Although, we heavily depend on oceans and it covers more land than anything else, we don’t treat it with the respect it deserves. Oceans “[produce] over half the world’s oxygen and absorbs 50 times more carbon dioxide than our atmosphere” and it is disappointing that ocean pollution is a problem. A lot of the waste that we create ends up in landfills the size of countries killing marine life and ultimately killing ourselves. From dangerous carbon emissions to oil leakage and a literal “chokeful” of plastic, the oceans are in a alarming downfall and we need to stop it.
Carbon Emissions
To fuel our cars and such, we need to burn fossil fuels, which, in turn, causes too much carbon emissions. This heavily affects the amount of pH of the ocean, or the amount of acidification. According to NOAA, there could be nearly 150% more acidity than as of this date. The excess of carbon emissions will rip apart the ecosystem. The water will not become too toxic for us to drink and marine life to live in. Animals with their bones on the exterior, such as coral, mussels, clams, and lobsters will have their shells start melting on them due to carbonate deterioration. That actively demonstrates the overabundance of acidity will threaten the lives of the prey of the ocean. This could create an unbalance and an advantage for the predators. Tipping the scale in the battle of prey and predator harms both equally along with us. A lot of communities’ industrial backbones rely on seafood. With the shellfish industry reducing rapidly, it could put the people threaten the jobs of many as it “[supports] 1.2 million jobs in 2016, generating $144 billion in sales impacts and adding $61 billion to the GDP.”
In order to fix this, there is a simple solution and is commonly known. Simply, just drive efficiently, don’t drive when walking is possible among other things.
Offshore Drilling
The oil and gas industry plays a global role in our necessity for fuel, but is seriously harming the ocean. Along with the deadly fumes released, oil spills are a huge problem. In 2020 alone, “the total volume of oil lost to the environment from tanker spills in 2020 was approximately 1,000 tonnes.” Taking into the account that Covid-19 dominated most of 2020, yet we managed to still spill 1,000 tonnes should be more alarming than people make of it. Oil spills are remain as a crucial factor in one’s habitat for decades and do things that cannot be reversed ever. Oil spills “harm sea creatures, ruin a day at the beach, and make seafood unsafe to eat. It takes sound science to clean up the oil, measure the impacts of pollution, and help the ocean recover.” Unfortunately, most of the times, the oil is never cleaned up and it does its damage for maximum time.
We have to tools to make sure this is never a problem with technology like oil booms and skimmers, but we need to actually do it. The main barrier is neglect, which should be easy to break through.
Trash
Perhaps the worst of all, is the immense amount of trash. Plastic, otherwise known as the ocean killer, is a prime reason why the oceans are dying. Since a majority of plastics are single-use, they build up heavily. Plastic lasts “approximately 450 years to decompose in a landfill,” which means they will continue to build much faster than we can recycle or it biodegrades. According to Plastic Oceans, we produce over 380 million tonnes of plastic every year and half of that is single-use. Strangling marine life, crowding beaches, and disguising themselves as food, plastic has been controlling sea life since its creation.
We cannot let plastic ruin us and marine life. The only way to save us is cleaning up beaches and oceans along with doing our individual part to make sure it doesn’t create a vicious cycle. From not using those plastic bottles of water to picking up litter, everything is helpful. It takes the whole planet to safe the world.
links
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/june14/30days.html#:~:text=Our%20World%20Ocean%20Provides…,carbon%20dioxide%20than%20our%20atmosphere.
https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/ocean-coasts/ocean-acidification
https://www.conservation.org/stories/ocean-pollution-11-facts-you-need-to-know
https://www.cbf.org/issues/offshore-drilling/index.html
https://www.itopf.org/knowledge-resources/data-statistics/statistics/
https://www.marineinsight.com/environment/10-methods-for-oil-spill-cleanup-at-sea/
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