People Share “Dark Stuff Going On Around The World" The General Public Is Likely Not Aware Of, And Here Are 30 Of The Most Eye-Opening Answers

It would take volumes of books to go into these problematic aspects of our planet deeper, in order to explain and educate why exactly they happened and what to do to be a part of the solution and not a problem.

This time, however, we will be talking about one of the disasters known as ocean pollution which has been caused and escalated by us, humans. In fact, every year, 9 to 14 million tons of plastic waste are dumped into the ocean. In order for your to better picture it, let me tell you it is the equivalent of a garbage truck (17 tons) every minute!

Bored Panda reached out to Valérie Amant, the Director of Communication of The SeaCleaners who said that “if no urgent action is taken, the approximately 9-14 million tonnes of plastic that currently enter the ocean each year are expected to triple over the next 20 years.”

Amant explained that this means that between 23 and 37 million tonnes of plastic will enter the ocean each year by 2040. “This is equivalent to 50 kilograms of plastic per meter of coastline worldwide,” she said. Amant encourages people to read the latest report on UNEP right here.

The SeaCleaners believes that action against plastic pollution is possible, and should take place on land and at sea. Amant explained that it should be done “both in a preventive way (to prevent more waste to be discarded into the sea) and in a corrective way (to clean the waste that can be cleaned). There is quite a controversy about why we do need to collect plastic waste at sea. We explain why here.”

The disastrous effects of ocean pollution can be divided between obvious and not so much. First, plastic pollution has a tremendous negative impact on marine animals and marine biodiversity. “Marine animals, marine biodiversity are the most immediate and visible victims of plastic pollution. More than 1.5 million marine animals die every year: strangled, suffocated, starved, and fatally injured. 90% of marine species are impacted by plastic pollution: from plankton to large predators (3,800 species in total),” Amant explained. She added that mortality rates caused by plastic debris can be as high as 22% for cetaceans and almost 50% for sea turtles.

Plastic pollution also negatively affects the global economy in numerous ways. Amant said that the cost of plastic pollution to the tourism and fishing industries is estimated at €13 billion each year.

“By 2040, plastic waste is expected to present an annual financial risk of US$670 billion to businesses and governments who will have to bear the costs of managing it at the projected volumes. A 1% to 5% decline in the provision of marine ecosystem services (= all the economic value of the services provided by the sea) due to plastic pollution is equivalent to an annual loss of $500 billion to $2.5 trillion,” she explained.

It’s important to note that richer countries produce more plastic waste which is often sent to less developed countries. “The average US citizen produces 8 times more plastic waste than a Chinese citizen,” Amant said. This, in turn, increases social, economic, and health inequality.

Aman explained that in developing countries, local communities do not always have the structures, nor the funding capacity to manage the environmental, health, social and cultural burden of plastic pollution. “Plastic pollution helps to perpetuate these inequalities by jeopardizing access to clean water, pest and disease control.”

Longer effects of plastic pollution pause even more dangerous threats and they concern human health. Amant explained how that happens: “Marine plastic microparticles enter our food chain. An adult human would ingest and inhale up to 121,000 microparticles of plastic per year. Recent studies have shown that plastics can be found in our lungs, in our brains, and in our bloodstream.”

Moreover, plastic contains additives. “While ‘eating’ and ‘breathing’ plastic, we are exposed to these toxic products, including endocrine disruptors, at all stages of the plastic life cycle. The possible health consequences of daily contact with hormone-active substances in plastic are numerous: cancers, sterility, asthma, embryo development disorder…”