Seaspiracy: Fishing documentary trailer released by Netflix
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The White House this week confirmed that Mr Biden has invited 40 world leaders to an online summit on climate change in late April. Elected on a manifesto that promised heavy action to protect the environment, he is now readying to announce vast climate spending. Added to this is Mr Biden’s support of a “Green New Deal” – a $2trillion (£1.4trn) package which seeks to fight both the climate crisis and inequality simultaneously.
While the left of Mr Biden’s Democratic Party, members like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey, have got behind him, questions remain over several climate crises on the shores of the US, like the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” off the country’s West Coast.
Netflix documentary, ‘Seaspiracy’, has rekindled an often forgotten part of the climate debate: the relationship between consumers and industry.
Created by British filmmaker Ali Tabrizi, Seaspiracy draws attention to the controversial actions of the fishing industry and corporations in making consumers believe their practices safeguard the oceans.
George Monbiot, the environmental activist, spoke during the documentary, and revealed the extent to which the Great Pacific Garbage Patch had grown as a result of a lack of government intervention, putting Mr Biden to shame.
He said: “Even the groups talking about marine plastic, are highly reluctant to talk about what a lot of that plastic is, which is fishing nets and fishing gear.
“We hear a lot about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and say, ‘Oh, isn’t it terrible? All our cotton buds and plastic bags are swirling around in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.’
“Forty-six percent of it is fishing nets, discarded fishing nets, which are far more dangerous for marine life than our plastic straws.
“Because, of course, they’re designed to kill.
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“Now, this is so crashingly obvious, why aren’t we talking about it?
“Why aren’t even the plastic campaigns talking about fishing?”
The patch spans waters all the way to Japan, connected by the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, located a few hundred kilometres north of Hawaii.
It essentially acts like a motorway that moves debris from one patch to another.
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The patches are so large because much, if not all, of the debris accumulated is not biodegradable.
Rather than wear down to nothing, the plastics simply break into smaller and smaller pieces.
All of these items mix in with the larger, disused fishing gear that Mr Monbiot spoke of, creating giant soups of rubbish.
Experts fear that the seafloor beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may also be filled with plastics and other debris.
Oceanographers and ecologists have previously discovered that around 70 percent of marine debris in fact sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
While the existence of such a patch had been predicted by oceanographers and climatologists, it was a racing boat captain who first discovered it.
Charles Moore was sailing from Hawaii to California in 1997 after competing in a yachting race as he and his crew noticed millions of pieces of plastic floating around their ship.
Mr Moore went on to discover further patches during his voyages in the region.
Express.co.uk has recently launched a campaign to help save Britain’s environment.
We are calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to show world leadership on the issue in the run-up to the G7 summit in Cornwall in June and the crunch Cop 26 climate change summit in Glasgow in November.
Along with green entrepreneur Dale Vince we have called on the Government to scrap VAT on green products and to make more space for nature.
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