Revenge of the filth

“This is the biggest threat humanity has ever faced, it’s not something you can double-tap on Instagram”
                                                                                                                          -   Greta Thunberg

If you guys remembered the scene where the Prince Orm fight back bringing up Tsunami bringing up all the trash from the sea as the result of his madness of the Human?

The surface dweller, human doesn’t really connect with the ocean dweller. Well, that’s true. Just take the single-use plastic habit the humans still creating right now, most of us don’t have a direct understanding that every piece of single-use plastic we brought will end up somewhere, mostly to the sea. Oceans cover approximately 71% of the earth’s surface. Physical characteristics of ocean, such as currents, sea surface temperatures, and salinity affect much of life on the planet from tidal cycles to climatic events. About 8 million tonnes of plastic enters the sea every year and if it continues to do so we will have more plastic than fishes. Our plastic addiction and waste mismanagement are condemning countless marine birds and animals to death by entanglement or poisoning, and even leading to chemical contamination of the fish.

So how is plastic contaminating the ocean life?

Plastic accumulating in our oceans and on our beaches has become a global crisis. Billions of pounds of plastic can be found in swirling convergences that makeup about 40 percent of the world's ocean surfaces. At current rates plastic is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050. Every year, billions of pounds of more plastic end up in the world's oceans. Studies estimate there are now 15–51 trillion pieces of plastic in the world's oceans from the equator to the poles, from Arctic ice sheets to the seafloor. Not one square mile of Surface Ocean anywhere on earth is free of plastic pollution.

The problem is growing into a crisis. The fossil fuel industry plans to increase plastic production by 40 percent over the next decade. These oil giants are rapidly building petrochemical plants across the world to turn fracked gas into the plastic. This means more toxic air pollution and plastic in our oceans.

source: MEDASSET

CASE STUDY-THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean in the world.

The great garbage patch can be found in the north pacific region between Japan and the United States. According to the study, No one knows how much debris makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is too large for scientists to trawl. In addition, not all of the trash floats on the surface. Denser debris can sink centimeters or even several meters beneath the surface, making the vortex area nearly impossible to measure.

About 54 percent of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from land-based activities in North America and Asia. The remaining 20 percent of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from boaters, offshore oil rigs, and large cargo ships that dump or lose debris directly into the water. The majority of this debris—about 705,000 tons—is fishing nets.

Different types of trash enter the ocean each year but most of them are plastic waste, so why is plastic used more often? Plastic’s durability, low cost, and malleability mean that it’s being used in more and more consumer and industrial products. Second, plastic goods do not biodegrade but instead, break down into smaller pieces.

Marine debris can be very harmful to marine life. Turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies, their favorite food. Albatrosses mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which die of starvation or ruptured organs. Seals and other marine mammals are especially at risk. They can get entangled in abandoned plastic fishing nets, which are being discarded largely due to inclement weather and illegal fishing. Seals and other mammals often drown in these forgotten nets—a phenomenon known as “ghost fishing.” LOL Sounds cool, right?

The marine food web is also disturbed by this waste, algae which is one of the food producers inside the ocean is being contaminated by the waste dumped, indirectly affecting marine life, how? Animals that feed on algae and plankton, such as fish and turtles, will have less food. If populations of those animals decrease, there will be less food for apex predators such as tuna, sharks, and whales. Eventually, seafood becomes less available and more expensive for people.

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sources: NatGeo, YOUTUBE, google images