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
Great topic choice and summary! I would have liked to have seen a concluding paragraph with your thoughts. Be sure to continue replying throughout the entire week. You just stopped. One day late.
My family mainly uses reusable dishes, besides a plastic straw here and there from a box we've had from a long time ago. I think there is lots of pollution in the oceans because there's lots of people in this world! And people create waste, I would donate my money towards helping this cause.
My family and I do use plastic bowls, plates, and straws on occasion. Most of the time are plates or bowls are paper. We will probably continue to use them. I would consider donating money to a charity to help these animals. I think their is so much pollution due to the amount of waste we create.
We sometimes use paper plates and bowl's when we need too. I don't really think much about it but it really does harm animals. If I had the money too, I would donate some money to help these animals. I think there is a lot of pollution because humans don't always think before they do stuff.
We don't use plastic we use paper plates and bowls but we use plastic straws in our Yeti cups. If I did I would continue to use them I would just do a better job at recycling them. I don't know about donating money I would like to go and help clean up the ocean in person.
My dad does sometimes use paper plates, I don't really have a choice if I want to use them or not so I guess yes. I would be willing to donate money to them beacuse its not their fualts people use this stuff. I think there is so much pollution because people don't care for anything or anyone else (not everyone).
My family doesn't use any plastic straws, plates, or bowls. We only use paper plates when we need to. I would donate my own money to a charity to help these animals. I think there is so much pollution because humans produce too much single-use plastic.
My family uses class bowls and plates. I would be willing to donate some of my own money. I think that the reason there is so much pollution in the ocean is because our economy keeps on growing.
My family uses metal so we reuse all our silverware which means more money and trash. Yes because seafood is good so if all of the ocean life dies to plastic there will be less food for the people's demand. Also, fishermen probably have a ban on fishing in certain areas, so people will lose more things due to this. there's a lot of trash in the ocean because some people live close to the shore so most trash ends up in the ocean because of how close people are it'll be easier to dispose of their trash instead of paying the bill.
We do not use platic straws, plates, and/or bowls. We do use paper ones sometimes. I will still continue to use them until I move out of college because it would be easier and more convient. I would donate money to these animals if needed. I think there is a lot of dumb pollution in the ocean from obvious things that were thrown in there.
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