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Ocean pollution topics
Ocean pollution annotated bibliography essay
Ocean pollution annotated bibliography essay
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Every year, an estimated 8 million tons of plastic waste enters our environment, severely polluting oceans, beaches, forests, and even the towns and cities we live in. In the ocean alone, it is believed that 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic pollutes the waters (“Plastic Statistics”, Ocean Crusaders).The majority of plastic pollution can be traced back to single-use items, such as grocery bags, bottles, and plastic packaging. According to United Nations Environment, “At the rate we are dumping items such as plastic bottles, bags and cups after a single use, by 2050 oceans will carry more plastic than fish…” (“UN Declares War on Ocean Plastic”, UN Environment). This pollution is a major problem and endangers not only the environment, but human …show more content…
Recently, an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean was found to be polluted with 38 million pieces of plastic that had been carried over by currents (Wang, “No one lives on this remote Pacific island”). The island, dubbed ‘trash island’, is home to diverse animal populations that have all been devastated by the pollution. On the beach, hundreds of birds were seen dead by reporters and scientists. When analyzed, the primary cause of death turned out to be consumption of plastic. When animals ingest plastic, it clogs their stomach and poisons their body with toxic chemicals. These toxic chemicals cause an array of issues, such as reproductive and endocrine problems. Eventually, this leads to death (Knoblauch, “The environmental toll of plastics”). But due to the nature of plastics, it can take hundreds or even thousands of years to completely degrade, meaning that as plastic pollution continues to build up, more places like ‘trash island’ will be discovered. According to conservation scientist Alex Bond, “…[The island] is just an indicator of what’s floating around out there” (Wang, “No one lives on this remote Pacific …show more content…
There is also debate on how much better biodegradable plastics are in the first place. This is because as biodegradable plastics break down, they break up into smaller and smaller pieces, but never quite disappear. This leaves the potential that the plastic would continue entering the food chain. But although biodegradable plastics aren’t perfect, they are still much safer than standard plastic and present a much lower risk. In addition, by making the shift to ban single use plastics, research towards better plastic alternatives will speed up and better solutions will become available. Over time, these new alternatives to plastics may spread to other items that aren’t single use, making an even greater impact on the health of humans and the
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest garbage dump in the world. According to estimates made by experts, the patch holds approximately three and a half million tons of garbage. Majority of this garbage is made of plastic. This waste is a threatening problem to the patch’s surrounding wildlife. Many animals are caught in the floating pieces of trash and it is the cause of the deaths of about one million birds and about one hundred thousand other sea animals. Due to the oceans nature and constant moving currents, the trash is also constantly moving. Therefore the size of the patch never stays the exact same. However, scientists believe it be approximately two times the size of Texas. The plastic is mostly broken down from larger materials into small pieces. The patch has been referred to as one scientist as a, “plastic soup”. This garbage poses such a threat mainly because it does not biodegrade. These plastics will be in the ocean essentially forever. Many plastics also contain chemicals, and absorb other chemicals and pollutants they become exposed to. These newly absorbed toxins are then leaked and distributed back into the ocean over time. The chemicals can directly enter the bodies of the animals which consume them. A study was being conducted by scientists of the fish that inhabit the area around the patch. What the researchers found inside the belly of one fish (that was no larger in size than that of a finger), was eighty four small fragments of plastic. It does not take scientists to recognize the impact of this problem, Zach Gold, who is sixteen, is from Santa Monica California. Zach enjoys s...
Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a 2013 environment documentary movie directed by Angela Sun who love telling the stories about
Water pollution has had devastating effects on the environment, which include irreversible effects to the oceans ecosystem. People often underestimate the importance of the ocean. They don’t realize how much damage pollution has caused to the ocean and the thousand of creatures that inhabit it. Earth is a huge place, but resources are actually very limited and will not last forever; unless there is a balance. We must protect the resources we have in order for them to last into the next generation. Every time we throw away a plastic bottle, drive our cars, and even burn those millions of fossil fuels to operate all those huge factories, there is a chance it will pollute the ocean and eventually effect the way we live. There should be stricter laws regulating human pollution, in order to protect our oceans ecosystem.
