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Consequences of ocean pollution
Consequences of ocean pollution
How ocean pollution affects humans essays
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Industrialization is the expansion of production in a region on a broad scale. The production in the region can develop overpopulation because human need resources to survive. One of the most important resources for human survival is water because water is a finite resource. As human population increases, the need for water is increasing, thus causing humans to crowd by bodies of water. These water resources are abused by human activity from industrialization, sewage, and littering. Production companies and their consumers contaminate these bodies of water, instead of proper disposal. While the waste is placed in the water, it will either decompose or corrupt the water. This contamination is known as water pollution. (THESIS STATEMENT) …show more content…
While the harmful waste contaminates the water, it will also affect the ecosystem. The harmful agents that are in the contaminated bodies of water can be consumed by the living organisms. In McDermott’s article, it shows, “A 2017 scientific review reports that 233 marine species, 100% of marine turtles, 36% of seals, 59% of whales, and 59% of seabirds, as well as 92 species of fish and 6 species of invertebrates, had plastic in them. This lead to starvation, stomach problems and even the death of the animal,” (McDermott, "Effects of Ocean Pollution on Marine Life”). The plastic from industrialization leads to living creatures consuming them, while the creatures think the plastic is food. The marine animals consuming plastic can affect human health. Another example is shown in McDermott’s article, “Toxins build up in the tissues of the people who eat the contaminated fish and may lead to illnesses like cancer, reproductive disorders, birth defects, and other long-term health problems,” (McDermott, “Effects of Ocean Pollution on Marine Life”). While the marine animals are consuming harmful waste, humans are hunting the animals for food. Humans will them consume the marine animals, which can lead to illness from the harmful agents the animals were exposed to. These are just examples of plastics harmful effect on bodies of water and their
Microplastics are often consumed by smaller fish, who are then consumed by bigger fish where the plastic continues to collect. Humans then proceed to eat the bigger fish, leading to us consuming plastics as well. This illustrates that in the end, everything we do to wildlife we do to ourselves. Overall, the documentary suggests that marine life is worth protecting because it is not ours to destroy: everyone on the coast will suffer. Essentially, we are trapping ourselves. If the path we are on continues, the amount of plastic in the ocean will outweigh all of the fish in the sea by 2050. This is a shocking, and devastating, statistic. It is also important to note that it seldom is the communities themselves using the ocean as a dumping ground. The plastic ends up in water systems and eventually gets brought to shore by the tide. It is not just litter that was dropped on the
Which means their obviously bad for the aquatic marine life environment & are cause many different forms of damage for them & us as one. On p.g. 23 of The New York Times upfront magazine “Birds,fish, sea turtles, & others are getting tangled in plastic bags or mistake them for food & choke”. Someone else might argue that they could the plastic bags in landfills instead of oceans. But that counter- argument is flawed because you’re just polluting by burning plastic which is bad on our part we’re not doing our part to support & taking care of the earth. Plastic in the ocean isn't just bad for plants & animals but for humans too because of the food chain some of us eat animals as a meat source such as aqua marine life like fish. If the fishermen catch fish that have been eating plastic then it's in our food supply if we eat that fish it's gonna be bad for us so many will end up getting sick from the plastic inside of the fish then what will we do our aqua marine food supply will go down the drain we couldn’t eat the fish since it's basically contaminated with plastic that we’re dumping there instead of trying to fix it & getting rid of plastic bags for good for the good of the earth. We’re causing damage towards the earth by dumping all that plastic into the ocean which damages our water supply it’ll poison us although we clean the water it depends on how big the plastic particles are, it’ll make us sick & sense it’s been lying in the oceans could bring in new pathogens &
So many of the ocean animals are eating tiny pieces of plastic and causing them to ingest toxic
People are hurting the animals, and they don’t realize it. That’s one of the issues that the people don’t realize what they are doing. All of the sea creatures about 100,000 marine animals and countless fish are being harmed by the floating plastics. Those animals die in the North Pacific every year from either eating the plastic junk or becoming ensnared, and even drowning in it. Since there is plastic in the ocean and it’s killing fish over time and from the over time it could actually make the fishes go extinct because we are throwing our garbage in the ocean, which is killing the species and affects the food chain in the ocean. Also, every people are eating plasticizing additives, drinking them, breathing them, and absorbing them through their skin every single day. Only 3 to 5 percent of plastics are recycled in any way. Which means each person tosses about 185 pounds of plastic every year. So, the plastic never really goes
This pollution problem is so ubiquitous plastic can be found throughout the marine environment from coastlines to near shore lagoons to remote ocean hotspots where plastics caught up in marine currents. And gathered up into huge garbage patches that swirl
There’s more than 14 billion pounds of plastic and garbage dumped into the oceans in the United States. Ocean pollution could be a thing of the past if people stopped littering, oil spills were prevented or contained, and if people weren’t allowed to use oil wells where natural water is. Pollution is still a major issue, especially in China and Japan. Pollution has been around since the 1960s (“Along” 2009) and it only gets worse each year. By the year 2050, there will be more plastic than fish when weighed.
