Tag Archives: Plastic Pollution

Sea Sickness

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The world’s most highly regarded climate scientists have been saying since 2018 that we only have 12 years left to undo the global warming damage we’ve done-or else. Yes, the big or else. The one where we exterminate the human race and many other species along with it. We’re killing ourselves and life as we know it because of decades of poor manufacturing habits and a lack of knowledge on how our plastic use truly affects all living and oceanic ecosystems. Even now, we cannot fully grasp the extent to which our presence and waste impacts our oceans since most of them are relatively unexplored. This being said, we have somehow managed to damage all but 4 percent of the oceans on Earth according to an article released by The Guardian.You may be asking what the oceans have to do with saving the planet. The truth is, they have everything to do with saving life on Earth since all life is interconnected. Here is the truth behind how important it is that we protect what is protecting us.

 

Oxygen

You may already know that plants produce the oxygen we breathe. What you may not know however, is that over half of the air we breathe comes from plants in the ocean like phytoplankton and seaweed. You could essentially call phytoplankton the lungs of the ocean, and we are suffocating them with our plastic use. According to an article released by U.S. Pure Water, phytoplankton die off by de-oxygenation, which is a process by which the presence of plastic blocks light from entering the ocean, therefore preventing the phytoplankton to photosynthesize and produce the oxygen we need. Since phytoplankton act as a major foundation or building block species in the ocean, their scarcity inevitably has an effect on the whole oceanic food chain.

 

Climate Regulation

This may be the most impending threat towards the human race, and we need to treat our oceans with care now more than ever. Climate change is a real threat that will only continue to get worse if we continue at the rate we are now. Luckily, the oceans do a wonderful job at reducing the severity of climate change, but they would be able to do an even better job at helping us out if we had helped our oceans sooner. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, our oceans are a vital lifeline regarding the temperature of our planet. “Ocean currents act much like a conveyer belt, transporting warm water and precipitation from the equator toward the poles and cold water from the poles back to the tropics. Thus, currents regulate global climate, helping to counteract the uneven distribution of solar radiation reaching Earth’s surface. Without currents, regional temperatures would be more extreme—super hot at the equator and frigid toward the poles—and much less of Earth’s land would be habitable.”

It’s the job of the ocean to absorb excess heat and greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. With the excess amount of greenhouse gases we are producing, our oceans our being forced into overdrive, absorbing higher amounts of heat which melts glaciers, increases seal levels, and even alters the patterns of currents. Glaciers also help absorb excess sunlight and protect our ozone layer. As you can imagine, the warming of our oceans dramatically affects the effectiveness of surrounding ecosystems and when they all start to fail, we do too.

Sea Sickness

The term sea sickness has been used to describe the feeling one gets when the movement of the ocean throws off their equilibrium, causing the individual to become nauseous. I like to think we are doing the same thing to our oceans. It’s our oceans that are becoming sick and poisoned with our carelessness with the environment across the board. The state of our oceans will worsen with climate change and plastic pollution, and once we lose the benefits the sea offers us, we lose our lives. If you feel strongly about preserving our planet and protecting the lives of future generations, sign the petition to end plastic pollution at earthday.org. We are clearly the sick ones if we have the knowledge we do now and never make a change to show our oceans the love they have shown us.

#Trash Tag, You’re It!

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Listen up, social media fanatics. There’s a challenge that’s been sweeping the internet recently that asks users to spread the goodness and clean up their environment! This trend known as the #TrashTag challenge isn’t exactly a new phenomenon either. If it sounds familiar, you are correct, and if you’ve never heard of it, you’ve stopped at the right place. Let’s dive into what the Trash Tag challenge is, why it matters, and how you can join the movement.

What is the Trash Tag Challenge?

The Trash Tag challenge began in 2015 by the outdoor gear company, UCO, in an effort to get people to care about the places in which they lived and become aware of the condition of the world around them. It didn’t really start to catch fire however, until this past March when a man from Arizona named Byron Román shared a picture of ecologist and activist Drici Tani Younes on Facebook. The picture featured Younes in a polluted area and then an after picture in that same area after he had cleaned it up. Román shared this post with a message that prompted apathetic young people to make a difference and do some good while they were at it. Since then, Román’s post has accumulated over more than 100,000 likes and 332,000 shares, growing by the day and helping people of all ages put down their phones and pick up a pair of gloves and a trash bag.

 

Byron Román’s share on Facebook

 

Why Is This Hashtag Important?

One of the many reasons that this hash tag matters is because it’s quite frankly refreshing. Unlike the many challenges that urge us to swallow whole spoonfuls of cinnamon or drink sprite and then eat bananas, this challenge harms no one in the process and offers all parties involved a more beneficial outcome. With the rate at which content moves across social media platforms and goes viral, it’s promising to see a message like this one gain momentum because it shows that many of us understand the dangers that wait for us if we continue to treat our environment the way we do. Because this hashtag also encourages us to go out in the world and help maintain our parks, beaches, and rivers, it also ensures we are physically removing some of the trash that litters our planet. With the rate that this trend is spreading at, it’s wonderful to see the change that comes from the power of social media.

But will this power be enough? The answer unfortunately is no. That doesn’t mean it’s time to flail our arms around in the air and boycott the trash tag challenge, but it does mean that we need to think more about the root cause of the plastic pollution epidemic. Although movements of this nature and efforts to recycle and reuse are not enough, they matter that much more when practiced in conjunction with tighter corporate and governmental practices. According to Mirjam Kopp, a global project leader on plastic pollution at Greenpeace, “The problem with plastics is not simply a litter problem, it is a pollution problem created by corporations and mismanaged by governments, and it should be treated as an inherently dangerous substance.” Who says we can’t start a new movement that encourages us to protest outside of these corporations that abuse their power and capture/share those moments on social media?

How You Can Get Involved

You know the drill! Find a nearby park, river, beach, or any area that needs cleaning, and take a picture of the area before you get to work. Clean the area, take a picture of it with you and your friends, and then post the final before and after pictures with the hashtag. Not only will you feel accomplished and satisified, but you never know who might see your post and feel compelled to try it too. All in all, movements like this do affect our environment and make a difference in our own lives, too. Share your best pictures with the Blue Velvet team and we will repost them here on our blog! Keep up the hard work Blue Velvets, and always remember the importance behind sharing the good in our world.

Instagram influencer and celebrity Cameron Dallas participating in the Trash Tag challenge