There are other ways that the wildlife is affected by plastic pollution. Such as entanglement, this is most common in marine life, such as fish, seals, turtles, and birds. These animals get stuck in this debris and end up suffocating or drowning. Because they are unable to untangle themselves, they also die from starvation or from their inability to escape predators. On a report in 2006 called Plastic Debris in the World’s Oceans, It was estimated that at least 267 different animal species have suffered from entanglement and ingestion of plastic debris. Some species are consumers of jelly fish, but often mistake plastic bags for their natural prey, which obstructs the esophagus of sea turtles therefore killing them. It has been estimated that about 400,000 marine mammals die annually due to plastic pollutions in the ocean. As said by Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra “One must be a sea, to receive a polluted stream without becoming impure”. Air wildlife are also greatly affected by plastic pollution. Seabirds are a common example. Seabirds often mistake trash floating on the ocean’s surface as prey. Or often their food sources had already ingested plastic debris, thus transferring the plastic from prey to
With new technology and different resources that make human life easier, there are increased problems for the environment and wildlife. Plastic was a huge discovery and it has changed everyday life since then. Plastic has a low cost and has replaced many traditional products such as wood and glass. Because of their wide variety of uses, plastics are used throughout the entire world. This poses problems with how to safely dispose of plastics and the damage they cause when they are not disposed of properly.
In 1947, plastic containers were first commercially used to hold liquids, but not until the 60’s were they consumed by the general public. At first, plastic was extremely cheap to make; however, in recent years the price to manufacture plastic has skyrocketed. In 2011 alone, over eleven billion dollars were exhausted in the fabrication of plastic water bottles. All this money fuels the creation of about fifty billion bottles worldwide. Sadly, Americans have become reliant on disposable plastic containers; consuming around thirty billion of the fifty billion water bottles produced each year. Many of the bottles end up being toss upon the earth instead of being recycled, which has been detrimental to the planet’s land, ocean, and air.
With plastic being so prevalent, and having so many adverse effects on the environment, it’s time that people begin to reduce the amount of plastic they use and for scientists to develop more eco-friendly alternatives. In “Plastics, human health and environmental impacts: The road ahead” Rachael Stephens and Leighton Walter Kille agreed that plastic is inadequate and has been used for over a century, and that it is time we found a new solution. They found that the National Institute of Environmental Health Science, a government research body, concluded, there is way too much plastic waste being accumulated. As stated by Lisa Kass Boyle in “Recycling Plastic: What a Waste” argues that although there are some downsides to heavy use of plastics, the pros out weigh the cons, declaring that all the bad things about plastics that we are told about everyday are blown out of proportion. Isabel Johnson, the author of “Bottled water, go away”, states that “8 out of 10 bottles of water will end up in a landfill” though people try and make their efforts towards recycling, there is just not a large enough portion of people contributing to the effort for it to no longer be an issue.
Ocean, Home of Plastics Passing through an aisle of a regular supermarket, customers will observe that most of the products in there are made of or packed with the base material plastic. Usually, the bag that will be used to carry the products bought from the supermarket will also be made of plastic. It is important to consider that every piece of plastic that has ever been created still exists today in some structure. A study from the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation anticipated that if plastic production continues as ongoing rates, and with improper disposals, by the year 2050, the oceans will have more plastic wastes than fish. Although plastic is a material that benefits every individual, the overproduction of plastics
Every year 500,000 chicks are born 200,000 will die due to plastic pollution. These chicks do not stand a chance based upon their diet which consists of a regurgitated substance from their parent of their necessary nutrition intakes. The plastic that is picked up from their parents enter into the young chicks causing starvation and dehydration because the plastics’ disturbance to the body’s functions. Albatross chicks are not the only marine birds that are suffering seagulls, penguins and many other birds receive the same fate as well.
