Last year, I was honored to join an international team of filmmakers, researchers and world-saving heroes, some of whom have done exceptional work for National Geographic, my former home, and the BBC. They are making a documentary that has the potential to reshape hearts, minds and environmental change the next decade.

Plastic Oceans, which has been filmed in 20 locations around the world, documents, in beautiful and chilling detail, the global effects of plastic pollution–and, even more importantly, workable technology and policy solutions that will change things for the better.

The current research is astoundingly grim. We have produced more plastic in the past decade than in the past century, and in the center of the Pacific Ocean gyre, our researchers found more plastic than plankton. (Yes, that is true. And you know how much plankton there is!) Even more frightening, the film documents the newest science, proving how plastics, once they enter the oceans, break down into small particulates; these plastic pollution particulates enter the food chain where they attract toxins like a magnet. The toxins are stored in seafood’s fatty tissues, which means these toxins are eventually consumed by us.

In addition to its support from foundations, corporations and private individuals, the Plastic Oceans project has launched a crowdfunding campaign. We’re seeking to raise $50,000 to support additional photography of tech solutions that have just come online, and also, importantly, to connect with you and other like-minded people as we make plans to launch the project next year.

Learn more in this short video, then go to our crowdfunding page at http://startsomegood.com/plasticoceans and please consider donating as generously as you can.

Thank you for your support.

Top: Photo taken at Bahia Bustamante by Matias Soriano. © Plastic Oceans Foundation, All Rights Reserved.