A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the Arctic

Re:A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the... by Waterluvian on Thursday April 20, 2017 @09:18PM (#14162350)

Exactly right. I skimmed the link looking for photos of trash island until I thought critically about it. Especially embarrassing as I majored in geography and remote sensing and know exactly what these studies are like :)

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Re:A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the... by flukus on Thursday April 20, 2017 @11:00PM (#14162789)

I think when it's describe as an island it's crossed the line into intentional dishonesty.

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Re:A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the... by diggernet on Friday April 21, 2017 @02:06AM (#14163424)

Yes. And I've seen articles about the Pacific patch illustrated with a photo of a garbage dump with a lot of water in it, giving the first impression of a mound of trash floating in the water. Do these people really not care about their credibility?

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Re:A big patch of plastic garbage has been discovered in the... by PhasmaFelis on Saturday April 22, 2017 @09:21PM (#14175875)

Bear in mind that the major garbage patches can be dense enough to cover the surface from horizon to horizon: http://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific... It's still just bobbing trash, nothing like an "island", but we're not always just talking about a few grams per square kilometer.

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