Somya Pandey
Apex, NC
2015, Junior, Creative Writing

Earth is the only known planet in the solar system to have liquid water. We use this resource constantly, from drinking it to splashing water on siblings to watering the flowers outside our houses. We use water subconsciously, without even thinking about the effects on the environment our usage has. Only about 2.5% of our water is freshwater, yet we use it like we have an infinite supply. But we also abuse this precious resource relentlessly.

For millennia, humans have believed that the oceans were so deep, so large, that no matter how much trash we put in it, the ocean would bounce back. We thought that the ocean would simply swallow up our trash. We thought the trash that we cast into the blue salty water would be incredibly insignificant to the huge ocean. There was even a saying: “The solution to pollution is dilution.” Turns out this was not the case.

Humans have been polluting the deep for as long as we have been around. There is evidence that even the ancient Romans used to choke up our oceans with their litter. For centuries, we have unwittingly dirtied freshwater and seawater alike with our waste. This has led to unsanitary conditions and diseases such as typhoid and cholera. During the Industrial Revolution, countries like Great Britain and France tried to make legislation to slow the ruining of the natural world. In spite of their efforts, they failed due to lack of regulation. This could happen today if our governments slip up, but the difference would be that this time the damage would not be as easily fixable. This time, we would have to deal with our choices for the millennia to come, because though last time the ocean did not just bounce back and it took a few centuries to be rid of them, the chemicals back then were not nearly as harmful as they are today.

In the last three centuries, our trash output has increased dramatically. With nowhere to stash it, we decided to throw it where we knew it couldn’t resurface. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Not exactly. Scientists have begun to discover the effects of this age-old trash on fish, and needless to say, its not good. Affected fish die faster due to the contamination of waterways, liver damage, and gill disease, among with many others. And when we consume this fish, the pesticides and fertilizers that they consumed gets passed to us, increasing the chances of diseases like cancer. It is a vicious, never-ending cycle through which we are not the only victims. But we are the only causes.

In some third world countries, there are no sewage treatment plants and no public landfills. Everything goes straight to the sea. This causes more problems than the one it resolves. First: the tourist industry goes down by a lot, because nobody wants to swim in banana peels and Coke bottles, which in turn brings down the countries economy. This reduces the amount of money that is able to be spent on the sewage treatment plants and public landfills. Second: the aquatic animal numbers start to dwindle, either dying off or relocating somewhere else. Relocating is sometimes not an option for some wildlife, as it is possible they are endemic to a certain area. And last but not least, some unlucky animals get tangled in the dangerous plastic, leading to a slow, painful death.

For all these reasons, there are about 2,215 fish on the endangered species list, in which only around 645 are not found in United States’ waters. We have jurisdiction over 125 of these species, including 38 foreign ones. As many as 30 to 50 percent of all species are possibly heading toward extinction by mid-century. We have to work to save them before we run out of time. Did you know that freshwater ecosystems are home to over 100,000 different marine species? They are now considered one of the most endangered habitats in the world. This is the result of all of our human over developing of land, climate change, pollution, trash dumping, etc.

Trash dumping is one major problem in our oceans. The plastic dumped into the sea can take extraordinary amounts of time to decompose. One plastic soda bottle can take up to 450 years to fully decompose! Even after that, when the plastic decomposes to a nearly molecular level, plankton are still able to eat it, poisoning the bottom of the food chain. This can create many, many different types of poisoning in the animals higher up in the complex food web. For example, the whales that eat the plankton might have weakened immune systems for the next few weeks until the stuff washes out. A few years ago, there was news that a young, rare gray whale had been found washed up on the shore of Puget Sound in West Seattle. When the scientists looked inside its belly, they were able to take out 20 plastic bags, surgical gloves, plastic pieces, a pair of sweat pants, a golf ball, and other junk that somebody had decided to illegally dispose of. The whale had, until death, been in very good health, and was the fifth gray whale to be found dead in Puget Sound in 2 weeks. News like this is starting to become more and more common, and will continue to get even more popular if we don’t try to stop it.

But what are we doing to stop it? As an individual, there are many ways to help stop ocean pollution. You can pick up trash along the beach, donate to cleanup agencies such as The Ocean Cleanup, or just mind your carbon footprint and educate yourself and others about the harm we are doing and what we have to do to help the oceans flourish again, as they did millennia ago. As George Bernard Shaw once said: “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” We, altogether as humanity, have to change the ways we dispose of our trash, or risk drowning in it.

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