Plastic in the Ocean
I’m going to watch a webinar this afternoon titled “ Ocean Encounters: Ocean Plastics – How harmful are they, and how do we know?” I know a bit of what is going to be discussed. Many plastics that are discarded find their way into the ocean. Sometimes it is still in a large form such as plastic bags, and sometimes it drifts down in the depths of the ocean as microplastic. Microplastics are ubiquitous. Some are used in facial products.
Many fish eat what is called marine snow as it drifts down. Marine snow is mostly biological debris such as feces and dead fish. It begins at the top layers of the ocean and drifts to the seafloor. It is an important source of energy for animals in the deep ocean. The microplastic floats down with the marine snow and is eaten. Some of the sea life that eats the microplastic are eaten by fish that we then eat. So plastic in the ocean harms not only the sea life but humans as well. PlantBasedNews says, “ According to a 2017 UN report, there are more than 51 trillion microplastics in the sea – that’s more than the number of stars in the Milky Way.”
I have used a simplistic way of explaining the problem, but I’m sure you get the point. Plastics become harmful both for sea life and human life.
Lest you misunderstand, I use plastic in many forms each and every day, and I am thankful for it. But we can and should do better. We are supposed to be good stewards of the earth, and depositing plastic in the ocean is not evidence of that.
Be Careful What You Wish For
I think back on how we got to this point. Environmentalists wanted us to stop cutting trees to use for various paper needs. We switched from paper bags to plastic bags in the 1980s. Plastic bags were cheaper and had handles, which many paper bags did not. (One of those uses was paper straws which they now want us to go back to as they reject plastic straws.) They also wanted no clear-cutting of forests, but they really wanted no management of forests. They did not understand that when a forest grows too thickly, the younger trees don’t get enough sunlight and root room to develop properly. They did not understand that clearing the ground in a forest will help prevent wildfires. Without intelligent forest management we see the number of wildfires increasing, costing us not only the precious trees, but also homes and lives.
Trees are vital to a healthy environment. Here are some forest facts as provided by USA Facts:
- In 2020, US forests offset 14% of carbon dioxide emissions and 11% of greenhouse gases
according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA). [I found it interesting that the carbon dioxide emissions offset was identified separately from the greenhouse gases.] - When trees and forests die off, the carbon held in those trees transfers to deadwood, litter, soil and eventually returns to the atmosphere.
- According to a report from the Forest Service, urban forests in the US produced an estimated 67 million tons of oxygen annually.
- Urban forests also help lower surface and air temperatures and reduce ultraviolet radiation, according to the EPA.
- As of 2021, there were 58,985 wildfires that burned 7.1 million acres — an area about the size of Massachusetts, according to data compiled by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).
We switched from using wood products to plastics, and now we’re worried about damaging the earth and its inhabitants with those very plastics. But do we have a choice?
WE DO! It’s called bioplastic made from algae. You know, that green or brown or red slimy stuff. It can be microalgae or macroalgae. Macroalgae is seaweed or kelp. How often have you thought of algae and seaweed as one of God’s blessings? I encourage you to read “Trading in Plastic for Kelp: Startups Exploring New Biodegradable Plastics.”
Many items are now available made from algae. Read my blog of March 28, 2021. I can almost guarantee you that your kids’ science/environmental lessons do not include the potential of algae. Going back to the beginning of this post, if we’re really concerned about all the plastic entering our oceans, why not substitute products made by something provided by the ocean that is biodegradable—algae?