Having heard the horror stories I've been looking for all the floating garbage that is supposed to litter the surface of the sea. I have yet to see the first piece of anything man made, or any other flotsam and jetsam - all I see is blue water and the odd white wave.
Start with the fact that the Pacific alone is larger than ALL of the planet's landmasses combined. Then add the not inconsiderable Atlantic (North & South) Ocean and the large Indian Ocean, plus the Med, Baltic, Black, Red seas and this is one wet planet.
We have sailed across every one of those seas and rarely have we seen other people or ships. To grasp how thinly we are spread on this globe is to doubt our ability to modify it in meaningful ways, in other than highly localized regions.
Yes, it is possible to overfish the Grand Banks or smog up Southern California's skies. Modifying the climate of the planet is many orders of magnitude more ambitious, I doubt we're up to the task.
