Rogers, P. (2022, November 2). Whales off California coast eat 10 million pieces of tiny plastic pollution a day, new Stanford Study Estimates. The Mercury News. Retrieved February 7, 2023, from https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/11/01/whales-off-california-coast-eat-10-million-pieces-of-tiny-plastic-pollution-a-day-new-stanford-study-estimates/
A recent Stanford study came out, showing that due to excessive use of plastic, whales off the coast of California have been ingesting millions of microplastics daily. When plastic fills the stomachs of wildlife, it causes malnourishment, and even death. Additionally, traces of chemicals found in plastics have been found in deceased whales on beaches and studies show that these chemicals weaken whale’s immune systems. Dr. Jeff Boehm explains how action is necessary to save marine animals and keep them healthy. Although California has been struggling with plastic consumption, California has also started to make efforts to decrease plastic pollution through new laws.
This article relates plastic consumption to California’s marine life, and its connection to people. This relates to environmental science because the condition of our oceans and animals lives are, or should be important to us. I like how the article focused the plastic problem specifically on whales because many of these articles have sounded the same, but this one varies. Overall, I think this article does a good job of showing how micro plastics hurt sea life, but it could have gone into more depth to explain why these animals need immediate saving and protection from our over consumption of plastic.
This makes me very sad. I didn’t know plastic affected whales that much because they are such big animals. I’m happy California has been working on lowering its use of plastic. I think a lot of companies in our area have started using bamboo or paper straws in order to reduce plastic. I truly do believe we need to start being more serious about the use of plastic because as we can see it’s affecting animals very very negatively and we need to do something about it. This was very interesting to read about and a good post, I wonder what percentage of companies have switched from using plastic containers or straws to more sustainable ones?
Thank you for reading my post! Unfortunately, I think the percentage of companies that have switched to sustainable options is very lower because most companies care solely on economic gains, rather than environmental.