We land-dwelling aliens ๐ฝ forget sometimes how significant ๐ช๐๐ง๐๐ฅ is to our survival on Earth ๐ ๐ง โ
Both fresh water for drinking & ocean water for food, medicine, climate regulation, and the air we breathe. By 2050, ocean plastic will outweigh all the oceanโs fish if we keep dumping 17.6 BILLION POUNDS (8 million metric tons) of plastic into our water each year ๐ฑโ We cannot afford to destroy the ocean!
Beyond seafood, the ocean surprisingly supplies ingredients found in foods such as peanut butter, pudding, cheese, fruit drinks, ice-cream and soymilk; plus, products like toothpaste and laundry detergent.
Without the ocean, it would be nearly impossible to scale up the production of land-derived food crops to feed 7.8 billion people AND GROWING due to declining yield rates and scarce land & water resources.
And thanks to the oceanโs marine photosynthesizers, like phytoplankton & seaweed, 50-80% of the worldโs oxygen is produced by organisms in the ocean. โ
. . . ๐๐ฉ๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ ๐ข๐ ๐๐๐๐ง๐ข๐ ๐ฆ??? ๐คฏโ
The oceanโs photosynthesizers help absorb 50X MORE carbon dioxide than the atmosphere, and a quarter of the COโ that we humans create when we burn fossil fuels.
๐๐๐ฆ๐ ๐๐ก๐ ๐ฃ๐ข๐๐ก๐ง: ๐ช๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ง๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ก!
Each one of us can reduce our harmful plastic use by making simple changes.โ
If you live in the United States, you may be personally responsible for nearly a pound of plastic waste per day; approximately 274 pounds per year.โ You can easily reduce your plastic use with a few intentional changes.
10 TIPS TO EASILY REDUCE YOUR PLASTIC USE:
- Reusable Grocery Bags & Produce Bags
- Reusable Straw (Stainless Steel or Glass)
- Go Bagless in Your Recycle Bin (it will require cleaning every once in a while, no biggie)
- (Women Only) Use a Menstrual Cup (also a phenomenal choice for your body & traveling)
- Ask to Skip the Take-Out Foodโs Plastic Eating Utensils (just use your own)
- Reusable Water Bottle (steel or glass)
- 5-Gallon Refillable Water Jug vs. Bottled Water
- Reuse your Zip-Lock Bags or use silicone reusable bags instead
- Choose glass containers instead of plastic Tupperware-like containers
- Buy non-plastic products over plastic products (e.g. glass contained salad dressings or peanut butter, fresh spinach over bagged, metal clothes hangers, plastic-free toothpaste)
Plastic is a slow to non-biodegradable synthetic element. Itโs NOT eco-friendly! If we are to protect our oceans and the environment at large, we must significantly reduce our plastic use.
Which begs the question:
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