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Dr. Dre and the Plastic Vortex

Wednesday, 05 August 2009

Dr. Andrea Neal, or "Dr. Dre," is one of the coolest scientist we've met. She is working with Healing Oceans Together (HOT) and Project Kaisei to help solve the problem with our plastic ocean. Did you know that the average person uses 700+ plastic bags a year for shopping alone! Dr. Dre's goal is to bring awareness, because with awareness we can bring change!

As a scientist she sees huge accumulations of debris in our environment, especially plastic. Right now Dr. Dre, along with our very own Annie Crawley, is out in the North Pacific Gyre with Project Kaisei to see how bad the plastic in our ocean has become. What we are seeing is very high levels of "Persistent Organic Pollutants" in the fish we eat. Because the plastic levels are so high, a small

fish is 40 times more likely to eat a piece of plastic than a piece of plankton. This means that smaller fish are full of toxic pollutants from plastic, and these fish are eaten by bigger fish, which are then eaten by us! We are already seeing birth defects and other serious issues especially in the state of California. We haven't even see the long term affects yet! This is why every person can make a difference by reducing, reusing, and recycling their

plastic waste. One person's actions can make a huge impact on the environment. Two peoples' actions make an even greater impact, and when you get a whole community involved we can really make a difference. Follow Dr. Dre and Annie as they venture into the North Pacific Gyre with Project Kaisei and learn more about how you can make a difference.