Thus The Guardian today. “Over five-trillion pieces of plastic are floating in our oceans, says most comprehensive study to date,” elaborates the newspaper. The scientists came from the States, France, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand. According to them, the plastic in the oceans collectively weighs more than a quarter of a million tons. These numbers came from twenty-four expeditions over a six-year period to 2013. Large pieces of plastic can strangle animals such as seals, while smaller pieces are ingested by fish and then fed up the food chain, all the way to humans. This may lead to serious problems in the longer run because of many toxins in plastics. Much of the rubbish accumulates in five large ocean gyres, which are circular currents. The gyres act like shredders to the plastic before dispersing it. The volume of plastic pollution is likely to grow because of the rising production of throwaway plastics. Only about five percent of the world’s plastic is recycled at present. The article closes on an optimistic note, though, for the researchers hope that policymakers will soon come to the rescue. I wonder. Plastic rubbish is now throttling both continents and oceans. Changing the behavior of seven-billion humans is not likely to be an easy task. Now that plastic rubbish is in the food chain already, it is likely to stay there for thousands of years, if not longer. Not even the upcoming catastrophe brought by climate change can alter the course of events at this stage.