Eight million tonnes of plastic are going into the ocean each year

You might have heard the oceans are full of plastic, but how full exactly? Around 8 million metric tonnes go into the oceans each year, according to the first rigorous global estimate published in Science today.

That’s equivalent to 16 shopping bags full of plastic for every metre of coastline (excluding Antarctica). By 2025 we will be putting enough plastic in the ocean (on our most conservative estimates) to cover 5% of the earth’s entire surface in cling film each year.

Around a third of this likely comes from China, and 10% from Indonesia. In fact all but one of the top 20 worst offenders are developing nations, largely due to fast-growing economies but poor waste management systems.

Read The Conversation story - “Eight million tonnes of plastic are going into the ocean each year.”

The earth is full simply bringing more 'chaos' from events like Cyclone Pam

Dale Dominey-Howes from
the University of Sydney.

With more than seven billion people, earth is already full.

However, demographers and others who understand such things, suggest earth’s human population will continue to expand until it tops out at about 10 billion.

Implications of earth’s burgeoning population is explored on The Conversation by Associate Professor in Natural Disaster Geography at University of Sydney, Dale Dominey-Howes.

His story – “Cyclone Pam shows why more people means more havoc” – says: “Basically, we now have more people, infrastructure and assets “exposed” on the ground in places where tropical cyclones make landfall.”