I make my way down the sand with the scorching sun shining bright in my face, trying to reach to the cooling ocean as fast as I can. I feel the ocean’s continuous movement of the currents shifting back and forth, making me think about how the ocean currents create the rubbish patches, gathering bits of plastic on the way. I wonder if people think about the consequences of littering before doing it and the harm that it has on the sea life?
Over the last few decades human activities have become a danger to marine life, through marine pollution. According to WWF.panda.org over 80% of marine pollution comes from land-based activities, such as oil, fertilisers, general rubbish, sewage disposal, and toxic chemicals. As someone who cares about ocean and its sea life these statistics always saddens me to think that humans are the main cause of their harm. Just this weekend there has been an article in the newspaper about a whale’s stomach that was full of around 30 plastic bags. The whale was then put down in Norway after they failed to rescue it. What we need to realise as people is that even though the ocean may seem big enough to hold a lot of pollution it's actually having an enormous effect on the marine life and could also start having more of an effect on us through diseases, transferred when eating contaminated fish that may have consumed the toxic substances. The newspaper article on the whale sadly didn’t even seem to surprise me anymore, I have seen many similar
People are polluting the oceans which not only affects us but also affects the beautiful underwater habitats and interesting sea creatures. Two billion people within 30 miles of the coast create 100 metric tons of coastal plastic waste (Doc.1). This plastic waste can get caught around sea animals, injuring them or even killing them (OI). Oils spills can really hurt marine life (Doc.2). Some creatures could eat it or get covered in it. If the fish eats the oil and then someone or something eats the fish they could get extremely ill. When there are excess nutrients in the water algal blooms occur, which is when algae has too many nutrients and reproduces in large numbers, this can also hurt people (OI). For these reasons and many more we should
Millions of tons of trash are dumped into the ocean each year (OI). Ocean pollution can be stopped! I am going to explain what people are doing to the ocean and how it can be stopped. First, two billion people within 30 mile of the coast create 100 million tons of trash every year (Doc. 1). This can be stopped if we reduce plastic in the waste stream, improve solid waste management, and increase, capture, and reuse more plastic (Doc. 1).
This article, “Oceans of Pollution” is written by Dahr Jamail. He presents this article with many details to support his argument. Two main topics with support are used, which is how plastic is causing a great pollution affecting the fertility rates of the fish because fish can ingest tiny sizes of plastic therefore harming the creatures. As well, another topic in this article is the dead zone affecting the ocean, caused by natural environment, climate changing the temperature and human factors. This article mainly presents this article to the government to suggest for change and to humans, many who are biologists, who care about this huge problem. With the intensity of the ocean’s pollution, the article uses three rhetorical topics, pathos,
In the article When the Mermaids Cry” The Great Plastic Tide by Claire Le Guern Lytle, she wrote “For more than 50 years, global production and consumption of plastics have continued to rise. An estimated 299 million tons of plastics were produced in 2013, representing a 4 percent increase over 2012, and confirming and upward trend over the past years” This means that more and more trash is added to the 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the ocean. Almost everything around us is made out of plastic, this is later misused and ending in the wrong place. The Center for Biological Diversity wrote “In the first decade of this century, we made more plastic than all the plastic in history up to the year 2000. And every year, billions of pounds of plastic end up in the world’s oceans. Most ocean pollution starts out on land and is carried by wind and rain to the sea. Once in the water, there is a near-continuous accumulation of waste.” Our plastic is misplaced and it escalates from there. However, plastic pollution hurts us as well. “Trash in the water compromises the health of humans, wildlife and the livelihoods that depend on a healthy ocean;” wrote a non-profit group called Ocean Conservation. If our oceans are covered in trash, everyone that relies on the ocean is going to suffer. The effect is not just in our health, it also affects our economy. Ocean Conservation also
Ocean pollution is caused by many things,plastic,humans, and oil spills, we are trying to stop this. So many people just put the plastic in the ocean and people are trying to stop them. Two billion people within 30 miles of the coast create 100m of coastal plastic waste. We can help by reducing plastic in waste stream, and try to stop pollution. Another way we can help is by recycling (Doc.1). We cause pollution to by dumping trash and garbage onto beaches. We have to help protect oceans by monitoring the water to see if people can go swimming (Doc.2). The oceans have to stay healthy because they are a habitat to animals (OI). Another reason we have to keep oceans healthy because they are a big food source for us (OI). In
Ocean pollution is a problem that can not be solved unless everyone is focused on doing so, our world will suffer drastically in the long run if we do not fix the increasing pollution, and its not just effecting the air we breath but also the food we eat because of water contamination. "The single biggest problem in reaching international agreement on a topic lies in convincing sovereign nations with different goals, opposing political systems, and fluctuating positions in day-to-day politic that their interests all lie in the same direction" (1, 106). Pollution gets into the sea from many sources but has the same effect, consequently swimming in our seas can make you ill. It costs big time to help decrease pollution and to study it. Poor or struggling nations will have a hard time affording it, which does not help because it has to be a world effort. Researchers calculated that $44 million a year is spent just protecting aquatic species from nutrient pollution, still there is so much pollution.
