No, its not science fiction.
I just finished reading the Economist’s special report on the world’s oceans. Its really good, worth the read, and best of all, its free on the Economist website.
One of the articles describes an area in the Pacific ocean 2x the size of the United States that is completely full of plastic. Can you imagine walking across the USA, surrounded by plastic the entire time? Apparently, water currents pull most of the world’s discarded plastic into this zone, creating a floating wasteland of plastic. Another study found that for every square kilometer of ocean, there are 18,000 pieces of floating plastic. Another found that the average Dutch seabird has 44 pieces of plastic in its stomach when it dies.
Check out the special report at Economist.com.