So, you may have heard a compelling statistic that made headlines in 2016 – by the year 2050, according to a study published that year by the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, plastic will outnumber fish in the sea. As it happens, fish are trickier to count than that statistic lets on, but one thing is clear: we have a real plastic problem.
In the video above, Ocean52, a Barcelona-based company that devotes 52 percent of its profits to Ocean protection, offers a unique vision of what picking up your friend to head for a surf might look like in San Francisco come 2052 – two years after plastics overtake fish, reportedly.
We’ll ignore the fact that the friend being picked up doesn’t have any of his stuff (e.g. board, wetsuit, or towel) in hand. Maybe by 2052 we won’t need those things? And that it’s unclear how and why a few thousand floating plastic bottles – troubling as that image may be – would inhibit someone’s ability to surf. Irrespective of those things, the idea of checking the “surf plastic report” prior to paddling out is well taken. And the thought that someday very soon surfers will regularly fall ill from elevated microplastic ingestion is a horrifying prospect.
Editor’s Note: If you’re into this, please also check out The Inertia‘s Alex Haro’s fictional dystopian vision of surfing’s future here.
