Plastic is killing everything in the ocean. Each day 3.4 million barrels of heat-trapping oil are used to make plastic.
There’s so much of it that corals are eating plastic at the same rate as their normal food, but they can’t digest it or get rid of the toxic waste. It’s so bad that corals on the Great Barrier Reef are now facing a slow but sure starvation.
Fifty percent of the coral on the Great Barrier Reef are already dead; that’s an astounding area much larger than the size of England. Every square kilometer of Australia’s ocean surface water is contaminated by 4,000 tiny pieces of plastic or microplastics.
In 2001, each Australian and American consumed 227 pounds of personal use plastics. By 2012, personal use plastics per person spiked to 326 pounds.
For every problem there are at least three solutions. Clearly, its time to dial back on the amounts of plastics that we each use.
Lend a helping hand on Clean Up Australia Day and on Ocean’s Day (June 8).
Please support Earth Carers, Living Ocean, the Bob Brown Foundation and Sea Shepherd Australia because they are helping to protect our oceans from deadly plastics.
Earth Dr. Reese Halter’s latest book is Shepherding the Sea: The Race to Save our Oceans.
