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The importance of protecting the environment
Negative effects of plastic pollution
Negative effects of plastic pollution
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Recommended: The importance of protecting the environment
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Of all the debris on the ocean’s surface 90% is plastic. That is 46,000 pieces of plastic for square mile (Bowermaster, 2012, {online}). The plastic in the ocean is eaten by marine life and is harmful to them. Learning more about which plastics are the most environmental friendly can help save marine life.
Plastic is found almost everywhere, some example plastic bags, bottles, razors, shampoo bottles, and much more. “To humans, these are items of comfort, if not necessity. But to marine animals, they can be a floating minefield” (Amaral, 2005, {online}). Plastic in 1st world countries have become an everyday part of our lives. Plastic is helpful it makes life easier, but when plastic reaches a body of water it can be deadly. Plastic is often consumed by fish and other marine life.
A common example is with a sea tortoise. Sea tortoise often prey on jelly fish which is often confuse with plastic bags. When the tortoise easts the bag it can either choke it upon initial bite or make the tortoise fell full and make it die of malnutrition or starvation. Plastic travels along currents which makes them cluster together in the same area. Fish and other marine life also travel the currents making chances of encounters higher (Amaral, 2005, {online}).
In 1992 a boat carrying 28000 rubber duckiest were lost at sea. These ducks are still floating our waters 20 years later (Nelson, 2011, {online}). These ducks have been in the water for 20 years with little to no damage has been done to the exterior of the duck. Based on this accident some good did come out of this. It helped us learn more about our oceans currents.
Eating the plastic isn’t all that’s killing. “Scientists from the National Marine Mammal Laboratory ...
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...o Biodegrade?" HowStuffWorks. 15 Dec. 2010. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. .
"Ice Mountain® 100% Natural Spring Water." Ice Mountain® 100% Natural Spring Water. 14 May 2009. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. .
Khemlani, Anjalee. "Photodegradation of Water Pollutants." EHow. Demand Media, 05 June 2011. Web. 03 Nov. 2013.
Nelson, Bryan. "What Can 28,000 Rubber Duckies Lost at Sea Teach Us about Our Oceans?" MNN. 01 Mar. 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. .
Point, Steven. "Polymer Chemistry." Polymer Chemistry. 19 July 2010. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. .
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 &
The plastic apocalypse is upon us. Our oceans are currently burdened by massive expanses of floating plastic products and shreds extending farther than the eye can see in multiple locations. The biggest of these, located in the North Pacific Ocean,1 is known by many as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This dangerous collection of trash is surrounded by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre,1 or a series of circling currents located in the Southern Hemisphere that carry plastics and other slow-degrading garbage and trap them inside its bounds.2 This specific Garbage Patch stretches from North America to Japan and the plastic-to-water ratio varies throughout.1 Because of this phenomenon, plastic is being distributed throughout oceans and deposited
Manatees, also known a sea mermaids or cows, are on the brink of extinction with funding and environmental protection required to save these amazing animals. Humans are the biggest threat to their existence. Humans have carelessly injured and killed thousands of manatees by slicing and dicing them with boat propellers, all in the name of entertainment. Other negative factors include pollution, environmental reduction due to human encroachment, and poaching with manatees consumed as food. The existence of red tides is another factor posing a natural threat. While manatees may be viewed as large animals in the way of boaters with no real purpose, manatees serve a major purpose by eating vegetation and weeds that cause damage to underwater pipe systems in larger cities. Without them, the removal of this vegetation comes at a huge cost. The existence of one of the most gentle mammals in the world is being threatened. Action needs to be taken now to prevent brutal injuries or death by boat propellers, habitat loss, poaching, and other careless actions that threaten the manatee population.
Bibliography The Economist [London], January 3, 2009, A special report on the sea. Hardin, Garrett. The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 13 Dec. 1968: 1243-248. Johnsen, D. B. & Co., Inc. 2009.
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
...stic breaks down into smaller bits that are not as easy to spot. These small pieces are then consumed by the oceans small organisms that are also the bottom of the oceans food chain. Once it enters the ocean food chain, plastic and its toxins can then be transferred to humans through the ingestion of seafood. The Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean are home to many different bird species including the world’s largest number of albatrosses. Plastic items and waste materials are washed onto shore and mistaken by the birds as food. A wildlife manager by the name of Matt Brown cut open a dead albatross and found the contents of its stomach to have a large amount of plastic items including a part of a toothbrush, a bottle cap, and pieces of an old fishing net. Brown agrees with most scientists that it is going to take effort from society as a whole to fix this issue.
Everyday animals are dying because careless humans are littering they are killing the world and its animals a turtle in Australia was found dead full of plastic bags that turtle could have been the key to save their species.
The ocean is an abundant source of life. It is home to thousand 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. Ironically plastic, which is a material designed to last forever is generally used for things we tend to throw away. Every year about one hundred to two hundred billion pounds of plastic are manufactured. Only 31% of that plastic is actually recycled. Biomass packaging estimates 10% of that plastic ends up in the ocean annually. About 20% of it coming from ships and other platforms, and the other 80% coming from land derived sources, such as international garbage dumping, winds or tides either way it finds its way to the ocean.(Biomass Packaging Co., et al)
...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.
Plastic or paper, is a choice that people face when going to the grocery stores. Plastic bags are often the choice that is made. A controversial issue in the world today is the use of plastic bags. Plastic bags are used because of the convenience they give, by being able to carry several items at once. However, in the article, “Banning Bans, Not Bags”, Jennifer Schultz claims, “Plastic bags clog up local waterways, litter roadways, and get swallowed up by unsuspecting fish” (6). Plastic bags are used once, then are discarded or, littered all over the place. When they are littered all over they become problems for more than just humans. These plastic bags pose a big hazard for animals on land and in especially the ocean. Humans eat land and
Did you know that more than 90 percent of all organisms that have ever lived on Earth are extinct? According to Pandey, the author of Humans Pushing Marine Life toward ‘Major Extinction’, nearly 10,000 species go extinct each year, and this rate is estimated to be 1,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate (1). Human beings are causing irreversible damage to the oceans and their wildlife, which is being led by two major reasons: Commercial fishing or over-fishing, which damaged the marine environment and caused a loss in the marine life diversity, and pollution, which is a primary way of the extinction causes that drastically modifies the marine life habitat. As a result of the commercial fishing and pollution, many of the marine species will start disappearing of the oceans. Briggs emphasizes that over-fishing “has induced population collapses in many species. So instead of having less than a hundred species at risk, as was the case some 30-40 years ago, there are now a thousand or more (10).”
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 for 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.
Vannela, Raveender. "Are We “Digging Our Own Grave” Under the Oceans?" Environmental Science & Technology 46.15 (2012): 7932-933. Print.
More than fifty species of birds are known to ingest plastic. When they eat plastic, they feel full, so some of them die of starvation. Algal blooms are another thing that kills marine life. Algal blooms are sea scum, whale food, and sea sawdust. Algal blooms are bundles of fine threads, rusty brown, they have a fishy smell, and are common in August through December.
Water pollutants are of different types such as oxygen demanding wastes, disease causing agents, synthetic organic compounds, plant nutrients, inorganic chemicals and minerals, oils, thermal discharge and radioactive wastes. Of all these water pollutants, heavy metals and synthetic organic compounds cause majority of water pollution. Industries like paper and pulp, tanneries, textiles and coke ovens, pha...