Sea turtles and Straws
I feel like global warming is not a good a thing, either for the planet, animals and humans, because it has a lot of outcomes in our planet Earth. I also think that we as humans, we have to worried and care about Global warming because it does not only affect the animals it also affects us and that we are the main cause of Global Warming. For me Global Warming is when the temperature of the planet increases causing damages like it melts glaciers and that cause the increase the level of the oceans, and it can affect our health by creating new diseases.
I chose to write about how plastic straw affects the ocean and sea turtle because is a very interesting topic for me that brings a lot of other side effects and it also brings other topics related to plastic straws. Plastic straws are one of the top 10 items found every year during a cleanup of the beaches. Plastic is not biodegradable, instead the material eventually breaks down into tiny particles known as microplastics that are 5 milimeters or smaller in lenght, making them difficult to clean or filter from the ocean. It is also polluting the oceans all over the planet, interfering with underwater ecosystems, killing sea animals, and more. It's easy for straws to injure animals, according to an article more than 1 million birds die every year after choking on a plastic straw that they mistook for food. Similarly, when sea animals see floating plastic straws in their underwater habitat, they often think they are food, and eat them. Besides the choking hazard, this sends animals a false sense of having a full stomach, leading them to die of starvation.
I chose to write about how plastic straw affects the ocean and sea turtle because is a very interesting topic for me that brings a lot of other side effects and it also brings other topics related to plastic straws. Plastic straws are one of the top 10 items found every year during a cleanup of the beaches. Plastic is not biodegradable, instead the material eventually breaks down into tiny particles known as microplastics that are 5 milimeters or smaller in lenght, making them difficult to clean or filter from the ocean. It is also polluting the oceans all over the planet, interfering with underwater ecosystems, killing sea animals, and more. It's easy for straws to injure animals, according to an article more than 1 million birds die every year after choking on a plastic straw that they mistook for food. Similarly, when sea animals see floating plastic straws in their underwater habitat, they often think they are food, and eat them. Besides the choking hazard, this sends animals a false sense of having a full stomach, leading them to die of starvation.
Eventually, humans are the only ones who use plastic straws, so we are the ones responsible for them getting into the ocean. Since they are so lightweight, it's easy for wind to blow them through the air and into the ocean. This can happen when straws are littered on or near a beach, and when the wind carries them out of uncovered trash cans or landfills and into the ocean.According to a study published in the journal Science in 2015, between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tonnes of plastic entered the ocean in 2010. Based on that study many scientists estimate an average of 8 million metric tonnes of plastic enter the ocean every year. An estimated 150 million metric tonnes of plastic are currently in the ocean, according to Ocean Conservancy. So to be realistic there's a lot of plastic in the ocean.
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Even though plastic straws certainly have a negative effect on sea life, they make up a shockingly small percentage of the approximate 8 million of plastic that enter the ocean annually. According to Phys and the UN, straws are responsible for just 0.025 percent of ocean plastic. So why does people blame straws, when they are only responsible for a few amount of the problem? For one thing, that video of the turtle with a straw in his nose certainly helped bring straws into the limelight. From there, many organizations launched campaigns urging people to skip the straw. Similarly, many companies ramped up production of reusable straws, and marketed them as alternatives to environmentally conscious consumers. And finally, giving up straws is an easy change for most people who do not have a disability or difficulty drinking from a glass, which helped the trend catch on. Here's another question, if straw are such small part of the problem, where does the rest of the plastic comes from? A study published in Scientific Reports found that more than 46 percent of the trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was actually comprised of fishing nets, as reported by National Geographic. Researchers noted that it was hard to identify where most of the plastic comes from, since there is only little fragments, however, most of the remaining plastic that they could identify was other paraphernalia from the fishing industry, such as crates, ropes, oyster spacers, and eel trap cones. That’s because many fishermen in the industry abandon their fishing gear in the ocean. Sea animals like fish, turtles, dolphins, porpoises, and whales can get caught in abandoned fishing nets and die.
Since we are the responsible ones that caused contamination, I feel like we can also reverse the problem, like we can stop using plastic straws, by having the power to refuse using a straw, or you can also buy a reusable one, there are different options of different materials. We can also participate in a plastic cleanup, we can eat less fish so in that way we can stop supporting fishing industries, and lastly we can reduce our plastic use. You can recycle so in that way there's less plastic in the ocean.