What is Pollution?

Pollution is a concept that seems easy to grapple with at first glance, an environmental issue that involves plastic or other waste in places it shouldn’t be. But the system of pollution and how it actually works has so many different components that people never even think of. It involves more than just the individual person throwing recyclable material such as plastics and metals into areas where they don’t belong. The idea of pollution has branches out to many different prongs and levels to create the elements of the word as a whole. Ocean Pollution is a specific, more in depth aspect of pollution that got overlooked in previous generations and still doesn’t receive the correct amount of attention in society today. It’s more than just people throwing their trash into the ocean. The questions that have to be evaluated are “how does that trash end up there in the first place?” or does every piece of human trash or waste count as pollution?” These questions and others all work as the components to answer the question of what defines ocean pollution.

In retrospect, it’s clear that ocean pollution is a severe problem because of how directly it impacts sea life which in turn affects everything from personal loss of popular desired dishes to the world’s economy. One important aspect of ocean pollution and how it contributes to the reduction of sea life is the process of how macroplastics are broken down into microplastics. In response to many ocean pollution concerns, many people have brought how large plastic are easy for sea creatures to identify and avoid but that argument is flawed and is not accounting for issues such as the adaption to environment and  microplastics. According to “the national geographic”, animals such as sea turtles, sharks, and swordfish eat small sea animals such as jellyfish and crustacean. In its environment, it is true that these animals are able to detect their prey easily, but with the interference of human waste, it becomes increasingly difficult. If there is a floating trash bag in the ocean, to a hungry sea turtle, this could come across as jellyfish.

Also, microplastics are the real leading cause to the intake of plastic from sea life. It is true that it is easier for an animal to detect a large piece of plastic such as a two-liter empty soda bottle, but what about after a few months when that soda bottle deteriorates and becomes unnoticeable to fish and other sea animals. “OceanService.noaa.gov” states; “Plastic debris can come in all shapes and sizes, but those that are less than five millimeters in length (or about the size of a sesame seed) are called “microplastics.” These are the most harmful to sea life because they are the hardest to see and fish don’t even realize they’re consuming them. So the people who think their large plastic trash is not a distraction to sea life are sadly mistaken because all plastic and other decomposing materials are all harmful to sea animals.

The factors that cause  ocean pollution vary, but each one contributes to the issue significantly in different ways. The most common one is when people just randomly throw plastic other recyclable material on beaches, riverbanks, or anywhere near large bodies of water. But then it spreads to large corporations dumping toxic chemicals into oceans. This is something that’s done regularly without any oversight or checks. Ocean pollution should be reported about on a higher level because so many people contribute to it without even realizing it. For instance, not recycling plastics, papers, and metals contributes to ocean pollution because regular things in the trash either gets dumped in junkyards on land or floating islands of trash in the ocean. By using material that gets broken down into microplastics is making an impact because we all know where it’s going to end up, but this may not be a problem solved at the general public level since it’s a flawed system embedded in our way of living. “Conserve Energy Future” lists all the causes of ocean pollution. They include: sewage, which enters the ocean directly, toxic chemicals from Industries, Land Runoff, Large Scale Oil Spills, Ocean Mining, and Littering. All of these factors contain human interference, but the human participation for the advocacy of the depolluting of oceans is very minimal.

Many people believe that it’s not their fault regarding ocean pollution, or any pollution, because they’re not intentionally throwing trash and plastic on the floor and unintentionally, or if they are, it’s not with the intent to harm the environment or sea life. But as aforementioned, even using plastic is contributing because it’s a material that never breaks down completely and most of its remains end up in the ocean or in junk yards. Also, not advocating against ocean pollution is a form of contributing to it as well because if there aren’t people trying to make a difference and show actual concern for the environment, no changes are going to be accomplished. Another reason for not recycling is always the cost. The cost and time refurbishing used material is too expensive and there is little to no profit in it for clear plastic material. But the cost for a building a new planet is definitely more expensive and time consuming than recycling. So ocean pollution is a combination of a variety of factors. It initiates at the individual level, but other factors such as oil spills and toxic chemical dumps from large companies make a lot of damage in a little bit of time. Ocean pollution can be defined as anything placed in the ocean environment that is considered harmful, but unpacked, it means so much and is encompassed with many aspects and levels that aren’t always taken into consideration when evaluating ocean pollution, and all other pollution, and its causes.

References:

National Geographic

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/01/many-ocean-creatures-surprisingly-eat-jellyfish/

Ocean Service

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html

Conserve. Energy. Future

https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-and-effects-of-ocean-pollution.php