60 Minutes Story, “Cleaning up the plastic in the ocean” ran on August 18, 2019. The story reminded viewers of the following (all quoted):
- Discarded plastic is piling up around the world and pooling in the ocean …
- [that plastic is a] miracle product. Cheap to produce and virtually indestructible …
- [and that cleaning up plastic in the ocean] is like trying to mop up a flooded bathroom but leaving the tap on …
- … the smaller the piece of plastic … the smaller the animal that can consume it …
- plastics become a magnet essentially for toxic chemicals …
- Studies have found … microplastics in everything from supermarket seafood to drinking water, but scientists don’t yet know what all that means for our health …
- plastic can be fatal to … birds, either by filling up their stomachs and leaving little room for food or by tearing up their insides …
- the scale of the problem is massive and it’s global …