SAVE THE OCEAN...!! SAVE THE WORLD..!!

SAVE THE OCEAN! SAVE THE WORLD!  BECAUSE IT IS THE ONLY HOME WE HAVE If like me,   you are also highly influenced by today's po...

SAVE THE OCEAN! SAVE THE WORLD!  BECAUSE IT IS THE ONLY HOME WE HAVE

If like me,  you are also highly influenced by today's pop culture, then you will definitely remember the major confrontation between the king Orm of Atlantis and Aurther or “Aquaman” and princess Mera and Vulko; when the latter three trying to make a discussion about not to attack the surface with Atlantis’s full force. 

There was this only one single line said by King Orm,“ because for a century, they have polluted our waters and poisoned our children and now their sky is burning and our ocean boils, and you come all this way to take side against your people ”  which is actually pretty enough to justify his decision about the war against the surface which he was planning to do. Though the whole scenario was taken from a mere comic book, in reality, the situation is not any different.

Over the few decades, we, the human have singlehandedly dumped tons and tons of garbage on the ocean. In some of the most polluted places of the ocean, the amount of garbage (read plastic) deposited in the ocean bed is even six times higher than the amount of planktons present there.

One of the most devastating elements which destroy the ocean, Oceanic Flower, Ocean Plants,  is coming from the plastic we use and throw away after use. As a single piece of plastic takes some thousands of years to decompose, they remain on the water surface like forever. The major proof for that is the “three famous plastic islands” which are floating in the water surface for the last few years. Though there are a total of 5 plastic islands have been discovered but three of them; i.e. the Eastern Rubbish Patch in the Indian Ocean; Western Rubbish patch in the Atlantic Ocean and the great pacific garbage vortex in the central Pacific ocean are the most devastating ones. If compared the size, the great pacific garbage vortex is even larger than the state of Texas in the USA. These huge plastic islands basically can be converged with the ocean in any place, where garbages transported through water currents to a place where all the ocean currents met. It has been calculated by some group of scientists that there are around 5,80,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer in the Atlantic Ocean only.

Now, the big question is from where all these plastics are coming from? 20% of total trash is basically coming from ships and other different platforms offshore. And the rest 80% is either taken by the tide from shore, or by international garbage dumping stations and a very few taken by the wind. Plastics are not only taking an eternity to degrade, but they also release all the chemicals in the water as well. Fishes or other marine animals get easily contaminated by those chemicals. Also, most of the times, tiny pieces of plastics are being consumed by fish and other sea mammals as foods, which in turn contaminates them as well. In another study, it was seen that around 100,000 of sea turtles are killed by either entanglement or contamination of plastic only in a year. The numbers are literally shocking!

Marine debris – trash in our oceans – is a symptom of our throw-away society and our approach to how we use our natural resources."

-       Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UN ENVIRONMENT POLICY

As we tend to use different types of plastic for different packaging, all of them polluted the water on a different level. As styrofoam breaks into smaller parts and floats in the water, polystyrene sinks lower into the ocean. Some other types of plastics even soak different toxins from other material before entering the water ecosystem. As this pollutant unknowingly ingested in fish or other marine lives, these, in turn, enters the human system also, as humans are consuming these contaminated foods for years.

Toxicity from the plastic can take various faces. Firstly, there is direct toxicity from lead, cadmium and mercury and Diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), which is straight away a toxic carcinogen. And then there are chances of developing toxicity from BPA or Bisphenol-A, which is being used in many things, including plastic bottles and containers. BPA can enter the human system by any means; either by drinking contaminated water or by eating infected fish or using BPA included containers and so many ways. The problem with BPA is that it directly affects the human hormonal system to worsen the entire scenario.

Apart from all the negative effects of plastic known by us; the worst part of the whole scenario is not taking any accountability for whatever we are doing since ages. The only way to neutralize the whole plastic situation is to put a ban on it. As around 8% of total petroleum is used in the manufacturing of plastic only, lurch in the global petroleum supply can also be a massive decision to put an end on plastic. Though this step is a bit controversial for environment purpose, the decisions have to be taken. There should be strong government policies to curdle down the plastic usage by individuals or a community, as an individual produces half ton plastic trash per day.

Both of these are something stands on the big picture, but what affects more in the individual initiatives taken by all of us. Stop using plastic for each and every aspect of our life can contribute a lot to the upliftment of the entire scenario.   about plastic recycling; increased use of paper or other sustainable options in our daily life can bring the change. At the end of the day, it has to be understood that our tendency to behave irresponsibly about clean up all the mess we create, is about to get us in the biggest problem of all time. A small lifestyle change and the expression of gratitude to nature in what all the environment need. Because we are not only destroying their home, we are destroying our own.