Ocean Pollution!
Killing the Earth, dump by dump.
TRASH IN OUR WATERS
Trash is something that in our current world, nobody can escape from. It comes from everywhere including city streets, debris after storms and natural disasters, common laziness, and way more. The most common kinds of trash that ends up in the ocean is the kind that are the hardest to break down and get rid of. Plastic products including water bottles, 6 pack soda holders, plastic bags, and styrofoam cups are constantly floating around in the ocean.
Animals always get the worst of the littering. From seagulls ingesting trash and clogging their digestive system. To turtles getting soda holder wrapped around their body resulting in either suffocation, or drowning because of the inability to move and escape for air. But those aren't the only two unlucky species, almost every marine species can be effected and harmed by littered trash. While some animals are not directly killed by trash in the ocean. Trash can throw off complex food chains that can result in the overeating or under eating of one species. This could eventually cause the extinction of a species.
Another major factor on why pollution is as big of a problem as it is, is because most of the world isn't doing anything. The people that can control how state grants are spent are more focused on building a new place to play basketball, and then overlooking more serious subjects. If this continues, it will keep on piling up and making the problem bigger and bigger, it won't eventually solve itself if you ignore it.
EFFECTS
- Plastic is the biggest danger in our water for it can take 500 -1000 years to degrade. It also makes up most of the trash in the ocean.
- All organisms need water and my destroying it with our trash we our digging our own graves.
- Fertilizers and pesticides that are extremely harmful to all life and is often dissolved into water. Even though this may not affect us directly, the death of marine animals will mess up a complex food chain that can lead marine life extinctions and food shortages for us.
- Pesticides can be ingested by us and marine life. This can cause immune problems.
- The eating of trash has caused cancer and tumors in fish.
- Some of the most harmful pollution can be elemental. Especially heavy metals. This can cause the immobilization of cells.
- Cyanide can be produced from the trash mixing and can cause nerve damage and thyroid problems.
- Ammonia can be created from trash and this harms fish gills.
- Hydrogen sulfide may be produced causing nervous system poisoning.
- Animals can die from eating plastic from the ocean mistaking it for food.
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Plastic Beach
Mmm... Garbage?
Murky Waters
Solutions
The solutions may seem weak and too small to make a difference, but when done by everyone on a large scale, we can help clean up our oceans and preserve the planet.
PREVENTION
- Recycle- The most basic yet very effective way of keeping trash from the oceans and saving money
- Don't litter.
- Follow local garbage laws.
- Use reusable things instead of use and through items.
- Use more products that are biodegradable rather than items that aren't.
CLEAN UP
- Have more powerful countries and people take more responsibility.
- Do your share. When you see litter pick it up and through it away.
- Push for stronger laws against pollution.
- Create new jobs for cleaning up the ocean.
- Get a volunteer group and go clean up the coastlines.
- Invest in projects that can create products to do water cleansing on an industrial scale.
- Garbage catching devices on rivers.