The Plastics You Don't See

Despite nearly three years of Trump occupying the White House and his accompanying assaults on human intelligence, dignity, and compassion, I still harbor some hope for our nation and species in general. Call me naive or simply a stupid wide-eyed fool, but having been raised on Gene Roddenberry's vision –Star Trek – I like the idea of a matured and rational humanity taking responsibility for our past actions and working to correct them. However, the scope of that task, even now, makes me have my doubts.

One example of humans trying to do the right thing is how many of us come together across the globe to cleanup beaches, namely to collect and properly dispose of used plastics. Unfortunately, even though the organization Ocean Conservancy has organized efforts that resulted in over 300 million pounds of plastics being removed, it truly is just the tip of the iceberg. See while beach cleanups are worthy efforts studying the effects of plastics that have washed ashore on remote islands shows we have a more difficult problem.

Most plastics no not decay into components parts like organic materials. Ultraviolet light from the sun and wave action does eventually cause plastics to breakdown, but just into smaller pieces that accumulate in sand on beaches or stay in the ocean. Yeah, that's still a huge problem with major repercussions for all lifeforms. The accumulation of these tiny pieces, called microplastics, makes it easier for water to flow through beach sand changing the rate it dries out. This changes the temperature of the sand which directly affects the incubation period for sea turtle eggs. Colder temperatures of turtle nests directly alters the sex ratio of these animals throwing a monkey wrench into breeding cycles.

While most people couldn't give a rip about an imbalance in the number of male and female sea turtles, given the complex and connected nature of marine ecosystems changing the chemistry of that community will most likely have further damaging repercussions. Ones that will most certainly affect human health and the overall food chain.

To get a further idea on the effects of microplastics, scientists traveled to remote islands free of large numbers of humans to study how it accumulates. The Cocos Island group, a chain of 27 small atolls is often advertised as Australia's unspoiled paradise. These researchers took samples of beach trash from twenty-five beaches from seven islands collecting organic and plastic waste that had washed ashore. Based on sampling, they estimated that string of islands contained 414 million pieces of waste weighing 238 tons with microplastics making 93 percent of that amount.

Still you might be wondering what does a trashy beach mean to me? And if these tiny plastics continue to breakdown does that mean they will become too small too matter? Besides simply decency and respect for the environment, keeping a clean beach means coastal areas can continue to draw tourists and make money for the businesses located there. For those who chiefly worry about such things, like irate a-holes who whine about their tax dollars and people on welfare that should be enough. The trouble though is that all ecosystems are connected and if you abuse and destroy just one facet of the environment enough the others will eventually feel the effects.

For those who slept through high school biology that not only means the livelihood of millions of people but ultimately the health of us all.

Read National Geographic's:

  

Beach cleanups are missing millions of pieces of plastic

A new study reveals the dirty secret of beach cleanups: Much of a given beach’s plastic is tiny and buried.