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
Daphne, thank you for providing links to your sources in the References section,but your bibliographic notation doesn’t comply with AP style for references.
Follow this link for clarification.
https://rucomp2.com/tasks/references-list-model/
LikeLike
Your first paragraph resembles the “Draft Ransom Note” from the Agenda for class on MON MAR 11, Daphne. It makes vague promises that there will be details to follow sometime in the future instead of forcing us to pay attention by providing some urgent information.
This is probably not the way you’ve been taught to write, but it’s the way things get published and read.
Your sentences, numbered:
This sentence accurately reflects the state of your own mind on the topic of pollution, but does it address a question that’s important to your readers? Are they wondering what pollution is, or how you might define it? Or, if your readers are who I think you’re trying to attract, isn’t it likely they will want to know why the question is important? “Plastic or waste in places it shouldn’t be” is a good start, but it’s an equally good description of litter. And you don’t want to create an equivalency between pollution and litter. Question: if I burn logs in my fireplace, according to this preliminary definition, am I creating pollution?
That’s certainly true, but why confront your readers’ ignorance? It can only make them feel bad. If there are several components, name them, and your readers can nod in assent and pretend to have been aware of your list all along. This will create a partnership with your readers from the start and avoid alienating them..
That’s the second time (like that ransom note) that you’ve hinted that you have “more than common knowledge” to share, but you still haven’t shared any. This sort of teasing is tiring and makes readers doubt that you do in fact have something to share.
Still teasing. Still vague. More than plastics where they don’t belong. More components than I ever thought of. More than, AGAIN, tossing plastics where they don’t belong. More prongs than I ever thought of.
Still teasing. More in depth. Something I overlooked. Putting me on the defensive. Saying I overlook and fail to pay attention.
Still teasing. And now this is the third time pollution is more than tossing plastic where it doesn’t belong.
These are perfectly good questions–for you–but providing answers to them is a much more effective way to engage your readers than asking them.
These questions work as components to answer questions? I’m going to help you avoid these linguistics, Daphne, by suggesting that the writer can have questions, but the reader should be given guidance.
Once again, the second ransom notes wastes no time asking what kidnapping and ransom mean. It figures out those terms and uses them to give instructions on how to think and what to do.
LikeLike
Now that I’ve advised you against most of the moves you made in your first paragraph, I’d like to suggest what you can do instead.
1. Focus readers’ attention on a specific detail (read the Cows and Chips lesson) that carries your message.
2. Introduce the idea that those obvious examples are not the whole story.
3. Explain the nature of that hidden pollution.
4. Describe the cost to humans and sea life that result from those plastics.
Don’t worry that you’re spending your good material too early, Daphne. The nature of this sort of introduction is to give a thumbnail version of your argument, not to share all the details. There’s plenty to say about microplastics once you’ve introduced the topic to your readers. Where they come from. Why they persist for eons. Why manufacturers keep creating them. What alternatives could eliminate them. And so on.
But do recognize that a “warmup” paragraph of general statements that never addresses your actual argument is much more likely to cost you readers than to hook them.
Please let me know if this was helpful. I want these feedback sessions to be conversations.
LikeLike