We land-dwelling aliens 👽  forget sometimes how significant 𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥 is to our survival on Earth 🌍 💧 ⁠

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 ocean’s fish if we keep dumping 17.6 BILLION POUNDS (8 million metric tons) of plastic into our water each year 😱⁠ 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 ocean’s marine photosynthesizers, like phytoplankton & seaweed, 50-80% of the world’s oxygen is produced by organisms in the ocean. ⁠

. . . 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗧𝗢𝗠𝗦??? 🤯⁠

The ocean’s photosynthesizers help absorb 50X MORE carbon dioxide than the atmosphere, and a quarter of the CO₂ that we humans create when we burn fossil fuels. 

𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧: 𝗪𝗘 𝗡𝗘𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗢𝗖𝗘𝗔𝗡!

Each one of us can reduce our harmful plastic use by making simple changes.⁠ 

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.⁠ You can easily reduce your plastic use with a few intentional changes.

10 TIPS TO EASILY REDUCE YOUR PLASTIC USE:

1. Reusable Grocery Bags & Produce Bags
2. Reusable Straw (Stainless Steel or Glass)
3. Go Bagless in Your Recycle Bin (it will require cleaning every once in a while, no biggie)
4. (Women Only) Use a Menstrual Cup (also a phenomenal choice for your body &  traveling)
5. Ask to Skip the Take-Out Food’s Plastic Eating Utensils (just use your own)
6. Reusable Water Bottle (steel or glass)
7. 5-Gallon Refillable Water Jug vs. Bottled Water
8. Reuse your Zip-Lock Bags or use silicone reusable bags instead 
9. Choose glass containers instead of plastic Tupperware-like containers
10. 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. It’s 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:

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗧𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗚𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗨𝗣 𝗧𝗢𝗗𝗔𝗬?