Deep Blue Pollution
Essay by Cami Gartman • July 10, 2017 • Essay • 667 Words (3 Pages) • 1,054 Views
Deep Blue Pollution
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it,” said Robert Swan. People should not lounge about waiting for someone to undertake this immense responsibility. There’s no denying it; the people inhabiting Earth continue to eradicate it. The little things are what continue to slowly damage our planet. Whether it’s throwing trash out of the window, flicking a cigarette bud, or even spitting gum on the floor, people litter every day without giving a single thought to what might be affected. For what feels like eternity, humans have rigorously affected the marine life in Earth’s oceans by spreading their various and vast amounts of pollution.
Ocean pollution is the spreading of detrimental substances such as plastic, oil, chemical particles, and industrial and agricultural waste. Being even more specific, littering. When objects are blown by the wind over long distances and end up in the ocean, this is considered pollution from the atmosphere and is a huge source of ocean pollution. Most of the debris that is dumped, especially plastic debris, cannot decompose and remains in the oceans current for countless years. Each year, approximately 1.4 billion pounds of trash get disposed into our oceans. This much pollution interferes with navigation safety, human health, and can injure or kill marine life.
Plastic debris poses a threat to marine life because it can easily be mistaken for food, or animals can become snagged on the plastic, giving them a drawn-out and agonizing death. Animals who are most often the victims include crabs, fish, sea birds, crocodiles, sharks, dolphins, and turtles. Marine pollution has impacted at least 267 species and continues to do so by ingestion, starvation, entanglement, infection, suffocation, or drowning. Pollution is creating a major problem in our animals’ ability to reproduce and assurance that the species will survive. Despite the countless television ads showing marine animals trapped in plastic pollution, these items are still used in massive amounts every day. Chemicals from some pesticides discarded into the ocean, can accrue in the fatty tissue of animals, leading to failure in their reproductive system.
Plastic debris generates a significant amount of damage to the worlds ecosystem and food chain. Many of the discarded chemicals that were found in the ocean, originated from various industries that were washed into rivers
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