Many of us think that there is a simple solution to ocean pollution, that solution being recycling. We don’t think that recycling is difficult, or would take much effort, so we often overlook it. Unfortunately, it takes more work than we think, and out of the 33.6 million tons of plastic we discard each year, less than 8% is actually recycled (“What Happens To All That Plastic?” Cho, Renee, http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu). That means that we throw about 30 million tons of plastic into the ocean and landfills every single year, and that number is bound to increase, as it is such a huge part of our daily lives. In our world, we are practically surrounded by plastic, when you think about it. Every day, many of us use grocery bags, bottles, straws, containers, toys, and that list has continued to grow. When we use plastic products, we aren’t thinking about the long term problem of what happens to it, or where it ends up; and that just goes to show how much plastic has really taken over our lives. A large quantity of the plastic that we use we only use once and then throw away, leading to a surplus of trash in the oceans. All of that trash causes huge problems for
We have an environmental responsibility as humans. Getting to live on earth is a privilege and we are responsible for keeping our planet clean. We are also responsible for preserving the planet and its resources for as long as possible. As we take the resources given to us, it is our duty to help out where we live and give back to the environment in return. To help keep the planet in great shape consists of some easy tasks that anyone could do, and even the smallest thing could help impact the environment in a positive way.
The oceans face many types of pollution every day, every second. The ocean is our greatest ecosystem and out most valuable resource. A common misconception is that the rainforests are the lungs of the planet however, the majority of our oxygen is made via the algae in the sea. The oceans feeds, hydrates, and provides us with oxygen; ironically enough, despite its monetary value to mankind, it is what is treated the worst. For ages we have been dumping our trash, chemicals, and waste into the oceans with no fear or regret, almost an “out of sight- out of mind” mentality. People once and still assume that the oceans are so vast that all of the pollution is diluted and would be dispersed through out, going unnoticed. However, dilution is a myth and an idea that renders ocean dumping to be less impactful. Even so much of the man made pollution is becoming even more concentrated and have entered our natural food chain. However vast the waters of the ocean are, they are not meant to house all of these external factors. There are many alternatives to marine pollution including recycling, finding alternative trash dump sites, cutting down on harmful chemicals for agriculture, and most importantly having the ability to recognize when a problem is developing and counter act, immediately.
Although the ocean covers approximately two thirds of the Earth’s surface, it is surprisingly susceptible to human influences. The effects of rubbish dumping have tainted our oceans and they have taken their toll on the vast marine environments and the populations in which they contain. Rubbish dumping involves depositing all the waste materials from factories and industries, tankers and ships and sewerage waste materials into the oceans and seas. In the report “Causes and Effects of Ocean Dumping”, the author Sharda states that “The wastes that are dumped into the oceans tend to have toxic substances which soak in all the oceanic oxygen. This
Although the ocean covers approximately two thirds of the Earth’s surface, it is surprisingly susceptible to human influences. The effects of rubbish dumping have tainted our oceans and they have taken their toll on the vast marine environments and the populations in which they contain. Rubbish dumping involves depositing all the waste materials from factories and industries, tankers and ships and sewerage waste materials into the oceans and seas. In the report “Causes and Effects of Ocean Dumping”, the author Sharda states that “The wastes that are dumped into the oceans tend to have toxic substances which soak in all the oceanic oxygen. This leads to a marked depletion of oxygen
I'm in the ocean every day, it’s my second home. Because of this, I am very sensitive to literary and other pollution that ends up in our oceans. I can't walk down the beach today without seeing a pile of trash. Because of this curiosity, I wanted to research what another type of litter fill our local ocean. Our ocean is filthy, Plastics and fibers make their way into the sea naturally every day. Apart from the rest of the trash, some of these plastics and fibers are microscopic, coining the term microfibers or microplastics. This problem is getting worse. Much like global warming in the past, this problem is not clearly obvious. As a society, we have made numerous efforts to begin to clean up our oceans and beaches, but our tiny particle problem still goes undetected, unevaluated, and unresolved for most of the world's population. So we will probably ask how are they getting there?
There are many types of pollution, some examples are ocean and air pollution. Ocean and air pollution are serious issues that has been going on for years. Until today, pollution is still occurring and still considered a threat to the environment and people. Air pollution is when enormous amount of dust and gasses combine. On the other hand, ocean pollution is when marine animals and lifestyle are being affected due to natural and human activities. There are consequences to humans and animals if these types of pollutions are not solved. It can also cause a shorter life span for the majority of the people. Pollution is a critical issue, sadly people are not wised enough to care and act upon this situation.
As the world develops and the human population grows there is more pollution being dumped into the oceans, causing major problems to marine life and ecosystems. Major causes of marine pollution involve non-point pollutants, marine garbage, toxic ocean pollutants and sewage disposal in oceans. From heavy metal poisoning including lead and mercury killing predators such as sharks and whales, to waste getting trapped in the digestive tracts of marine animals, this essay focuses on how human interference causes horrifying problems to the marine life, but also how to fix it. It will also explore the normal activities of people including farming and how this can cause an imbalance in an ecosystem. Everyday activities can cause massive nutrient
Many of the targets for goal 14 are measurable, however not all. Some targets are open for interpretation, and lack a solid unit of measurement. For example targets 14.2, 14.3 14.6 and 14.a/c cannot be measured. It would be difficult to determine the strength of resilience, and an adverse impact must first be defined by a unit that can be measured.(14.2) Furthermore cooperation cannot be measured by any units (14.3), “appropriate treatment of a country” is vague (14.6), nor is there a unit scientific knowledge nor enhanced conservation (14.a/c). Otherwise the targets are generally quantifiable, such as pH of ocean water (14.3), number of fish in fish stocks, and exploited fish populations (14.4), percentage of area conserved, by square foot, (14.5), reduction of subsidies is a numeric value easily understood, as well as economic benefit (14.6,14.7), percentage of artisanal fisheries (14.b).