Ocean polluting is also caused by a legal act of ocean dumping. The definition of ocean dumping refers to the dumping of garbage, sewage, waste chemicals, and construction debris into the ocean (Mckenzie, Kevin Hinton & Ryan). There are many cases where ocean dumping is controlled and regulated. However, this act is allowing hazardous materials to regularly be dumped into the sea by tankers and ships (Mckenzie, Kevin Hinton & Ryan). In October of 1972, Congress enacted the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA), sometimes referred to as the Ocean Dumping Act, declaring that it is the policy of the United States to regulate the dumping of all materials which would adversely affect human health, welfare or amenities, or the marine …show more content…
The only changes made to this system were in 1988, when the Ocean Dumping Ban Act amended the MPRSA and prohibited the ocean dumping of municipal sewage sludge and industrial wastes, such as wastes from plastics and pharmaceutical manufacturing plants and from petrochemical refineries (“Learn About Ocean Dumping”). The 1988 amendment also banned the ocean disposal of “medical waste” (“Learn About Ocean Dumping”). Medical waste is considered to be waste that is generated at health care facilities such as hospitals, doctor offices, dentistry practices as well as medical research facilities and laboratories. Today, the vast majority of material disposed in the ocean is uncontaminated sediment removed from our nation’s waterways to support a network of coastal ports and harbors for commercial, transportation, national defense and recreational purposes (“Learn About Ocean Dumping”). If we do not stop this, the results of ocean dumping could be catastrophic. The scale and the magnitude of the ocean dumping are so humongous, that our entire civilization could be wiped out with the intensity of careless dumping
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...
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 &
When they dump their fuel and waste into the ocean, this is furthering the damage to our water
Negligent medical waste management is a major environmental issue particularly when it is dumped in the ocean. There are some serious effects of medical waste being dumped into the ocean including the spread of infectious disease, ingestion of toxins, and spread of bacteria and viruses. Medical waste enters the ocean because of improper disposal and illegal dumping. Proper disposal of medical waste involves sterilization or incineration. There is a surprising connection between the ocean’s health and ours. By stopping the dumping of waste into our oceans we are saving both sea life and protecting toxins from entering the food chain.
Do you know that people are polluting oceans in so many ways, and what we are doing about it. First, my evidence shows that two billion people within thirty miles of the coast create 100 million metric tons of coastal plastic waste (Doc.1). In my own words, this evidence show that all this pollution is really harmful to ocean creatures and us. More evidence is that the North Pacific Gyre has collected lots of these pollutants, so it is nicknamed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (O.I.). This shows how we are polluting the oceans. My next evidence shows that a Beach Act was passed in 2000 saying the EPA or the Environmental Protection Agency will help states test and monitor coastal water pollution to protect swimmers (Doc.2). This evidence
Charles Moore first discovered the garbage patch in 1997 between Hawaii and the coast of California. It is roughly double the size of Texas and can be 100 feet deep in some places. The increase in the amount of garbage in the gyre is due to the increased use of plastic on land (Kostigen 2008). The pollution that is non-biodegradable in the ocean comes directly form the carelessness of human consumers. When a consumer discards litter, such as a plastic bag or empty soda bottle, it has the potential to reach the ocean through ocean dumping or blowing wind. These methods of pollution are the causes of this great mass of pollution. The trash that makes up these landfills comes from both the eastern shores of Japan as well as the Western coast of the United S...
Harmfull Effects of Ocean dumping include animals in danger with trash in their habitat, as well as contamination of public waters.
While a beautiful sunset on the beach can be astounding, a spectacular scene is not the only benefit oceans provide. Without the oceans, we would not have adequate amounts of oxygen to breathe or enough protein to eat. The Earth's climate would not be inhabitable for human beings and many animals. The oceans supply medicines, food and drinking water which arise from ocean processes. Out of the five oceans, the Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest and deepest ocean. It spreads over an area of 165.2 million square kilometers. More than 25,000 islands float within the Pacific. Within the Pacific Ocean lies an unusual island, an island that is more than twice the size of Texas and is earth’s largest landfill, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (McLendon). Society is unaware that the excess use of plastic and other non-biodegradable materials has ended up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is the main source of ocean pollution. The solutions, ranging from manual clean-up to eliminating any further obliteration to the Garbage Patch, will reduce the amount of effluence the world has to endure.
