The devastation of littering
As everyone should be aware of right now littering is causing some very significant problems all over the world causing water, air and visual pollution. Today i am going to talk about water pollution.The result of this is devastating issue even pronounced the very famous and beautiful Great barrier reef "dead" in 2016 due to the harm caused by humans littering and lack of care towards it.
Over the passed few years the amount of littering has thoroughly damaged the ocean. Most of the commonly found litter is everyday items that humans thoughtlessly throw onto the floor or on the beaches which eventually travel into the water. The two most harmful items are cigarette buds and plastic bottles, bags and containers. These are the most common pollutants of the ocean due the cigarette buds releasing harmful toxins called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons into the ocean which can remain for around 10 years. As for plastic, due to it being non- bio degradable when thrown into water its seen as practically choking the rivers, lakes and the ocean. It is detrimental toward sea life causing them to choke if it gets stuck inside their throat and if in their stomach can make them really ill or even result in unfortunate death. To add, land based sources of pollution such as untreated sewage commonly plastic account for approximately 80% of the rubbish and plastic in our oceans. Unfortunately from research i have found, there is a whole island of marine litter in the Pacific ocean called the North pacific Gyre or more simply know as the the great Pacific garbage patch, it is identified at the largest oceanic rubbish site in the entire world to size that up its around twice the size of texas. Lastly, one hundred thousand see animals are killed by plastic in the ocean and three hundred thousand dolphins and porpoises die as a result of becoming entangled in discarded fishing nets and other items along with at least one thousand sea turtles from consuming plastic waste. On top of all that, over one million seabirds are killed in the ocean by pollution. These devastating facts should mean that humans will start protecting their oceans and their land but no significant outcome has yet happened in fact it seems to be worsening. We only have one planet so why would you want to destroy it when recycling and putting rubbish in the bin is so simple?Though there have been some amazing contributors helping clean our oceans such as the Surfrider foundation, the 5 gyres institute, the lonely whale foundation and the ocean conservancy along with many more great people and organisations trying to help. It is not difficult to recycle, it is not difficult to throw rubbish into a bin, it is not difficult to not throw trash onto a beach and it is not difficult to help are oceans breathe and our sea animals live! Be conscious, be considerate and make the change today before its to late. It may not affect you now, but in the future it will. Below i will attach some organizations to look at and learn from. Thank you.https://www.take3.org
