Pollution And Its Effects On The Environment

D. Chemicals and foreign liquids are not the only factors causing harm in the ocean. Many tangible objects, especially plastic, glass, and other trash, contaminate the deep blue sea.

As humans, we must reduce the amount of trash we let loose in our waters and begin removing what we have already filled them with. For instance, Jocelyn Kaiser explains how a man by the name of Charles Moore found a patch of garbage the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean in 1997 and to this day that patch has remained there. Also known as the “trash vortex” this patch consists of bottles, Styrofoam, tires, fishing line, wrappers, and raw resin (1506). The National Geographic adds that the vortex is split into two areas. The Western Garbage Patch is located near Japan and the Eastern Garbage Patch is located in-between California and Hawaii. Currents in the ocean act as a highway due to the mixture of warm and cold water, which moves the trash from one patch to another making the water look cloudy (Great). 80% of this trash comes from Asia and North Americas land and eventually makes its way into the rivers and oceans; the other 20% is from careless boaters (Great). Water pollution affecting marine life Kaiser describes a report by Marine pollution bulletin in 2001 saying the plastic waste that floats in the ocean is spreading toxins and toxin-laden microplastics and effecting animals. Marine life such as sea cucumbers, krill, and mussels are only a few marine

An additional large cause of ocean pollution that is not as widely known as other sources; because, many consider it under the category of “ocean dumping” but in reality it is it’s own category of garbage dumping. The title given to this cause may be misleading as it is “...human waste and sewage water that has been partially treated or untreated...” entering the ocean. It is polluting the water directly like chemicals that are dumped. There is another name for this, sludge dumping, this is the less scientific term. Not all causes are related to directly dumping toxins and waste into the

Our rivers, lakes, and oceans aren’t unlimited sources that can handle whatever we take out or dump in. Litter in the world’s oceans comes from many sources, including containers that fall off ships during storms, trash that washes off city streets into rivers that lead into the sea, and waste from landfills that blows into streams or directly into the ocean. Once in the ocean, this debris may degrade slowly and persist for years, traveling the currents, accumulating in large patches and washing up on beaches.

Did you know instead of taking trash to a landfill some people dump their trash into the ocean. Over 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped in the world’s oceans each year. One million birds and 1,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year because ocean dumping is affecting the world’s oceans. Around eight million metric tons of our plastic enters the ocean from land each year.

Callum Roberts states in his book “The Ocean of Life”, “Over a third of dead animals examined have plastic in their guts.” (143) People are treating the oceans like a trash bin, around 80 percent of marine litter is from plastic. Animals close to the ocean are mistaken this plastic as food, so they eat it, choke on it, and die. Pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, detergents, oil, sewage, plastics, and other solids are common pollutants that reach the ocean. Nutrients from fertilizers can spread algae that take over the water and oxygen, leaving areas where no marine life can

Every potato chip bag thrown on the floor, every balloon released into the air, and every gum wrapper discarded on the sidewalk has an affect on our planet. In the short term we view these acts as miniscule and irrelevant, but what most of us fail to understand is that every act of pollution has a snowball effect that only harms us and our environment. Unfortunately, most of the plastic waste we throw on the floor ends up on our beaches, in our waterways, and in our oceans. Especially in Florida, where everyone is at most 45 mins from the beach, it is not difficult for trash to find its way to our oceans. Marine debris, ocean trash or ocean pollution, regardless of its many names the rhetoric still stands; every piece of litter has a ripple effect that ultimately makes it to our oceans.

In a world of continuous progress and evolution, climate change and pollution is a leading problem in the world. Both directly and indirectly, pollution happens on a global scale every single hour. The world’s oceans are among the most affected by constant dumping of chemicals. The Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 released 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the largest spill in US-controlled waters.1

The majority of the trash that ends up in the ocean usually comes from activities on land. The sources that pollute water is sewage sludge, industrial waste, etc. The highest peak of sewage of dumping was 18 million tons in 1980. Sewage dumping was later reduced to 12 million tons in the 1990s. Industrial waste also gets dumped into the ocean as well and the numbers aren't any better.

Debris in our world’s oceans is a continuum threat, especially plastic debris. Plastic debris causes choking of creatures by tangling or getting wrapped up and caught in it. Plastic also bleeds out toxins out into the great sea, and specifically into some ecosystems. Toxins let out increases the chance for the some to be sucked in by organisms themselves. Numerous people throughout the world have no clue how littering can hurt us as human beings and other organisms. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains marine debris as "any persistent solid material that is manufactured or processed and directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, disposed of or abandoned into the marine

Marine Environmental Ethics.-- Human actions show that our marine environmental ethics are less advanced than the ones we have on land (Stokstad, 2003). There are three main sources of evidence that prove this. The first is ocean dumping, or waste disposal into the ocean. Before 1972, it was believed the ocean had an “unlimited capacity to mix and disperse wastes” (Gunther, 2017). The ocean became a dumping ground for chemical and industrial wastes for decades, leading to severe consequences. Little attention was given to the negative impacts ocean dumping had on marine environments. While this also occurs on land, it is done on a much smaller scale. Another source of evidence for our lacking marine environmental ethics comes from the shortage

But the main problem of why ocean pollution still occurs is due to the carelessness of humans to dispose waste. Some contributing factors are oil industry, manufacturing, agriculture, littering, and dumping. A lot of the toxic waste that end up in the ocean are actually directly polluting ocean,. For example, all drains and most sewages directly pour out to oceans, releasing many hazardous waste that has a deadly effect to the marine ecosystem.

The increase of trash, sewage, and toxic chemicals in our oceans are becoming very life-threatening to marine life. “The ocean covers over 72 percent of the planet’s surface and provides over 97 percent of the world’s water supply and over 70 percent of the oxygen we breathe” (Lonne, 2016).Our oceans and marine life are super important. We use both for a significant amount of things. “70% of the oxygen we breathe is produced by marine plants. 97% of the Earth’s water supply is contained in the ocean” (Lonne, 2016). Trash can only go to three places our earth, our oceans, and our air (Watson,2006).

Trash within the Oceans: Many various animals eat foods that come from the ocean and, all because we dump polluted objects into the ocean, may die afterwards.

When people don't throw away trash in the garbage and throw it in the lake or the river the trash ends out in the ocean. "About 80% of marine debris originates from sources on land and the other 20%, about 636,000 tons per year, comes from ocean vessels (US Department of Commerce 1999; Ramirez-Llodra et al. 2011). Cruise ships represent only 1% of marine vessels, but produce about 25% of ship-sourced waste; on average, a single cruise passenger produces 3.5 kg of waste per day (Butt 2007)." The trash that gets thrown in the lake or river it ends out in the ocean and in different places and harm the land and the ocean. When throwing away garbage you need to make sure you don't throw it in the lake or water for it to not end out to be in the ocean. "Marine debris, including plastics, paper, wood, metal and other manufactured materials is found on beaches worldwide and at all depths of the ocean. About 60%-80% of all marine