Paddison, Laura. (2023, March 8). “More than 170 Trillion Plastic Particles Found in the Ocean as Pollution Reaches ‘unprecedented’ Levels.” CNN, Cable News Network, 8 Mar. 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/03/08/world/ocean-plastic-pollution-climate-intl/index.html.
Research collected over a 40-year time frame from mostly the North Pacific and North Atlantic shows that since 2005, the oceans in our world have seen an unprecedented increase in plastic pollution, which is now threatening the health of the world’s oceans. This “plastic smog” has been caused by 171 trillion plastic particles that would weigh around 2.3 tons if put all together. A very small percentage of plastics are actually recycled, and most plastics end up in our oceans. This is a huge issue because it is affecting marine life and also letting toxic chemicals seep into the ocean. The production of plastics is also burning fossil fuels at an enormous rate, causing more global warming.
Emphasizing the overall waste and impact that plastic products have on our oceans, the article goes into greater detail about how our environment will be altered with the continual use of plastics. This is an environmental issue because the production of plastics creates significant greenhouse gases due to the burning of fossil fuel that is needed for its production. Additionally, plastics are affecting the very chemistry of oceans, allowing for toxic chemicals to be released into the ocean. Without stopping the overall production of plastic products, the environment will continue to be affected by the amount of plastics that are produced yearly, making the negative impact on humans worse. We need to do something quickly about the amount of plastics that are affecting our Earth so much.
I really like how you went into detail about how plastic is related to enviornmental science. I agree with your thinking and question if there are any ways you read about that can help stop the spread of plastics other than just stopping their production.
Thanks for commenting. I can’t recall exactly another way we could stop the spread of plastics, but some articles did mention global treaties about where we import or export our waste. Some countries export their waste to other countries that can not properly recycle waste. Stopping this could help reduce how some plastics are not recycled properly.
It is very sad that most plastics are not recycled. I agree with everything you said and you put it together very nicely, the plastic is polluting our world and affecting our environment so much. While these are all great statistics I wonder what we could do personally to try to change the problem?
Thank you for the question! I think making small changes in our lives, like reducing the number of plastic water bottles we use and produce in the U.S. could make a big impact. Using reusable water bottles, and making more refill water stations could greatly reduce plastic waste.