The Brazilian magazine Pesquisa FAPESP recently shared an article on its platform that reflected the pollution of the seas, and the effect it had on a turtle that had an absolvent or straw, as it is also known, stuck in its nose.
This fact covered social networks and had around 36 million views on YouTube, but are we aware of what that means when more than eight million tons of waste produced by plastic still reach the oceans?
The Research Institute for Development (IRD) of France, for its part, announced that 1.5 million birds, fish, whales and turtles die each year from plastic waste, and that this situation could worsen.
This Thursday is the World Day of the Sea established by the Board of Directors of the World Maritime Organization (IMO) in 1978. What actions can we take to avoid pollution?
Reduce or eliminate plastic consumption
The decrease in the consumption of plastic bags or other objects can help counteract such pollution, in an environment where 8.9 billion tons of primary (or virgin) and secondary plastics (produced from recyclable material) have been manufactured since the middle of the last century. .
“Around two thirds of this total, that is, 6.3 billion tons, have become waste, while 2.6 billion tons are still in use,” according to data from the scientific journal Pesquisa FAPESP.
Do not litter on the beaches
Reducing this reduces the effect of climate change on marine ecosystems, such as thermal pollution or rising tides.