In Iraq and Afghanistan, it's depleted uranium; here at home, it is a wrecked economy
"Trash soils Bush pledge to protect islands; Administration slashes debris cleanup budget" by Dina Cappiello, Associated Press | August 8, 2008
WASHINGTON - Cleanup efforts have slowed, and garbage continues to pile up in a remote chain of Pacific islands that President Bush two years ago made the biggest and most environmentally protected area of ocean in the world.
Winning rare praise from conservationists, Bush declared the 140,000-square-mile chain of islands in northwestern Hawaii the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in June 2006.
Ocean currents each year still bring an estimated 57 tons of garbage and discarded fishing gear to the 10 islands and waters surrounding them, where the refuse snares endangered monk seals, smothers coral reefs, and fills the guts of albatrosses and their young with indigestible plastic.
The Bush administration slashed the debris cleanup budget by 80 percent from the $2.1 million spent in 2005 and requested only $400,000 a year for it through 2008.
Gee, I wonder where THAT MONEY WENT (Iraq).
The combination of currents, its remote location, and a plethora of endangered species make marine debris in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands arguably the worst ocean trash problem in the world. Circular gyre currents funnel plastic, lighters and fishing nets from all over the Pacific Ocean to the islands as if they were a drain in a gigantic sink.
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