Sea Pollution and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Essay Example
Sea Pollution and The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Water is the most abused and wasted natural resource. Clean water is very precious. There are about 1 billion or more people who do not have access to clean drinking water in the world today. We must be very careful with our water and take the proper steps necessary to conserve it. Pollution is the introduction of harmful substances, particularly a contaminant or toxin, which produces some kind of harmful impact on the environment or living organisms. When we talk about pollution, 3 types of pollution usually come to mind: air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution. There are numerous types of water pollution and pollutants that contaminate it. I would like to focus specifically on sea pollution by using the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as an example. Sea pollution is a major problem. What people may not realize is that sea pollution affects not only the seas and oceans, but it also affects the entire earth. While marine plants and animals are the most immediate victims of sea pollution, animals higher up the food chain that feed on marine life, including humans, are not spared. Once the toxins are concentrated in the tissue of one animal they can magnify across the food chain very similar to the pesticide DDT. In addition, toxic substances are washed up shores and destroy beaches. Toxic substances that get washed upstream destroy valuable drinking water. There are three major types of pollution in the sea: dumping of waste sewage, dumping of refuse and toxic industrial waste, and oil spills. Sewage dumping is the dumping of untreated or under-treated sewage into the seas and oceans. According to Waterencyclopedia.com, about 80% of urban sewage released into the Mediterranean Sea is untreated. This is because there are still many cities around the world that have ineffective, little or no sewage treatment. Sewage discharged from ships and other large vessels sailing the seas
Water is the most abused and wasted natural resource. Clean water is very precious. There are about 1 billion or more people who do not have access to clean drinking water in the world today. We must be very careful with our water and take the proper steps necessary to conserve it. Pollution is the introduction of harmful substances, particularly a contaminant or toxin, which produces some kind of harmful impact on the environment or living organisms. When we talk about pollution, 3 types of pollution usually come to mind: air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution. There are numerous types of water pollution and pollutants that contaminate it. I would like to focus specifically on sea pollution by using the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as an example. Sea pollution is a major problem. What people may not realize is that sea pollution affects not only the seas and oceans, but it also affects the entire earth. While marine plants and animals are the most immediate victims of sea pollution, animals higher up the food chain that feed on marine life, including humans, are not spared. Once the toxins are concentrated in the tissue of one animal they can magnify across the food chain very similar to the pesticide DDT. In addition, toxic substances are washed up shores and destroy beaches. Toxic substances that get washed upstream destroy valuable drinking water. There are three major types of pollution in the sea: dumping of waste sewage, dumping of refuse and toxic industrial waste, and oil spills. Sewage dumping is the dumping of untreated or under-treated sewage into the seas and oceans. According to Waterencyclopedia.com, about 80% of urban sewage released into the Mediterranean Sea is untreated. This is because there are still many cities around the world that have ineffective, little or no sewage treatment. Sewage discharged from ships and other large vessels sailing the seas