Pacific

A series of reports by medical professionals highlight the human health issues associated with global warming.

A floating continent of trash is gently spiralling in the Pacific Ocean. Quietly amassing for over 50 years, this toxic tide now reaches from Hawaii to Japan.

So where is the world’s biggest landfill? And we are talking really big here. In the US? China, maybe? Well it covers an area at least a quarter of a million square miles... nearly three times the size of the UK. Any ideas? OK, well it was a trick question really – it’s actually a slick of human debris in the sea, floating around in the Pacific starting from around 500 miles off the west coast of the US.

Scientists conservatively estimate that well over one-quarter of native Pacific salmon populations spawning in rivers and lakes from California to southern British Columbia have gone extinct. Here are lists of regional losses and salmon extinctions in the western United States.

Claudia A. McMurray, Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment and Science, discusses the latest issues related to climate change, including the Asia-Pacific Partnership, with State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack at the U.S. Department of State.