Aquatic Landfills on the Rise
True or false? There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic waste estimated to be in our oceans. If you guessed true, then you would be correct! We humans create so much waste and dump it back into the environment when we are done, which can be seen by our oceans. The World of 8 Billion video project focuses on educating students, teachers, etc on new over- arching topics each year. For this video, waste consumption and production was the topic, and the main focus was ocean awareness. I was assigned this video project for Advanced Science Research.
Almost 60% of seabirds, 22% of marine mammals, all sea turtle species, and a growing list of fish species have been documented with plastic found in or around their bodies. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers. That means that is twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France! And all of that is garbage. As a top effector of our planet and environments, we need to work to create more ecofriendly ways to produce and consume waste. All that trash we get rid of so carelessly, affects animals, plants, and the environment, which in the future will greatly impact every organism's way of life.
Some simple solutions you can do are to start reusing items that you would typically throw out after one use. Another example would be to use reusable containers, such as this and this, instead of this plastic water bottle. Thre are many great organizations, like Surfrider Organization, Green Peace, Bahamas Plastic Movement, 4OCEANS, and many more! Since the human race had the ability to degrade the ocean to the current horrible conditions, we also have the ability to fix it. If everyone does their part, then the small changes will become a global improvement.