Plastic has been a very big part of people daily lives, but have they ever taken the
time to see what it is doing to our environment? Plastic pollution in oceans has become a global crisis. The problem is that the amount of plastic being dumped into the ocean has been on the constant increase each year. With all this plastic in the ocean it has become a threat to animals in the oceans. Not only is there micro plastic pollution, but there has been seen to be an increase in macro plastic pollution like whole plastic bags. Macro plastic pollution was always on the incline, but has been drastically increasing since 1990. It has become such a large problem that there are more and more sharks and other animals washing up onto the shore with plastic filled bellies. Not only is plastic pollution a problem for the animals but it is a problem for us as well. Micro plastic is being found in a lot of our food and drinks that we are consuming. Just like plastic isn't good for the environment plastic is also not good for us.People use plastic in their day to day lives which means that the production of plastic is increasing. Over the past four decades the production of plastic has quadrupled.
Plastic pollution relates to our class in a number of ways. The first way being that
the ecological footprint. All this plastic being produced and used once has a very negative impact on the earths ecological footprint. Due to all this plastic being produced and polluted we are starting to reach the tipping point. If the amount of plastic in the oceans continues to increase we could reach a point where there is more plastic in the oceans than water. The goal is to not reach that tipping point so that we can come back from this. Lastly this relates in the sense of overconsumption of materials.
In my opinion, plastic is always going to be used. There are some benefits to the
use of plastic but I feel like we don't need to be using as much plastic as we our in our daily lives. We have become very wasteful with plastic. Yes, we are starting to see a change with paper straws and reusable bags in stores now. This change though takes everybody. Everybody needs to start making the simple changes in their own lives, for example instead of using a plastic water bottle buy a reusable water bottle. Also finding uses for the plastic that you once thought was trash. If everybody starts to make the little changes then it will be easier to move forward in making larger changes in steps toward decreasing the production and pollution of plastics
Sources:
Info
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/health/ocean-plastic-study-scn/index.html
Image
https://www.insidesources.com/point-want-less-ocean-plastic-pollution-make-less-plastic/
Plastic pollution is a topic that needs to be understood and acted upon by everyone and your insights on it were very interesting. One of the thoughts that came to my mind when you mentioned plastic affecting marine life is that, there are fishes, shrimps and other animals in the water which we consider sea food. These animals may consume the plastic in the water which eventually we would consume when we eat the sea food. There may be people in the world who do not care enough about the marine life so don't bother helping it. This could be used to convince them because it would harm them too.
ReplyDeleteI like how you highlight that plastic pollution not only affects animals, but also affects humans by ending up into our food. As sad as it is to say, many people will not start to care until they realize that plastic pollution might affect them personally, so it is important to point out the adverse effect that plastic pollution can have on humans too. I also like the simple solution of people buying reusable water bottles. I have had many reusable bottles since I got to college. Not only are they environmentally friendly, but they also save you money and allow you to stay hydrated!
ReplyDeleteWhile I appreciate that you point out that plastic waste is bad, you state that it is up to individuals to make changes to their lives. However, I disagree based on the beyond plastic seminar we went to, we need to stop companies from even making and selling plastic products in order to actually stop people from consuming.
ReplyDeleteplastic pollution has been a problem for a while and it will continue to be a problem for a long time. Your post talks about some of the worst parts and you gave your opinion on the topic.I like how you also talked about the impacts to animals and humans.
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