My question on this is how much of this was caused by careless, non-caring dumping of garbage into the ocean or lakes and how much of it is from the massive flooding of certain areas that washed garbage into the rivers and into the ocean?

Regardless, the notion that action should not be taken to remove the garbage is rather odd. In article, "There is no way to cleanse the oceans." Why not? We put men in outerspace but no one on planet earth is going to take steps to remove garbage from the ocean? Instead we are going just to stand around and bitch about it and say people shouldn't dump into the ocean when that may not even be the problem. Floods???

Point in the article on plastics is very valid. There is a need to push back toward using cardboard, reusable cloth or even paper bags, and reusable glass when that is feasible. I don't really know whether the articles are valid or not but lately I've read articles on how plastics may be responsible for an increase in toxins in new borns and may be adding to the number of babies who develop various disorders classified under autism not to mention the cancers that may come from the toxins.

Article:
A 2nd garbage patch: Plastic soup seen in Atlantic