Eco digest October 2017
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How Green are you ?
Right now an estimated 12.7 million tonnes of plastic – everything from plastic bottles and bags to microbeads – end up in our oceans each year. That’s a truck load of rubbish a minute. Travelling on ocean currents this plastic is now turning up in every corner of our planet – from Cornish beaches, to uninhabited Pacific islands. It is even being found trapped in Arctic ice. Our oceans are slowly turning into a plastic soup and the effects on ocean life are chilling. Big pieces of plastic are choking and entangling turtles and seabirds and tiny pieces are clogging the stomachs of creatures who mistake it for food, from tiny zooplankton to
whales. Plastic is now entering every level of the ocean food chain and even ending up in the seafood on our plates. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Greenpeace is campaigning to end the flow of plastic into our oceans. We are calling on big corporations to act to reduce their plastic footprint – and stop producing excessive plastic packaging that is designed to be used once then thrown away. We are also calling on governments to act to tackle this problem, by creating closed loop systems that allow us to recover and reuse materials rather than waste them.
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Save The A supermarket in Amsterdam has just announced the world’s first plastic-free aisle, with packaging made from alternative materials. Is this the way forward for saving our seas from plastic pollution? At the Ocean Plastics Crisis Summit in London, experts joined forces to discuss the problem, and find solutions to the impending plastic planet. Lush Times writer Katie Dancey-Downs reports. Our plastic ocean Standing on a beach in Kenya, BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin releases a turtle into the sea. For the last three weeks, the turtle has been fed laxatives to clear the huge amount of plastic from its stomach, eaten by mistake in its ocean home. As Roger leaves the beach, he turns back to take one last look. Stood in the very spot where the turtle was released, is a child drinking from a plastic bottle. Taking a final swig, the boy throws the bottle over his shoulder, onto the
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Ocean In the Indian Ocean, a pygmy blue whale calf moves through the sea. Swirling above this ocean giant, is an oily, plastic soup made up of microplastics: particles which were once plastic bags, bottles, and other waste packaging products, but which have since been broken down by the sun. This is the same plastic-polluted water the whale will swallow - 75,000 litres of it every time she opens her mouth for krill. This was one of the scenes facing the UK makers of the film A Plastic Ocean. Now the foundation behind the film, Plastic Oceans, has teamed up with the researchers at Brunel University to release a new report outlining the science that underpins the documentary. Taking a final swig, the boy throws the bottle over his shoulder, onto It says that nearly 300 million metric tons of
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Save Ocean Plastic Pollution Right now an estimated 12.7 million tonnes of plastic – everything from plastic bottles and bags to microbeads – end up in our oceans each year. That’s a truck load of rubbish a minute. Travelling on ocean currents this plastic is now turning up in every corner of our planet – from Cornish beaches, to uninhabited Pacific islands. It is even being found trapped in Arctic ice.
food chain and even ending up in the seafood on our plates.
Our oceans are slowly turning into a plastic soup and the effects on ocean life are chilling. Big pieces of plastic are choking and entangling turtles
Even if you live hundreds of miles from the coast, the plastic you throw away could make its way into the sea. Once in the ocean, plastic
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Greenpeace is campaigning to end the flow of plastic into our oceans.
If it cant be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production. - Peter Seeger and seabirds and tiny pieces are clogging the stomachs of creatures who mistake it for food, from tiny zooplankton to whales. Plastic is now entering every level of the ocean
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decomposes very slowly, breaking down in to tiny pieces known as micro plastics that can be incredibly damaging to sea life. 80% of plastic in our oceans is from land
sources – but what does that really mean? Where is it coming from? There are three main ways the plastic we use every day ends up in the oceans. Just One Ocean is a UK registered conservation charity established to promote research and raise awareness of some of the issues affecting our ocean and ultimately our own survival. The three main threats to our oceans at this moment are over fishing, plastic pollution and habitat destruction through things like
rising sea temperatures and pollution. However, there are many other issues that are also having a negative impact and need to be addressed. An experienced skipper who is currently sailing through the world’s largest ocean rubbish patch has described how her stomach “clenched” when she was faced with the terrible reality of the planet’s plastic crisis. Emily Penn is leading an all-women expedition through the Pacific Ocean on a mission to tackle the plastic pollution that is choking marine en-
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We Are Killing Fish Microplastic particles appear to be killing fish because their larvae prefer to eat them rather than their actual food, researchers have warned.
