Killing Off The Species
Burgess, Sanya. “'We Should Be Ashamed of Ourselves': Plastic Waste Chokes the Seas.” The National, The National, 26 Mar. 2018, www.thenational.ae/uae/environment/we-should-be-ashamed-of-ourselves-plastic-waste-chokes-the-seas-1.716302.
The article provided looks at the crisis point that we are pushing the planet towards, in oh so many ways. It is estimated that five trillion pieces of plastic are currently contaminating our oceans. Studies have predicted that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. And not only is the plastic pollution rate increasing, but the number of marine animals and birds are declining due to this pollution. Animals are consuming indigestible and/or poisonous plastics, often mistaking them for food. Additionally, it is estimated that one third of all coral reefs are a littered entanglement of plastic, making disease twenty times more likely to break out. If an animal somehow avoids accidental plastic consumption and disease, it is also becoming very common that marine animals are strangled by these plastics. The consumption of micro plastics also contributes to a lack of fertility in oysters through the production of less eggs in females, and slower sperm in males.The previously glamorous, uninhabited beaches that were once pictured are now all building up with plastic, debris, and marine animals that were victims to such, that washes ashore, carried from us to fragile ecosystems through gyres.
Reflection
The detrimental impacts we as a species have made on this planet, simply driven by greed and laziness, are appalling. Ever since the creation of a product as cheap and “disposable” as plastic, we haven’t stopped! But what is disposable? Plastic is used in everything, and studies have shown that only fourteen percent of these plastics are actually being recycled. The rest is improperly disposed of, left to harm other ecosystems. Many of the animals consuming these micro plastics are the very animals that we eat, making us second-hand consumers to our disease-ridden, wasted plastics and debris. From global warming, to plastic-filled gyres, to excessive farming, we are hitting this planet from every angle, and more and more species are showing negative effects from our actions. These “plastic islands” in our gyres need to be a big wake-up call on the way we live and the products we use.