What I mean when I say all this, is we as people need to food to survive, so a majority of us eat meat and fish. We are not the only ones who need food to survive. Animals need food to survive as well, so they eat what is available, and sometimes that means plastic. When animals eat plastic and we eat animals, we are also eating plastic. When people do not recycle plastic, it ends up on the side of roads, in the ocean, around the shell of a turtle, and almost everywhere it is not supposed to be. “Plastic bags mistaken for food can and often do kill animals who eat them” (Jensen, Waste, 18-19). Many ocean fish that we consume are consuming plastics that has been thrown into the ocean. In plastic there are toxic chemicals that are harmful to people and animals (Angus paragraph 12). “Plastics are polymer, and are composed primarily of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.” Plastic is soft and flexible due to the phthalates used to make it. Phthalates are known to cause physical problems to those who consume it. We consume it we when drink from plastic bottles and some food containers (Jensen, Plastic,
Research from the University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography said that species in the ocean consume a projected 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic every year in the Pacific Ocean (Nall, 2014). Pollution of recyclable materials in the oceans is one of the leading causes of why some marine species are nearing extinction. Many authors of articles and books analyzing this topic tend to agree that pollution of our oceans is a problem. The future of this problem is where their ideas tend to differ. The following four literature reviews attempt to demonstrate and support my belief that pollution is getting worse in the ocean and more marine life ecosystems are being affected, but there are things that we as humans can do to change this. Imagine a world where we didn’t have to constantly worry about the vicious cycle of humans affecting animals and then animals in turn affecting us through consumption.
Plastic plays an important role in our lives due to its ability to be functional in a number of different ways from plastic water bottles do the rubber on car tires. It seems as if everything is made of plastic in this day and age, but what happens once the consumers are done with the product? Statistics Canada showed in that 2012 Canadians produced, on average, 13.4 million tonnes of waste, 73% of which were sent for disposal. Of the 27% of waste that was recycled, a mere 17% of plastics was recycled properly, while the rest was sent to landfills. (Babooram & Wang, 2013). Improper disposal is a problem because plastic, once placed in a landfill it is unable fully break down (Platt, 2001). The logical solution for the plastics in landfills unable to degrade is to use biodegradable plastics. However, are biodegradable plastics the answer to society’s addiction to plastic? Arguments have been made on whether the pros of biodegradable plastics outweigh the cons and whether their usage will truly make a difference in our world.
Millions of plastic bags are given out to consumers by supermarkets and stores to carry their goods in. They are also cheap, light, durable, easy to carry and in many cases, free. The most commonly used shopping bag is made of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). This type is used in the majority of supermarkets and stores. After these bags are used, they often end up in landfills or as litter, roughly only three percent of plastic bags is actually recycled per year (Planet Ark, 2011). The materials used in making plastic bags make them non-biodegradable. According to the science dictionary, 2011 refers to “these materials cannot be decomposed into environmentally safe waste materials by the action of soil bacteria.” These harmful substances are toxic and take approximately four hundred years to break down, or in this case photo-degrade; which is how plastics made from (HDPE) break down. Since they are not biodegradable, they remain in the environment and are absorbed in soil or water (Indian Centre for Plastics in the Environment, 2010). This essay will discuss the various harmful effects of plastic bags, and demonstrate the risks that these bags impose on humans, animals and the environment. It will also discuss a series of suggested solutions that could help reduce plastic bag usage.
The convenience and availability of plastic bags in Singapore have resulted in serious environmental issues such as the release of harmful greenhouse gases and threat to marine life.
It is undeniable that plastic has become a part of human lives all around the world. Plastic has been one of the most essential commodities when Alexander Parkes created it in 1852 (Kulbhushaan, 2011, 4). Chris, the member of Earthsave Canada, said that it seems nearly impossible to escape plastic in our daily life and we cannot escape plastic pollution, either (2008, 5). Although it is one of the most essential commodities, there is no doubt that using plastic has its own set of disadvantages. Plastic pollution involves the accumulation of man-made plastic products in the environment that adversely affect wildlife or humans (Moore, 2015, internet). In order to evidently discuss plastic pollution, this report will interpret more details on