Plastic Pollution In The Ocean
Agam Kremer
Plastic pollution is a problem in our everyday life, it happens all around us all the time. For example, when you finish drinking your water (in a plastic bottle) if you don’t recycle it, it either goes to a place where it can never be used again or straight to the ocean. For example in the L.A area alone more than 10 metric tons of plastic fragments like grocery bags, straws, soda bottles etc. are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day. Plastic pollution causes many problems for humans and animals alike, for example, did you know that more than 1 million seabirds like seagulls, pelicans and kingfishers and 100,000 marine mammals like sea turtles, dolphins and whales are killed annually from plastic in our oceans.
Sea turtle eating plastic
an example for a negative effect on humans is how due to pervasiveness of plastic products, most of the human population is constantly exposed to the chemical components of plastics because of this 95% of adults in the U.S.A have had detectable levels of BPA in their urine, BPA was listed as a
substance of very high concern due to its properties as an endocrine disruptor by the European chemicals Agency(endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with hormone systems at certain doses). More than 5 trillion plastic pieces were afloat weighing 250,000 tons between 2007-2013 (this is the most recent information i could get because it was the last major truthful study with backing and funding i could find that served this essay well).
In my opinion one of the saddest things, is seeing how in some places that don't usually have access to plastic have piles of plastic because countries like the U.S overuse it. This happens in places like india were you can literally find small islands of trash mainly being plastic and other consumer goods.
One of the many trash islands in the indian ocean
One of the solutions to this problem has already been manufactured by a small brewery in the U.S.A called saltwater brewery which are making edible six pack rings for beer. They are able to make this with barley and wheat remnants that replaces plastic and is edible by animals and only costs about 1$ more than most beer.
Fish eating edible plastic rings
I feel like if other breweries did this and mainly just replaced most of the plastic products we use everyday with edible ones then most of this problem would be gone. The sad thing is that this is the only place that does this and so i think that they are a good example of how to clean up their act for other plastic conserving industries.another step to cleaning up this problem is create a company that can punish plastic polluters and other polluters in general when they make a mess and don't clean up, so that the oceans will slowly get better over time. And i 100% believe that if this “small” brewery could do this than at least the big beer companies and maybe some plastic consuming companies could do this too
Bibliography
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111913
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YG9gUJMGyw
Environmental Injustice - Oil Spills
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Oil spills are a major environmental injustice and problem in the modern world and cause serious damage to the oceans, the life around them and the whole environment. Oil spills happen when any kind of oil is released into the ocean by vehicle, container or when people treat oil tanks carelessly and accidentally cause them to drop and spill into the ocean. This affects many things in the environment; for example, the animals who live in the ocean or use it to bathe/drink/eat are severely damaged by the oil in the ocean as it may poison or hurt them if they swim/bathe in it. This is a case of environmental injustice because oil spills hurt certain places along with people and animals who live in these places, and the oil treatment that usually causes spills to happen is disrespectful to the environmental laws; the ocean and its surroundings suffer as a result.
For example, in 2010 The Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico when high-pressure gas exploded on a ship carrying oil and caused it to spill into the ocean. The oil flowed for 87 days and this case is considered to be the largest oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry as its consequences still affect the oceans and beaches in the area.
Recently, Australian scientists found a solution to the problem of oil spills; a floating material that acts like a sponge and will be used to soak up the oil from the oceans and leave the water clean, that way it’ll be a lot easier to stop oil spills from flowing into other parts of the ocean. The material can be used multiple times, making it a much cheaper and more practical solution from the existing ones.
In my opinion, it’s important to raise awareness to the severe damage oil spills cause to the environment, while supervising oil transportation and making sure it’s delivered safely.
Gili Yaakobi
