebrisblog.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/garbage-patches-what-we-really-know-part-1/
Yes, it was beautifully shot. What horrified me was even how beautiful the plastic and litter looked inside the dead birds as they opened them up to show you. It was sort of like modern art, like Damien Hirst. That disturbed me. I'm glad people are doing something about it. I have read about how fish get caught up in plastic bags and die.
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