A good friend of mine recently informed me about an island of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean, called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This "island" is 350 tons, about twice the size of Texas, and is 80 percent plastic. The negative effects of this island are serious and many. Plastic is not biodegradable, but rather photodegradable, which means the pieces break down into smaller pieces. Birds, fish, and other marine life ingest these small particles and are either poisoned or choke. In addition, the chemicals that exist in plastics leach into the water over time, creating toxic waters around the patch. According to sources, the island is now so big that cleaning it up is no longer an option. It is now important to contain the island and not increase it. I encourage each and every one of you to check this out for yourselves. You can go to www.naturalhistorymag.com to read more about this. We can all do our part to help contain this island by not littering, recycling our plastics, and living an eco-conscious lifestyle. If everybody does a little bit to help, the combined efforts will be monumental!