Every year since 1992, on June 8th, we celebrate World Oceans Day and try to raise awareness on the importance of preserving marine ecosystems and preventing sea level rise. This year, many organizations made efforts to let people know how they can protect the oceans, with the main theme being solutions to plastic pollution.
- This year’s World Oceans Day was about the dangers of plastic pollution.
- Plastic waste in the oceans comes not only from coastal regions, but also from inland.
- Many organizations are making collective efforts to stop ocean littering.
These organizations, as well as some industry representatives, have turned their focus towards the pollution of the oceans and devised efforts to stop it. They directed their attention to the 300 billion pieces of plastic staining the Arctic waters, which might lead to terrible consequences. Here are some of the efforts made to stop the emergence of “plastic smog”.
During the United Nations Ocean Conference, the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) announced a collaboration with stakeholders to reduce the amount of plastic waste from the oceans. The program is called Task Force on Marine Litter.
This attempt came after The Ocean Cleanup issued a report which claimed that plastic littering came not only from people living in the coastal regions. Between 1.15 and 2.4 million tons of plastic come every year from inland.
These are not the only efforts made against plastic pollution. China, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines agreed to reduce the amount of plastic from the seas as much as possible. Also, Greenpeace put a petition for the removal of single-use plastic products from the markets. The petition has already gathered 63,000 signatures and will be sent to the European environment ministers.
Many other countries, including Australia, the US, China, Vietnam, or South Korea will keep a close eye on all the plastic waste from the coasts, and will try to control it. Efforts against plastic pollution are important, since oceans occupy the biggest surface of our planet, and the balance of our environment depends on them.
Image Source: NOAA Photo Library
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.