Allen, K. (2015, May 4). Plastic Pollution = Cancer of Our Oceans: What Is the Cure? Retrieved August 24, 2015, from http://ecowatch.com/2015/05/04/plastic-pollution-cancer-oceans/
The ocean has a large quantity of plastic debris. During an average year, around 8 million metric tons of plastic is washed into the ocean. In the ocean, there is around 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic weighing 269,000 tons. The only way to fix the problem with ocean pollution is to completely eliminate disposable plastic. Ocean clean up is difficult due to the vastness of the ocean.
Plastic Pollution in the ocean affects environmental science. Plastic has a large impact on marine life. Many animals die due to entanglement and ingestion from plastic pollution. The other day I saw a picture of a turtle that had a straw lodged way up into its nostril and was saddened to see the affect pollution had on that particular turtle. Plastic is something that should not be used often because a lot of it ends up in bodies of water when not disposed of properly.
I knew that there was pollution in the ocean but I did not think there was that much. I was surprised by the data and hearing about the turtle saddened me. How can we eliminate the disposable plastic?
We need to replace plastic with biodegradable materials in order to start to fix this problem.
I was surprised to find out how much plastic there is accumulated in the ocean, it really is sad to hear how much damage we’ve done in the short amount of time that we’ve had access to plastic-producing technology. If the only solution to the issue of plastic accumulation is to eliminate all disposable plastic, how long would it take for that effort to result in a relatively plastic free ocean (since we’d have to wait for the plastic already in oceans to degrade)?
A plastic free ocean is not very likely. At this point there is so much plastic in the ocean that an entire clean up would be impossible. Also, every day a lot of plastic is added to the problem.
This is a great point. The statistic you cited made me really disappointed, it is horrible that we are causing that much pollution. You’re right, we definitely need to try to eliminate our use of plastics, they are truly harmful to the environment.
They have negative effects outside of the ocean to which is really bad. Plastic needs to be removed from our lives.
This is really sad to read about and I totally agree that we need to lessen our use of plastic or stop using it all together.
True
It is really concerning to hear the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean and harms the marine animals. Plastic should certainly be replaced by reusable things in order to prevent the plastic from harming the environment.
The ways that plastic and other forms of trash can hurt marine life is very sad. I agree plastic needs to be replaced.