Harmfull Effects of Ocean dumping include animals in danger with trash in their habitat, as well as contamination of public waters.
"Water Pollution." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 May 2014.
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 affect the way we live. There should be stricter laws regulating human pollution, in order to protect our ocean ecosystem. The ocean is an abundant source of life. It is home to thousands of different creatures, provides a great source of food, and provides the earth with about one half of the oxygen needed to sustain life. National Geographic: Pollution, especially plastic, is a catastrophic problem.
Pollution in the form of plastics put many marine species in danger of extinction. During the 1970s, environmental scientists discovered that many seals were losing their lives due to plastic waste entangling with their bodies; in fact, after 30 years, a report showed that the population of Northern Fur Seals was reduced by fifty percent (Amaral 2). Marine organisms are not in danger of plastics just because of entanglement, as stated that “thousands of seabirds and sea turtles, seals and other marine mammals are killed each year after ingesting plastic or getting entangled in it” (Biological Diversity 2). Therefore, it is clearly understood that the ingestion of plastics in oceans does not only affect marine organisms, but also birds appear to be in danger.
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.
...ic and get ill from it. All this trash can kill the mammals in the ocean even if it’s just floating on top of the water. It’s still harmful to them and humans. It can kill, suffocate or poison the mammal. If humans decide to go swimming in the ocean and choke on a piece of plastic that breaks into pieces and they open there mouth for some reason and get trash in their mouth they can choke and maybe die. Just because people like to put their trash anywhere they please.
Although plastic bags appear to be fragile and light, their negative environmental effect is devastating. Plastic bags may cause large amounts of pollution in every step of their limited life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials, production, transportation, and recycling or disposal. Plastic bags can be defined as the most damaging form of environmental pollution. They can have a damaging effect on marine animals and wildlife in addition to the aesthetic effects on beaches, parks, and trees. Plastic bags are potentially one of the main causes of death to marine animals (Harbor keepers,2008). Up to one hundred thousand marine animals or more die each year from eating plastic bags which are mistaken for food. This can result in blocking the animal’s intestines and possibly lead to the animal’s death. Another possible situation is that wildlife, such as birds, can get tangled in plastic bags causing choking and immobility, which may eventually lead to death. (Senior, 2008) and (Citizen Campaign, 2010). In other situations, after plastic bags photo degrade they remain toxic and could be eaten by fish, shellfish or any other marine life and survive this allows the toxins to enter our food chain through bioaccumulation (Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, 2011).
It is sad to say but humans have played their part in deteriorating the earth. We have polluted and killed the very thing that takes care of us. If you ride by any lake or river you find trash and debris around it. In the “The Call of the Wild” the author says that we have committed war against the earth by the dumping of poisons and explosives upon it (337). Unfortunately, plastics are the things that are doing the most harm to our environment. Plastics are convenient and we use them everyday and these are the things that we find in the oceans, rivers and lakes. They are harmful to the earth as well as human health by directly intoxicating us with lead, cadmium and mercury. Plastic debris laced with harmful chemicals are often found inside of our marine life and can poison them. Plastic can survive for thousands of years and many invasive species are found in them which can disrupt our habitats. We need to limit our consumption of plastics and make sure that they are disposed of in their proper places.
Water pollution is also a major thing in the world because almost 60% of it is fishes. It occurs due to several factors; the industrial waste dumped into the rivers and other water body’s cause am imbalance in the water leading to its severe contamination and deaths. And the infamous Global warming is the emission of greenhouse gases particularly CO2 is leading to global warming.