Oceans of Plastic

Plastic. Once hailed the greatest tool of modern convenience, is causing devastating damage to the world’s oceans.

Plastic waste wreaks havoc on marine wildlife and the global ecosystem, creating what some are calling “forever waste”.

“Throw-away plastics take a lot of space and don’t biodegrade. Only we humans make waste that nature can’t digest.” (TED.com)

Hello, I’m Charlotte Bellis, and you’re watching a special Earth Day edition of Newsy.com.

Let’s go to SeaReport and TED.com with the impact of plastic waste on marine wildlife which often mistake plastic waste for food:

“What you’re seeing here is basically it’s a bottle cap, might have been a shampoo bottle or something like that. Another bottle cap. This looks like an electric wire plug.” (Sea Report)

“Hundreds of thousands of the goose-sized chicks are dying with stomachs full of bottle caps and other rubbish, like cigarette lighters. Sadly their parents mistake bottle caps for food.” (TED.com)

CDNN reports plastic can soak up toxins in the ocean, mostly in the center of the Pacific Ocean:

“…once inside the body of a bigeye tuna or a king salmon, these tenacious chemicals are headed directly to your dinner table.” (CDNN)

The BBC reports plastic bags are one of the biggest culprits… with the United States alone using more than 380 billion per year:

“In fact the country that launched the plastic revolution is now swamped by the stuff. It ends up in waterways like here. When it rains, much of it is swept out to sea.” (BBC)

The New York Times takes a satirical approach, asking how the plastic waste problem could have happened:

“Who could worry about seabirds garroted by six-pack rings when Alaska's shores were awash in Exxon's crude? Who could worry about turtles tangled in derelict fishing nets when the ice caps were melting and the terrorists were coming?” (The New York Times)

“Throw away living may be profitable, but the consequences are intolerable. It’s certainly a problem for everyone and it will require all facets of society to solve it. The ocean itself will spit it out, but we have to stop putting it in. If we don’t, it will never be able to spit it all out. And that’s the situation we’re in right now.” (BBC)

Want to learn more? Please, visit our sources, and stay tuned for more of Newsy.com’s Earth Day coverage, where we look at perspectives on some of the world’s most pressing environmental issues.