Pollution is the introduction of harmful materials into the environment and is usually created by human activity. Each year, more and more pollution is being created and more and more is going into the ocean, affecting the wildlife. Studies estimate that there are now 51 trillion pieces of plastic in the worlds’ oceans and not one square mile of surface ocean anywhere is free of plastic pollution.
Right now, animals are struggling to live in a clean environment due to the amount of pollution in the ocean. Due to the number of plastics in the ocean, the most common way for oceanic animals to die is suffocation, starvation, and drowning. A lot of animals are ingesting the pollution in our oceans which is why these deaths are so common. Plastic straws are being caught in turtles’ noses, fish are suffocating in plastic bags, seagulls are getting caught in plastic pop rings, and whales are eating our plastic pollution.
According to EPA, every single bit of plastic to be produced, still exsists today in our world because of how quick humans are to consumption. Pollution has such a big toll on wildlife that over 24,000 tons of plastic is being injested by fish in the North Pacific alone, which not only affects the animals in our ocean, but also us humans who rely on fish to eat in our foodchain. A lot of animals including seaturtles mistake plastic for food because of it's smell which causes them to either choke, or starve thinking they are eating food, but it's plastic. Hundreds of thousands of seabirds injest plastic every year. That means that of all of the seabirds in our world today, 60% of them have all eaten plastic and by 2050, 99% of all seabirds will have eaten plastic at some point in time.
Sources:
https://sentientmedia.org/ocean-pollution/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/ocean_plastics/
Questions:
Does your family use plastic straws, plates, bowls, ect? If you do use any of the following, will you continue to use them after reading this?
Would you be willing to donate your own money to a charity to help these animals?
Why do you think there is so much pollution in our oceans?
Replies
We do use plastic utensils and bowls during special occasions like birthday parties, but we do have a lot of reusable items. We use reusable bags at the grocery store and have reusable ziplock bags and containers. I think there is way too much pollution in the oceans.
I agree! We as humans should do something to stop the pollution as it's getting out of hand.
No, my family doesn't use any plastic plates or straws within our household. Perhaps, I might be willing to donate money if I can find a charity I like. I think there is so much pollution in our oceans because people do not care about the environment.
I'm glad you do not use plastic anything, that's awesome!
Yes we use plastic plates sometimes, when we know we won't have time to clean all the dishes. I will definitely consider not using these anymore though. Yes I would donate as much money to charity as possible. I think there is so much poplution because people don't listen and don't care about our planet.
I agree! I think that it's gone so far that people do not find it worth it anymore to stop it.
Most of the time my familly uses dishwashable safe plates that can be reused. However, every once in a while we use plastic plate, bowls, or cups. I think there is so much pollution in our oceans because America keeps growing and so does our trash/plastic use. We don't have places to store all the trash so it ends up in the ocean. Or people are just being lazy and throwing it on the ground where it could blow into the water. After reading this article, I will definitely try to limit the amount of plastic I use.
Agreed. People find it very hard to not use plastic because they do not want to do the dishes, which I understand but do not believe it is worth in the long run.
My family doesn't use plastic for all of our meals, mainly using regular plates and bowls, etc. We only really use plastic when we eat at fast food restaurants. I would love to donate my money to support the clean-up of our oceans and our planet. I think a lot of people use plastic without realizing how harmful it is.
I agree! So many people do not pay attention to how harmful it is to our environment.
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