When I go to Shoprite on Oxford
Street, Osu-Accra (official name Cantonment Road) to shop, the items I buy are
placed in plastic carrier bags for conveyance. The bread I buy is wrapped in
plastic. The milk I buy has part of its package as plastic. The yoghurt I buy
is kept in a plastic bottle. When I cross over the La road from South La
Estates, where I live, to buy yↄↄ kԑ gari, I am served in plastic. In Ghana,
yↄↄ kԑ gari is a delicious meal normally served with palm fruit oil and fried
ripe plantain. Yↄↄ is a Ga word for beans, kԑ is another Ga word meaning and,
gari is cassava milled and fried. The Gas is an ethnic group in Ghana living
along parts of the Gulf of Guinea in the Greater Accra region. Back to plastic,
in our homes, buckets, basins, TV, stereos, refrigerators etc. are made of
plastic in whole or in part. In our gutters, all around us, there are plastic
wastes. This shows how our society is deeply immersed in the plastic culture.
Plastic is defined by the Collins
English Dictionary (Desktop edition) as any one of a large number of synthetic
materials that have a polymeric structure and can be moulded when soft and then
set.
After we have used plastic how do we
dispose of it? Well, some of the plastic eventually get into the sea. About 200
meters from my house lay the Gulf of Guinea. When I go there to lie in the
Atlantic Ocean to enjoy the soothing effect of the flows and ebbs of the waves,
sometimes, round about me are floating plastic. From Kaajano through Jomo (near
La General Hospital) and Abese (behind Artists Alliance) to Bↄↄtↄ (behind Labadi
Beach Hotel), all these bathing beaches on the Gulf of Guinea, have their share
of plastic waste.
It is a global problem. The
following is how experts are looking at the issue(particularly microplastics):
Sydney (AFP) - Corals in the Great
Barrier Reef are eating small plastic debris in the ocean, Australian
researchers said on Tuesday (February 24, 2015), raising fears about the impact
the indigestible fragments have on their health and other marine life.
The scientists found that when they
placed corals from the reef into plastic-contaminated water, the marine life
"ate plastic at rates only slightly lower than their normal rate of
feeding on marine plankton", the study published in the journal Marine
Biology said.
"If microplastic pollution
increases on the Great Barrier Reef, corals could be negatively affected as
their tiny stomach cavities become full of indigestible plastic," Mia
Hoogenboom of Queensland state's James Cook University said.
Microplastic is defined as particles
smaller than half a centimetre (a fifth of an inch).
The scientists found the plastic
"deep inside the coral polyp wrapped in digestive tissue" and
expressed concerns the substance could then hurt the creature's ability to
digest normal food.
They also sampled waters near
inshore coral reefs in the World Heritage-listed site and found microplastics
including polystyrene and polyethylene in small amounts, study co-author
Kathryn Berry said.
The health of the reef, along the
Queensland coast, is already under close scrutiny from the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
Climate change, poor water quality
from land-based run-offs, coastal developments and fishing all threaten the
biodiverse site.
As much as 88 percent of the open
ocean's surface contains plastic debris, findings published in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences last year found.
The small pieces -- from
mass-produced plastics such as toys, bags, food containers and utensils -- make
their way into the sea through storm water run-off, raising concerns about the
effect on marine life and the food chain.
The United Nations Environment
Programme estimated in 2012 that around 13,000 pieces of microplastic litter
were found in every square kilometre of sea, with the North Pacific most badly
affected.
Despite the prevalence of
microplastics, scientists say it is not well-known what effects they have on
the world's marine life.
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/fears-over-plastic-eating-coral-australias-barrier-reef-071205504.html?soc_src=copy
Comments
Post a Comment