Ocean Pollution

Ocean Pollution

By Michael Zhang

The ocean covers more than 70 percent of the surface on Earth. So why isn't anyone taking notice to keep the place we live in clean? Water pollution is a serious issue that most people take lightly. Plastic is one of the main contributors to water pollution and the leading source is United States. Things that people do on a daily bases can affect the ocean that will eventually cause marine life to suffer. Not only does water pollution cause the turtles and other marine animals to die, but it also reflects back on the people over time. Water, being one of the most important resources to survive, should be a top priority to fixing the environment. 

United States may be one of the most successful place in the world, but it can come with many downsides. With the growth of many big corporations, it comes with increasing number of people and their trash. "China may be the world’s largest manufacturer of plastic, the report finds, but the United States is by far the world’s largest generator of plastic waste—it produced about 42 million metric tons of the stuff (46 million U.S. tons) in 2016. The U.S. also ranks as high as third among coastal nations for contributing litter, illegally dumped trash and other mismanaged waste to its shorelines." (Parker, 4). Dumping into the ocean is a normal occurrence by the United States because we don't have a proper solution to all the trash that we produce. Plastic being one of the main items being dumped will cause marine life to get caught or stuck by it. This will result in the deaths of many living in the ocean. 

The things that we are dumping into the ocean now will affect us greatly the environment for decades. Studies show that animals near the ocean were tested for positive for toxic chemicals inside their bodies. "The plastic not piled onto beaches or left undigested in seabird stomach can end up circulating for decades. Likewise, toxic contaminants will tend to move toward the ocean." (Elliott, 11). An action that we decide to do now can cause many decades to suffer. 

This issue affects me because ocean make up over 70 percent of the Earth. With the cycle of how we get our water, I would not be pleased that their are chemicals and pollution in the ocean. Our actions are able to dictate the environment for decades to come.  Marine life are and will continue to suffer until we put a stop to the littering and dumping into our oceans. I chose this issue to discuss because the oceans are a huge part of the Earth, but we are not taking a huge consideration to it. Marine life are suffering based on actions that humans do and I don't think that is fair. 

Works Cited

Elliott, J. E, and K. H Elliott. “Tracking Marine Pollution.” Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), vol. 340, no. 6132, 2013, pp. 556–558., doi:10.1126/science.1235197.  

Parker, Laura. “U.S. Generates More Plastic Trash than Any Other Nation, Report Finds.” National Geographic, 30 Oct. 2020, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2020/10/us-plastic-pollution/.