There is an extraordinary amount of pollutants being put into our oceans across the planet. According to The Ocean Cleanup, there are currently 5 trillion pieces of plastic waste in the world’s oceans. Also every year, 8 million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans. We have to take a stand immediately to reduce the amount of pollution we put into the ocean.
Rapidly we are destroying our universe by damaging it with pollutants. Covering more than 70% of our world, the ocean is the most important resource we have today and forever (Denchak 1). The ocean is the biggest percentage of our planet and by far the most important part of the planet also. Taking excellent care of our ocean is needed because if we pollute the ocean then 70% of our planet will be wasted and ruined leaving only 30% for 7.8 billion people to share. Many people tend to ask the question of “what is ocean pollution”.
Ocean Pollution is when harmful substances are collected and thrown into the ocean. This includes particles, chemicals, plastics, garbage, etc. We are encountering a new problem that is involving plastic and it is very serious (Jacobo 1). Plastic is entering our oceans at a rapid pace and harming our ocean and marine life. There are currently 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean and that number is expanding as we speak. ‘There’s so much plastic in the environment at this point, it’s in the water we drink, much of the food we eat and even the air we breathe,’ Hocevar said (Jacobo 1).
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Hocevar is a marine biologist and he is telling us that plastic is already affecting our food and water. Having plastic in our food and water is not healthy at all and will cause many health concerns for us human beings. We have to take a quick approach to reduce the littering of plastic into our oceans. Plastic is not the only type of ocean pollution, but it is one of the major ones we need to be careful about.
The 9 main types of pollution are ruining our oceans. The 9 are garbage, sunscreen, and other tropicals, oil seepage, sewage, agriculture and aquaculture runoff, industrial waste, eutrophication, carbon dioxide, and noise. Garbage is terrible to put into the ocean because marine life thinks that the garbage is food and then they eat the trash and they choke and die from the garbage.
Sunscreen and other tropicals affect the algae in the ocean and that can’t then provide the needs that the fish and sea urchins need. Oil seepage pollutes the water and damages the soil underwater creating dead zones. Sewage is the runoff of dirty water and all the grimy substances that get washed off our streets and then flowed directly into the ocean. Agriculture and aquaculture runoff is the fertilizers and pesticides that come from farmlands and are washed out and put into the ocean causing many fish and marine plant life to die.
Industrial waste is putting all of the necessary materials from factories and letting over garbage and just dumping it into the ocean. This water changes the way the water is and kills sea life. Eutrophication is the cause of dead zones and the lack of oxygen in the ocean for marine life to properly function. Carbon Dioxide is caused by burning fossils. By producing more carbon dioxide in the ocean, the ocean pH level is changing killing corals and shellfish.
Lastly, noise pollution is wrecking marine life communication. We are demolishing relationships between sea creatures by drilling, ships, jet skis, etc. There are so many details and facts about how ocean pollution is rapidly ruining our environment. We have to make a change now!
We produce so much pollution through small sources and all of those add up to make a huge impact. More than 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced globally in the last 70 years (Jacobo 1). One metric ton is a circle that is 33ft in diameter and we have put 8.3 billion of those in the ocean in the past 70 years. Plastic is just one of the big pollutants, us humans put out thousands of other pollutants into the ocean. This is affecting everything under the sea and even above it.
The whole marine ecosystem is now affected because we are polluting the ocean. Land runoff is frequently considered one of the most impactful pollutants. Often, this water (runoff water) picks up man-made, harmful contaminants that pollute the ocean, including fertilizers, petroleum, pesticides and other forms of soil contaminants (Rinkesh 2).
These contaminated substances have harmed many animals and humans. They are making it very hard to live a life that is healthy and secure. Hundreds of marine animals are punished by pollutants in the ocean (Jacobo 1). We are slowly losing the sea life we love to see and eat. The trash in the ocean kills and injures marine life. They can’t navigate right and its threat to human health (Ocean Pollution NOAA).
Trash gets caught up in the fish fins, this then doesn’t allow the fish to swim normally and kill or injure them. As much as it hurts the marine life it is also hurting us. Clean fresh water is an essential ingredient for a healthy human life, but 1.1 billion people lack access to water and 2.4 billion don’t have adequate sanitation (World Wildlife Foundation). Many third-world countries do not get the freshwater many of us to get and we are the ones polluting the oceans.
Some humans rely and go day by day on living by the ocean. Slowly we are taking away that opportunity from them. When we pollute the ocean we then cause acid rain. This rain kills the trees and we don’t have adequate air to breathe (World Wildlife Foundation). Oxygen is a necessity for our everyday lives. It is a priority to have fresh air to breathe so we can live a healthy and happy life. Not only does it affect us and our environment, polluting the ocean makes a big impact on everything living.
Polluting the ocean is making it hard for us to be able to grow plants and keep up nourished soil. The NAOO says that the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus are essential elements for plant growth. Nitrogen and phosphorus are slowly decaying because of the acidic rain we are producing from polluting the oceans. This is impacting our farming and this making produce become extinct.
The ocean governs the weather, clean the air, help feed the world and provide a living for millions (Denchak 1). The ocean is constantly changing the temperature and evaporating water and before we know it the ocean will not be able to produce what the ocean needs to produce. Cleaning the air is very important for us humans. The ocean collects CO2 for us constantly. Approximately 26% of daily CO2 is received into the ocean. Most importantly the ocean allows us to put food on our tables.
Throughout this problem, there are people out there that say the ocean is big enough to take the trash we are putting into the ocean. They think that the ocean is too deep and such a huge portion of our planet that polluting it will not make a difference anytime soon. People say that we are too much into this problem that there is no going back now and that it will be too expensive to fix it. We dump into the ocean because there are no landfill fees and the trash isn’t there anymore.
People also take the chance to dump chemicals into the ocean that can’t is thrown away anywhere else because they can’t recycle those chemicals anywhere else. Lastly, some humans say that killing marine life is good for us because this reduces overpopulation and shark attacks. This is very idiotic because marine life is already going extinct and we need every animal to help us live and be nourished.
We are swiftly running out of time to save our entire universe and our future kids and family. The ocean is absorbing all of these bad chemicals we are putting out and that is changing the pH and contaminates the ocean (Denchak 1). This is important because the ocean breaks down the harsh chemicals we can’t breathe in. If the pH changes the ocean will no longer be able to do that making it hard for our lungs to cooperate correctly. In the coming decades, we may see the last time we have an ocean that is functioning properly. Us as a human society can do better and we will do better.
As we can see we are briskly putting pollutants into the ocean. Our time is running low on being able to save our universe and we have to act now. Let’s work together and save our future kids and families. Let’s also save the millions of animals we have in our ocean.
