Close to the Last Straw?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, halfway between Hawaii and California and the largest of several navigation-impairing gyres of floating and sinking trash (much of it falls to the ocean floor), is simply too big to measure. An amalgamation of fishing nets, electronics, waste and so much plastic, it’s hard to fathom. According to NationalGeographic.org, “National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program has estimated that it would take 67 ships one year to clean up less than one percent of the North Pacific Ocean… [Drones have] determined that there is 100 times more plastic by weight than previously measured. The team also discovered more permanent plastic features, or islands, some over 15 meters (50 feet) in length.

“While many different types of trash enter the ocean, plastics make up the majority of marine debris for two reasons. First, plastic’s durability, low cost, and malleability mean that it’s being used in more and more consumer and industrial products. Second, plastic goods do not biodegrade but instead break down into smaller pieces. 

 “In the ocean, the sun breaks down these plastics into tinier and tinier pieces, a process known as photodegradation. Scientists have collected up to 750,000 bits of microplastic in a single square kilometer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—that’s about 1.9 million bits per square mile. Most of this debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups.

“Marine debris can be very harmful to marine life in the gyre. For instance, loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies, their favorite food. Albatrosses mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which die of starvation or ruptured organs.” In 2018, a new non-profit, Ocean Cleanup System 101, generated headlines with a new technology (pictured above) – which fared poorly at first in rough ocean waters – to encircle this gyre and remove massive amounts of floating debris by ship. The world has become obsessed with eliminating plastics. Lots of good reasons to focus on this non-biodegradable debris… as long as this is not a distraction from the biggest threat to our oceans: global climate change.

Many communities, including right here in Los Angeles, are busy banning plastic straws, requiring that take-out containers be biodegradable and/or banning plastic grocery bags as their contribution to eliminate this accumulation of “forever plastics” from our environment. “When Seattle became the first major American city to ban plastic straws last summer, the anti-plastic straw movement was well underway. Alaska Airlines announced a plan to ditch plastic straws in May, followed by the food service company Bon Appétit, American Airlines, and Starbucks. It’s one facet of the growing public awareness of ocean plastic pollution, which has led to more companies touting alternative packaging and soaring sales of reusable water bottles.

“A recent paper in the science journal Marine Policy asks if the current focus on plastic pollution is distracting society from even larger challenges facing the ocean, and if a focus on changing bottles or straws is distracting us from making more fundamental changes to the economy. As humans have pumped greenhouses gases into the atmosphere, almost all of the resulting heat has ended up in the ocean; as water gets hotter, that’s killing fish and coral reefs. The heat also leads to sea level rise and melts polar ice sheets, leading to even more sea level rise. Hurricanes are becoming more intense. Extra carbon dioxide is making oceans more acidic, so it’s harder for marine life to survive. At the same time, large-scale commercial fishing is decimating fish populations.

“Of course, it doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game: More attention on ocean plastic doesn’t automatically mean less attention on climate change or the need for broader societal change. Starbucks already buys enough renewable energy to power its stores in the U.S. and Canada, and packaging–long a more visible sign of its environmental footprint–is a logical step to tackle in addition. Plastic production itself uses around 6% of global oil (as much as aviation) and is also a source of emissions; by 2050, it may account for 15% of the total global carbon budget. Moving from single-use plastic to circular economy models, like systems of reusable packaging for food or deodorant, can make a measurable impact on emissions.” FastCompany.com, March 1^st. 

Pressure is mounting; California is about to further tighten the rules, while noting that traditional recycling efforts remain economically unjustified: “New legislation announced last month [February] would require plastic and other single-use materials sold in California to be either reusable, fully recyclable or compostable by 2030. The measure would also require the state to recycle or otherwise divert from landfills 75% of single-use plastic packaging and products sold or distributed in California, up from the 44% of all solid waste that was diverted as of 2017…

“[California state Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica)] said annual global plastic production is rising and now totals 335 million tons. The United States, he said, discards 30 million tons a year… The national recycling rate for plastic is projected to drop from 9.1% in 2015 to 2.9% this year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other sources, said Allen… He said California only recycles 15% of single-use plastic in part because the cost of recycling plastics exceeds the value of the resulting material.” Los Angeles Times, March 4^th.

OK, plastics are environmentally bad for any number of reasons, but global warming is even worse for oceans and ocean life. Addressing these realities clearly cannot be mutually exclusive. Further, as the global population continues to soar, there is one more, human-selfish reason to take responsibility for reversing both negative trends: food. A study – Climate change impacts on fisheries – appearing in the March 1^st Science Magazine paints a bleak picture of the future of the oceans as a sustainable source of sufficient seafood for human consumption. 

While a few species (like Atlantic black sea bass) have increased slightly or left the quantity of Atlantic herring relatively unchanged, the overall impact of global warming is undermining the fish populations around the world. We’ve learned that sea life in warmer oceans tend to be impacted far worse than those creatures inhabiting colder waters. The negative impact of overfishing also is worse in warmer water. 

The February 28^th New York Times explores the significance of this new report: “The study found that the amount of seafood that humans could sustainably harvest from a wide range of species shrank by 4.1 percent from 1930 to 2010, a casualty of human-caused climate change.

“‘That 4 percent decline sounds small, but it’s 1.4 million metric tons of fish from 1930 to 2010,’ said Chris Free, the lead author of the study, which appears in the journal Science… Scientists have warned that global warming will put pressure on the world’s food supplies in coming decades. But the new findings — which separate the effects of warming waters from other factors, like overfishing — suggest that climate change is already having a serious impact on seafood…

“Fish make up 17 percent of the global population’s intake of protein, and as much as 70 percent for people living in some coastal and island countries, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations… ‘Fish provide a vital source of protein for over half of the global population, and some 56 million people worldwide are supported in some way by marine fisheries,’ Dr. Free said.

“As the oceans have warmed, some regions have been particularly hard-hit. In the northeast Atlantic Ocean and the Sea of Japan, fish populations declined by as much as 35 percent over the period of the study… ‘The ecosystems in East Asia have seen some of the largest decline in fisheries productivity,’ Dr. Free said. ‘And that region is home to some of the largest growing human populations and populations that are highly dependent on seafood.’… Marine life has been subjected to some of the most drastic effects of climate change. The oceans have absorbed 93 percent of the heat that is trapped by the greenhouse gases that humans pump into the atmosphere…

“[On the other side of the world:] The northeast Atlantic Ocean — home to Atlantic cod, the mainstay of fish and chips — saw a 34 percent decline in sustainable catches… Over all, more populations of fish declined than increased over the eight decades in the study.” 

Not only are we losing vast quantities of sea life to global climate change and environmental pollution, but those who make their living fishing are finding their lives deteriorating as well. “A separate study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, found that limiting warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.5 degrees Celsius, above preindustrial levels — a goal of the Paris climate agreement — could result in billions of dollars in extra revenue for fisheries globally. Much of that would be in the developing world, where many people rely on fish for protein…

“‘Fisheries are like a bank account, and we’re trying to live off the interest,’ [said Malin L. Pinsky, an associate professor in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University and a co-author of the new study in Science Magazine].” NY Times. We appear to be seriously eroding the principal now. It’s our planet. Unless interplanetary travel and locating another life-compatible world happen in the very near future, we’ve got a huge problem made so much worse by official U.S. government policy that denies or marginalizes global warming and even encourages the increased use of fossil fuels. There will future generations who will simply wonder how we could have been so ignorant, so selfish and so oblivious to the obvious consequences of ignoring the biggest problem humanity has ever faced.

              I’m Peter Dekom, and unless you want to be a bigger part of the problem, remember all of these facts when you cast your next vote.