ARE WE A PLAGUE OF POLLUTERS?

The way we choose to live can impact our surrounding environment positively or negatively. The marine environment is not exempt from this. In fact, currently our society, fundamentally based on values of materialism and consumerism, is having a detrimental impact on not only the marine environment but the world as a whole.

Henry David Thoreau pondered:

“What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”

Crumpled Earth. By Corey Matsumoto, GFDL: (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), via Wikimedia Commons.

Our oceans constitute 71% of the Earth’s surface and contain 97% of Earth’s water[1]. They play a vital role in the functioning of the atmosphere to allow life to flourish, in the form of carbon cycling, climate regulation and providing large numbers of the population with an essential source of food.

With that in mind, how are WE causing harmful pollution to enter the marine environment?

Much of the pollution entering our oceans is a result of human activity on land. A significant source is called nonpoint source pollution, which is an accumulation from a variety of small and large sources that includes: cars, septic tanks, farmland for crop or livestock and forestry. This form of pollution occurs largely as a result of run-off. For example, after heavy rain the water will flow across a car park simultaneously picking up oil left behind by cars[4]. This example can also be applied to farmland where fertilisers are used to aid crop cultivation. Heavy rain will wash these chemicals from the fields into valleys, leading into rivers that then carry the pollutants into the marine environment. Imagine swimming in that!


Another source is known as point source pollution, which is pollution that occurs from a single source. Examples of this include oil spills from drilling/tankers and discharge from factories or water treatment systems (e.g. sewage treatment plants) as a result of damage or faulty operations.[5]

An oil spill. By US Gov NOAA (US Gov NOAA) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Today, one of the most obvious sources of marine pollution is in the form of marine debris. Marine debris includes materials such as plastics, glass, metal, rubber, paper, cloth and wood that originate from a range of land-based and ocean-based sources. For example, waste accumulated by day-to-day use in society, derelict fishing gear and abandoned vessels[3]. The most common form of marine debris is plastic, this is due to an explosion in its production and application in our lives; from the 1950s to 2014 there was a 200-fold increase in the annual production of plastic[2]. This begs the question: where is all that plastic going?

Marine debris. By Nevit, GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) via Wikimedia Commons.

We produce and consume on a vast scale, ending in the production of huge volumes waste. Waste that, once released into the environment translates into detrimental pollution. Unless we clean up our act, will we be known as the plague of polluters?



- Ben



References:

[1] Hawaii Pacific University Oceanic Institute, undated. Aqua Facts. Available at: http://www.oceanicinstitute.org/aboutoceans/aquafacts.html (Accessed: 4 October 2017)

[2] Li, W. C., Tse, L. and Fok, L., 2016. Plastic waste in the marine environment: A review of sources, occurrences and effects. Science of the Total Environment 566-567, 333-349

[3] National Oceanic and Amostpheric Administration, 2017. Marine Debris Program. Available at: https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/discover-issue/types-and-sources (Accessed: 2 October 2017)

[4] National Oceanic and Amostpheric Administration, 2017. Ocean Service Education. Available at: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_pollution/04nonpointsource.html (Accessed: 3 October 2017)

[5] National Oceanic and Amostpheric Administration, 2017. Ocean Service Education. Available at: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/pollution/03pointsource.html (Accessed: 3 October 2017)