David Arellano Arellano, 1
Expository Composition
Ms. Hayes
1 October 2015
Beach Cleanup In the country California alone is home to seven of ten of the United States’ highly polluted beaches. This is disappointing seeing as beaches are more than just a part of the vast ocean. They’re beneficial for the state’s tourism, part of our summer vacation memories and give us a glimpse into the healthy marine ecosystems. However, how can we keep these assumptions alive when tourism decreases, our loved ones are affected by harmful pathogens found on our shores and the marine life is affected due to our inability to maintain a clean beach? These images of our beaches are slowly dying out due to the growing problem of beach pollution. Beach pollution is mainly caused by plastic debris and other types of waste being poured carelessly onto our beaches. The various communities of California should dedicate time to address the growing problem of polluted beaches. By having the various communities of California participate in beach clean ups we can prevent what Ocean Conservancy’s website, a nonprofit organization, calls “an avalanche of plastic debris” that is expected to “enter the ocean in the coming decade”. The organization reported having collected 16,186,759 pounds of trash in their 2015 report and 144,606,491 pounds since its founding in 1972. This does not even include tiny pieces of trash. This is collected only from the International Coastal Cleanup, but it’s almost
Throughout many decades there has been a huge environmental problem, not only putting marine life at risk but also human health. Ocean pollution is a big threat to the habitat and still today we haven’t stopped throwing trash, chemicals or toxins into the oceans. During the 1940’s, a technical service of the Army dumped a lot of chemical warfare into the sea, believing the type of gas will dissolve in the water becoming harmless in minutes. At that time, fishermen were able to catch a lot of fish, it wasn’t until they were out of luck and all they could see were dead fish floating on the surface. Many people think that oil spills and trash are the only types of ocean pollution, but they’re also forgetting about chemical, bacterial and thermal pollution. Polluted seas can be the cause of many diseases or infections, especially if people don’t take big measures like telling their kids not to “accidentally” drink water from rivers or lakes when swimming. Marine animals are a big part of our food chain if they carry diseases or toxins we’re also in big danger. Today, there have been many people who have been trying to stop others from polluting the oceans, but they still haven’t been able to convince the whole world to end ocean pollution. The government, instead of wasting money on unnecessary things like building walls or building more towers and creating more trash they should build trash contractors that will help with the trash floating around in the seas. There are
In the National Geographic article “Eight Million Tons of Plastic Dumped in Ocean Every Year”, author Laura Parker expresses how violent the simple act of dumping trash into the ocean really turns out to be. This article goes into depth telling exactly what plastics pollution is causing, where it’s mostly coming from, and what you can do to decrease this problem and help save both our planet and ocean wildlife.
The oceans need to be protected because it is where life began and if not taken care of, life as we know it will end. The well-being of the ocean is constantly being threatened and needs to stop. When dangerous substances go into the ocean, ecosystems suffer and become endangered along with the lives of people and marine life. The importance of protecting and preserving the quality and biodiversity of the world 's coasts must be recognized because they are truly irreplaceable. If humans are not educated , and become careless about what is thrown on the ground or sprayed on lawns, disastrous effects follow when it comes to the condition of the ocean’s ecosystems, which can endanger life itself, leading to a problem only we can correct. There is historical evidence of ocean pollution, although the problem still shadows us today.
Ocean pollution is such a broad topic, and one that has many facets to it. As a group, we found it to be a very intriguing topic that it relevant to our everyday lives. As New Jersey residents, we have all spent time at the Jersey shore. We have all enjoyed the small and big beach towns, the sand, and of course
The beauty of California is slowly fading away and as environmentalists would say, “There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surrounding” (Carson, 366). According to the findings revealed by research foundations in California, marine life is and has been in great danger as a result of plastic remains that accumulates in the Ocean. In his article Daniel Woods states, “Approximately eighty percent of remains found in Oceans are made of plastic that originates from urban runoffs such as plastic trash carried away from landfills, trucks, as well as garbage containers, marinas, ports and construction trash” (Wood, 20). Furthermore, these results also revealed that marine remains where made up of disposable plastic products that constitute food packaging as well as containers that are ever present and contain precious resources that can be used unsustainably. These issues have affected the state critically and have lead me to research the reasons behind the banning of plastic pollution, their economic impact, harm resulting from plastic pollution, as well as federal concerns on plastic contamination.
Much of this trash ends up in the ocean harming not only marine life, but us too. However, this is not only happening in America it’s happening all over the world with China at 8.82 million metric tons of mismanaged waste. All this waste if caught in a gyre, can lead to one of the garbage patches. This has been happening since we started using plastic but it the garbage patches were discovered in the early 1990’s. We keep throwing trash away that keeps being misplaced, then it ends up in the oceans with the rest of the trash. I propose multiple solutions, to enforce plastic bag ban and to enforce recycling. California has banned the use of plastic bags, meaning that if you do use them a fine will be put in place. Environment California explained how before the plastic bag ban California used up to 19 billion plastic bags each year with less than five percent being recycled. However, we can change that. By using less plastic bags we harm the ocean less. Another solution is to each week collect each household’s trash, per pound of trash found in the recycling bin provided by the city should be a $11 fine. Tiffany Edmonds, Solid Waste Management Department spokeswoman, explained why they started the fine “ It is an attempt to change behavior. The fine covers the cost of sending a garbage collection truck to the house to pick up the contaminated recycling bin” this will encourage people to recycle. Since the plastic
Marine debris is more than ugly, it kills. There are two proposed plans to cleanup the North Pacific Garbage Island. An island that is made of garbage, primarily plastic. It is over 100 kilometers wide. That is an unbelievable amount of trash. That trash island is floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, between Hawaii and California. It has been spun together over time by currents, and the atmospheric pressure in the middle of the ocean is stronger than average. The island’s plastic has melted together, creating a bed of plastic for the rest of the trash to lie on. A a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a
Preserving coastlines is important for the economy and the environment. The fact that the business world and the preservation world are on the same page is a good indicator that maintaining beaches are important for both people and animals. The data that has been collected by both parties, thus far will hopefully bring a more cost effective and more long term solution for beach replenishment. So the beach bums and the sea life may continue to enjoy one of the most beloved landscape for generations to
Society tends to blame the fisherman for the trash that turns into marine debris. They are wrong. According to the California Coastal Commission, “Only 20% of the items found in the ocean can be linked to ocean-based sources, like commercial fishing vessels, cargo fish or pleasure cruise ships. The remainder (80%) is due to land based sources like litter (from pedestrians, motorists, beaches visitor), industrial discharges (in the form of plastic pellets and powders), and garbage management.”. Fisherman and other trained workers in the oceans are not the only
Are you considering or planning to sell your home in the Coos Bay, Oregon area? Are you overwhelmed with the long, complicated, and arduous process that is selling your home? Is this your first time selling your home and you don’t know what to do?
There are four named oceans in the world: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. Roughly 70% of the earth’s oxygen is produced by marine plants and only 27% by rainforests. Over 80% of ocean pollution comes from land based activity. This activity can include, but is not limited to, burning oil and not recycling plastics. With knowing those statistics, people should undoubtedly be more concerned with our ocean’s health and well being than what they currently are. Yes, there are a copious amount of websites that accept donations but there are other ways that do not involve breaking the bank to save and protect the oceans. By using reusable plastics, reducing our carbon footprint, and buying ocean-friendly products and food, the oceans dying process could not completely stop, but slow down drastically.
In the documentary “Inside the Garbage of the World”, the main social problem being explained is that there has been a great influx of plastic and other type of garbage in oceans and their beaches. This buildup of pollution has largely affected the wildlife population ranging from animals on the beaches to the creatures of the ocean. In oceans, what is called ‘garbage patches’, a large buildup of garbage that flow to one area in the oceans, are being created. Approximately 50 percent of all plastic sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor but about 2 times that much is actually already on the ocean floor. In fact, according to the documentary, there is a garbage patch that is to the left of California that is the size of half of the United States. Each year, about 4.7 million tons of plastic goes in the ocean a year and it is estimated that by 2050, there will be another 33 billion tons of plastic added to the present amount. Eighty percent of the current pollution comes from the land. According to marine researchers, twice as much plastic debris is one the ocean floor than it was 10 years ago. In the futures, plastic will break down into smaller pieces of plastic, creating a bigger problem from the habitat. This plastic pollution is one of the leading cause for beach and ocean inhabiting creatures be extinct because animals are mistaking these plastic pieces for food. When scientist began to dissect beach animals such as birds, they discovered that at least fifteen pounds of
Recycling and going green has been at the forefront of everyone's mind for the last 10 years. It has become a major concern to able to preserve the planet and reverse some of the damage that society has been inflicting over the last two hundred years. Everyone's concerned with emissions and electric cars but the world is in fact over two-thirds water. So naturally what society should be concerned about should be the oceans in the pollution and negative human impact that people have placed on them. Part of the problem as an initial estimate of the amount of plastic is not accurate. Not to mention incredible environmental and ecological effects the plastic has on marine life. Ocean plastic has reached a critical level where human intervention needs to take place.
The plastics industry, through the leadership of the American Chemical Council (ACC), spends millions of dollars each year to convince policy makers and Californians that solutions to plastic pollution lie in anti-litter campaigns that attribute the responsibility for marine debris on individual behavior. Yet they have devoted little funding to public education and much more on promoting
of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the exact size remains unknown. In addition, Doucette warns us that this patch contains more than ten million tons of waste. She describes the area to be a “fetid swamp of debris where tiny bits of decaying plastic outweigh zooplankton- one of the most prolific and abundant organisms on the planet- by a ration of six-to-one”(Doucette). It is now apparent that the amount of plastic particles residing in our oceans is damaging the natural habit and this trash is not going anywhere. Due to the currents in the ocean, plastic particles are