Our oceans take a large beating every day by the extremely large amount of pollution humans produce. Our society easily dumps their waste into the oceans to dispose of the excessive amount of garbage, sewage, and chemicals, but this small and simple solution is creating an even bigger problem. The way humans dispose of their wastes is causing the death of our beloved marine life. Not only are we killing off our animals, our food source, and our resources, we are also minimizing our usable water. By having a better understanding of the problem on the severe dumping, it will be easier to find ways to help minimize the pollution that is going into the ocean.
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.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is sometimes referred to as the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch and the Pacific Trash Vortex is a floating patch of garbage that has collected in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, which is located in the middle of two high-pressure areas between Hawaii and California. The majority of the garbage, which is also called marine debris, in the patch is plastic, but items made from other materials such as glass and rubber are also present. Though the garbage patch is too large and goes too deep under the surface of the ocean for scientists to determine exactly how much garbage is in it, they have collected up to 750,000 bits of plastic one square kilometer (CITE). This sort of debris floating around in the ocean is dangerous for several reasons. One important reason is that marine animals mistake some of the garbage, especially plastics, for food (CITE). Another reason that the floating debris is so dangerous is because it can block sunlight from reaching deeper levels of the ocean, and thus, it removes the energy source for many autotrophs like alga...
...e effect of what humankind does to the ocean, the implications became far worse than any had individually realized. It is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children's and generations beyond that
The article “Junk Planet: Is Earth the Largest Garbage Dump in the Universe?,” by Robert J. Burrowes, claims that earth likely is the largest garbage dump in the world. Burrowes describes the types of garbage that are created, the locations where it is being discarded, and potential solutions to the problem. One form of garbage is pollution, the carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide released into the atmosphere from cars, electricity, and farming of animals. These pollutants can potentially cause cancer, asthma, and birth defects among other consequences. The solution he proposes to this is to not travel by air or car as well as refrain from eating meat. The next form of garbage Burrowes examines is the ocean garbage. While plastic largely contributes to the destruction of oceans, the absorption of carbon dioxide and chemical runoff does as well.
In a world divided by war, it is easy to overlook problems that affect all of mankind. The dramatic rise in ocean levels worldwide constitutes just that sort of problem. Although the fundamental problem of global warming has been given airtime and plenty of written-media coverage, the problem of rising sea levels seems to have met a certain amount of apathy. A likely explanation is that the rising sea levels mainly threatens impoverished peoples that may have no choice but to doubt the threat, since there is no way for them to relocate. Concurrently, Americans, seemingly beset by some false sense of well-being, really have no fear of the possible annihilation of our coastal cities. Granted, the worst case scenario (the total loss of all glacial ice) would take several hundred years to become a reality, but the possibilities are frightening.
The functionalist theory asserts that if one part of the system fails to work correctly, all of the other parts of the system are harmed; one can see this with the consequences of dumping. Families are harmed when drinking water is contaminated with hazardous fluids that seep into waterways from dump sites and are not completely filtered. The government faces higher costs to clean up dump sites and litter so it raises revenue by increasing taxes on citizens. The money that goes toward funding cleanup crews could have potentially gone to schools to hire more teachers or fund research grants so educational institutions also are harmed. Religious institutions, which already manage themselves financially on the margin, may pay costs to restore property. The economy suffers because the forgone profits used to restore property could have been used by businesses to hire employees or renovate equipment. The broad effects that illegal dumping has on society reveal what may be considered isolated, harmless events contribute to a larger malaise explained by the functionalist perspective.