Friday, December 20, 2019

Plastic Oceans

Plastic pollution is currently the largest global threat to marine life. Each year, 10-20 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our oceans, killing approximately 100,000 marine mammals and over a million seabirds. 

 Plastic pollution is a man-made disaster, and it won’t go away by itself.

 UK supermarkets alone produce 800,000 tonnes of plastic every year.  

Currently, there are more than 5 trillion plastic particles floating around the world’s oceans and this number is continuing to rise fast.

Microplastic are small plastic particles (less than 5mm) and it’s estimated there are between 15-51 trillion of these individual plastic pieces floating in our oceans.

Research suggests that each seafood consumer in Europe ingests an average of 11,000 plastic particles each year.

When plastic is ingested, these toxic chemicals are released and absorbed into the body tissue. Overtime, this can impact fertility and weaken the immune system. As a result, those feeding on plastic are breeding less and becoming increasingly vulnerable to diseases and infections, resulting in population decline.

http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/12/plastic-largest-predator-oceans/

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