With fears that the amount of plastic in the oceans could soon equal the weight of fish in the sea, scientists have become increasingly concerned about the effects on the marine environment.
of the Science paper, said: “This is the first time an animal has been found to preferentially feed on plastic particles and is cause for concern.
Now a study published in the journal Science has found that baby perch will actively choose to eat plastic over the plankton they would normally feed on.
“Increases in microplastic pollution in the Baltic Sea and marked recruitment declines of the coastal keystone species, like perch and pike, have recently been observed.
The researchers said this greatly increased mortality rates of the perch, stunting their growth and appearing to change usually innate behaviour. For example, they seemed to lose the ability to smell a predator that made
them much more vulnerable.
Professor Peter Eklov, a co-author
“Our study suggests a potential driver for the observed … increased mortality.” When placed in a tank with a pike, perch exposed to microplastic were eaten four times more quickly than perch that had not been eating plastic. 8.
PLastic is everywhere Our rivers, reservoirs, lakes, and seas are drowning in chemicals, waste, plastic, and other pollutants. Here’s why - and what you can do to help. Water pollution occurs when harmful substances—often chemicals or microorganisms—contaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer, or other body of water, degrading water quality and rendering it toxic to humans or the environment. Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution. Known as a “universal solvent,” water is able to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on earth. It’s the reason we have KoolAid and brilliant blue waterfalls. It’s also why water is so easily polluted. Toxic substances from farms, towns, and factories readily dissolve into and mix with it, causing water pollution. When rain falls and seeps deep into the earth, filling the cracks, crevices, and porous spaces of an aquifer (basically an underground storehouse of water), it becomes groundwater— one of our least visible but most
important natural resources. Nearly 40 percent of Americans rely on groundwater, pumped to the earth’s surface, for drinking water. For some folks in rural areas, it’s their only freshwater source. Groundwater gets polluted when contaminants— from pesticides and fertilizers to waste leached from landfills and septic systems—make their way into an aquifer, rendering it unsafe for human use. Ridding groundwater of contaminants can be difficult to impossible, as well as costly. Once polluted, an aquifer may be unusable for decades, or even thousands of years. Groundwater can also spread contamination far from the original polluting source as it seeps into streams, lakes, and oceans. Covering about 70 percent of the earth, surface water is what fills our oceans, lakes, rivers, and all those other blue bits on the world map.
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54%
OF MARINE ANIMALS ARE ENTAGLED IN PLASTIC • 8% of fish caught globally is thrown back into the sea. In most cases they are dead, dying or badly damaged • Right now an estimated 12.7 million tonnes of plastic • About 8 million metric tons of plastic are thrown into the ocean annually
PLastic Will be the death of fish Microplastic particles appear to be killing fish because their larvae prefer to eat them rather than their actual food, researchers have warned. With fears that the amount of plastic in the oceans could soon equal the weight of fish in the sea, scientists have become increasingly concerned about the effects on the marine environment. Now a study published in the journal Science has found that baby perch will actively choose to eat plastic over the plankton they would normally feed on. The researchers said this greatly increased mortality rates of the perch, stunting their growth and appearing to change usually innate behaviour.
found to preferentially feed on plastic particles and is cause for concern. “Increases in microplastic pollution in the Baltic Sea and marked recruitment declines of the coastal keystone species, like perch and pike, have recently been observed. “Our study suggests a potential driver for the observed … increased mortality.”
For example, they seemed to lose the ability to smell a predator that made
When placed in a tank with a pike, perch exposed to microplastic were eaten four times more quickly than perch that had not been eating plastic.
Professor Peter Eklov, a co-author of the Science paper, said: “This is the first time an animal has been
All the plastic-fed fish had been killed within 48 hours.
them much more vulnerable.
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Life swaps to use of paper st raws
McDonald’s will end the use of plastic straws in its British re staurants next year, aft er nearly half a millio n people called on the company to ditch them.
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Next issue out 17 dECEMBER