Plastic Soup

An acid sea

I received an email from the translator. The subject by which it arrived in my in box did not bode very well: “Some more depressing news …”

The email contained a link to the BBC news website.

An article was posted there under the title “Acid oceans ‘need urgent action’“.

What was the issue? Sea water has a certain natural acidity—specific pH levels. Scientists have discovered that the pH levels of the oceans are changing a hundred times quicker than they would naturally. When pH levels decrease, water becomes more acid, so the entire ecosystem is put in danger. Not only does this mean that large coral reefs will disappear, but also that the fish catch will change (the food supply of millions, will, as a result, be at stake).

The decrease of pH levels might well have been caused by man. The oceans appear to be absorbing half of the carbon dioxide (CO2 ) that we emit daily. CO2 is transformed into carbonic acid in sea water; the result of which is that the oceans become acidic.

Plastic was not mentioned in the BBC article.

Plastic—even bioplastic—decomposes in CO2. According to the United Nations, in 2006, 46,000 plastic particles were floating in every square mile of the seas … I don’t think I need to spell out what the conclusion is.

A new climate summit will be held in December 2009. Hopefully then this problem will be addressed. Although this summit will only be concerned with the acidification of the oceans, hopefully then they will also face the consequences of plastic in the oceans.

A study has been carried out in Ireland to look at what the effects are on CO2 emissions if we stopped producing plastic bags. The conclusion? Some 31,000 fewer tons of CO2 would be emitted—the same amount that your automobile would release if you drove it 3,600 times around the world. And that doesn’t even account for the amount of CO2 that is released when the plastic starts to decompose.

The population in the Netherlands is 4.4 times larger than in Ireland. And there are 82 times more Americans than Irish.

Need I say more? Acid oceans need URGENT ACTION!

Lees deze tekst in het Nederlands.