The Real Problem

The Real Problem Following the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 and the worldwide search that ensued, a staggering number of experts and major media networks have speculated about where the missing plane could have ended up. In their quest, searchers have faced a number of challenges: political coopera- tion, a vast search area, and trash - lot and lots of trash. "It isn't like looking for a needle in a haystack," said Conservation International senior scientist M. Sanjayan of the difficulty in finding the Boeing 777 aircraft. "It's like looking for a needle in a needle factory. It is one piece of debris among billions floating in the ocean." 140,000 pounds = the weight of a Boeing 700-200ER So just how much trash is drifting in our oceans as we speak? Moderate estimates put the tally at around 200 million tons. Here's an idea of what that looks like: 200 MILLION TONS 100 planes 500 planes 1000 planes 851