Plastic Bags: The Enemy of the Environment Plastic is a commodity that people use everyday which makes daily life easier and safer. People take pills, use cell phones, and wear bike helmets in addition to a plethora of other activities, but tend to forget that one common element in all of them is the use of plastic. One of the main sources of plastic that has been polluting the environment over the last few decades are plastic bags. Plastic bags can be found in nearly every store to hold groceries, accessories, or toys. While plastic bags may provide convenience for customers, there is an overwhelming concern about the effect of them on the health and safety of people, marine life, and the surrounding environment.
Firstly, if species are excessively harvested, which only juvenile fish below reproductive age are left in the ocean, it would take a long time for them to reproduce, thus reducing their population sustainability. Not only would it affect human, but also other species and larger marine animals that share the same habitat. A representative example would be The U.S. Pacific sardines, which population has declined an estimated 90 percent since 2007 (Grossman 2015), and evidence showed that overfishing worsens the magnitude and frequency of the cyclical declines of sardines and other forage fish. (Essington 2015). Sardines are at the bottom of food web, therefore, decline in sardine quantities would affect other species along the food web, for example, whales, dolphins and other species that feed on sardines.
Because they are unable to untangle themselves, they also die from starvation or from their inability to escape predators. On a report in 2006 called Plastic Debris in the World’s Oceans, It was estimated that at least 267 different animal species have suffered from entanglement and ingestion of plastic debris. Some species are consumers of jelly fish, but often mistake plastic bags for their natural prey, which obstructs the oesophagus of sea turtles therefor killing them. It has been estimated that about 400,000 marine mammals die annually due to plastic pollutions in the ocean. As said by Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra “One must be a sea, to receive a polluted stream without becoming impure”.
B. Plastic pollution is detrimental to most forms of marine-centric life. 1. “Approximately 100,000 marine creatures of nearly 300 species die each year from plastic consumption
According to PRI, “research suggests that up to 90 percent of the plastic dumped illegally ends up in the ocean… this practice adds nearly 1 million metric tons of plastic trash to the seas each year” (Winn). Countries within Asia look the other way at these statistics which prompts critics of ocean cleanup to say that it will never happen. They claim that we don’t “fully understand the precise impacts of ocean trash” (Rastogi). Countries need to unite in order to fix what is happening, which is something a lot of people won’t bargain
Have you seen trash bags and plastic bottles in the ocean? You think it is normal, but in reality it is not normal. Poor and innocent animals have been dying because of human wastes. Every year there is about 1 million sea birds who die because of plastic consumption. In order to reduce ocean water pollution the United States government should encourage businesses to make fewer plastic products, prevent agriculture pollution, and harvest water that goes into the storm gutters.
Exposure to tobacco smoke affects the dysfunction of the erectile. The smoker reaches menopause a year or two earlier compared to a non-smoker. It may lead to impotence as it affects the flow of blood, damaging the penis blood vessels. The risks related to miscarriages, complication during birth are increased, while this may also affect the development of the baby in the womb (e.g. affects the baby’s birth weight).
Both illegal and legal drugs have got their side effects to a mother when she uses them during her period of pregnancy. For instance, consumption of illegal drugs such as bhang, cocaine and alcohol among others contributes to lasting effects on an unborn child. Previous studies indicate that consumption of both legal and illegal drugs in a pregnancy period contributes a lot of impacts to the foetus directly (Rice et al., 2009). The researchers argue that when a mother engages in smoking, drinking alcohol or caffeine ingestion, the foetus also does so through the mother. That eventually exposes the foetus or unborn baby to a lot of health risks.
About 30% of the land has a slope angle greater than 30°, and only 10% of the territory is natural flat land. Even though the landfills will be saturated in the coming years, it is hard to find a flat land to develop landfills, while reclamation will arouse the conflicts between the stakeholders and destroy the habitat of marine animals and harm the biodiversity. Therefore, incineration is required as it can effectively reduce the size of waste to 10% of the original one and building an incinerator needs a smaller area than expanding landfills. The feasibility of adopting incinerator is high due to the limited land and landfill saturation can be eased effectively. 4.
According to SCN’s World Nutrition Situation 5th report, 147 million pre-schoolers experienced stunted growth. Children with malnutrition may have delayed sexual development and high risk of osteoporosis. Malnutrition can also cause overall poor health and low immunity systems. 3.1 million children die annually due to malnutrition. It can account for 61% of deaths due to diarrhoea, 67% due to malaria, 52% pneumonia and 45% measles (Black 2003, Bryce 2005).