Pollution Essay Research Paper Ours a water

Pollution Essay, Research Paper

.Ours, a water planet. The ocean covers 71 percent of the surface of the globe, and it constitutes over 90 percent of all habitable space on Earth. It.s total volume is around 300 million cubic miles and its weight is approximately 1.3 million million million tons. No wonder that Arthur C. Clarke, scientist and writer, once remarked that it was .inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is ocean.* * (Mulvaney 28). Ocean pollution is growing out of control, and the clean up of our world.s oceans is critical.

Ocean pollution is now a big problem facing us in everyday life. For years we have been trying to stop the dumping of trash, chemicals, and toxic waste into our oceans but the people who do it, still find ways to get around the rules and laws we have created (Mulvaney 28) Why

should we have to live with an ocean so polluted where in time we will not even be able to fish or swim in it.

The solutions to the problem of ocean pollution are endless and worthwhile. Since

we caused ocean pollution, it is our job to clean it up. .We* are the future, .we* are the ones who should be working to find out ways to stop it. If we continue to abuse our ocean with pollution it will affect our world and lifestyle in many ways. For instance, living in an area so near the coast our town relies on the ocean as a main attraction, as well as a major source of food. Suppose both of these aspects were eliminated due to pollution. Do you think an ocean town such as this would still be booming during those summer months. It would not be such a problem if this was the only ocean town, but it isn.t.

McIntyre 2

There are thousands of towns that rely on the ocean, not just in this country but all over the world.

Ocean pollution is defined as the contamination of the ocean with man-made

waste. The National Research Council has estimated that as many as 8.8 million tons of oil enters the oceans every year as a cause of human activity. It Is also said, that at any given time, the ocean contains over 280,000 tons of tar balls. All kinds of garbage, ranging from fishing nets to trash, from cargo ships to litter on the beaches, finds its way into coastal waters and the ocean. Here, it traps, ensnares, and entangles marine wildlife such as many different species of marine mammals, sea turtles, and seabirds. Plastic pellets have been found on the surface of the Pacific at concentrations of 21,000 per square mile; a cleanup exercise on the coast of Texas yielded 15,600 six-pack rings along 1.8 miles of coastline; and a National Academy of Sciences review once estimated that over 14 billion pounds of garbage enters the ocean from sea-based sources alone. In the 1980.s, it was reckoned that 30,000 northern fur seals died each year after becoming entangled in marine debris, principally lost or abandoned fishing gear. Heavy metals–mercury and lead, for example–and organochlorine compounds such as PCBs and DDT, have been associated with a wide variety of impacts on marine wildlife(Mulvaney 29-30).

A serious form of ocean pollution might be heading to the coast of New Jersey

starting in October. The conflict is that the New York Port Authority wants to dredge

McIntyre 3

New York Harbor, which is full of contaminates such as mercury and other toxic and

harmful substances, off of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. New York is planning to dump 40 million tons of toxic mud six miles off shore. .Just when you though it was safe to go back in the water,* stated Degener, .dumping off the NJ.s coastline starts up again.*

.The fate of the ocean is inextricably entwined with that of the coast*(Mulvaney

30). One of the major reasons for the increase in ocean pollution, is the increase in population on our coastlines. If more people inhabit our coastlines, more trash is brought into these areas, therefore causing an increase in ocean pollution, as well as an increase in other types of pollution. When we inhabit the coast, we destroy the natural coastal ecosystem and our garbage and pollution from our cars, boats, ecedra, go into the coastal land which is washed off into the ocean when it rains and storms.

Another cause of ocean pollution is the depletion of the ozone layer. The ozone

layer is being depleted by CO(Carbon Monoxide) that we put into the air by way of our

factories, cars, and power plants. Mulvaney states that according the Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change(IPCC), a grouping of 300 scientists from around the world,

climate change .has the potential to significantly affect biological diversity in ocean and

coastal areas. It could cause changes in the population sizes and distribution of species,

alter the species composition and geographical extent of the habitats and ecosystems, and

increase the rate of species* extinctions*(31).

McIntyre 4

There have been many organizations formed who are trying to clean up ocean

pollution. Such organizations include the WWF(World Wildlife Federation), Green

Peace, EPA(Environmental Protection Agency), and NOAA(National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration). All of these organizations have encouraged the government to take action against ocean pollution. Treaties have bee

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать