’

Oceans

Center for Biological Diversity, "Ocean Plastics Pollution," No Publication,

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/ocean_plastics/ //VA
Plastic accumulating in our oceans and on our beaches has become a global crisis. Billions of pounds of
plastic can be found in swirling convergences that make up about 40 percent of the world's ocean
surfaces. At current rates plastic is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050. Plastics pollution
has a direct and deadly effect on wildlife. Thousands of seabirds and sea turtles, seals and other marine
mammals are killed each year after ingesting plastic or getting entangled in it. Endangered wildlife like
Hawaiian monk seals and Pacific loggerhead sea turtles are among nearly 700 species that eat and get
caught in plastic litter. It's time to get at the root of this ocean crisis. The Center has petitioned the
Environmental Protection Agency to begin regulating plastics as a pollutant and is working to stop plastic
pollution at the source, before it ever has a chance to reach the ocean. THE PLASTIC PROBLEM We're
surrounded by plastic. It’s in the single-use packaging we discard, the consumer goods that fill our stores,
and in our clothing, which sheds microplastic fibers in the wash. In the first decade of this century, we
made more plastic than all the plastic in history up to the year 2000. And every year, billions of pounds
of more plastic end up in the world's oceans. Studies estimate there are now 15–51 trillion pieces of
plastic in the world's oceans — from the equator to the poles, from Arctic ice sheets to the sea floor. Not
one square mile of surface ocean anywhere on earth is free of plastic pollution. The problem is growing
into a crisis. The fossil fuel industry plans to increase plastic production by 40 percent over the next
decade. These oil giants are rapidly building petrochemical plants across the United States to turn fracked
gas
into plastic. This means more toxic air pollution and plastic in our oceans. We need urgent action to
address the global plastic pollution epidemic. Unfortunately, plastic is so durable that the EPA reports
“every bit of plastic ever made still exists.” All five of the Earth's major ocean gyres are inundated with
plastic pollution. The largest one has been dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
IUCN, 11-2021, "Marine plastic pollution," IUCN, https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-brief/marine-
plastic-pollution //VA Plastic is a synthetic organic polymer made from petroleum with properties ideally
suited for a wide variety of applications including: packaging, building and construction, household and
sports equipment, vehicles, electronics and agriculture. Over 400 million tons of plastic are produced
every year, half of which is used to create single-use items such as shopping bags, cups and straws. If
discarded improperly, plastic waste can harm the environment and biodiversity. At least 14 million tons
of plastic end up in the ocean every year. Plastic debris is currently the most abundant type of litter in the
ocean, making up 80% of all marine debris found from surface waters to deep-sea sediments. Plastic is
found on the shorelines of every continent, with more plastic waste found near popular tourist
destinations and densely populated areas. The main sources of plastic debris found in the ocean are land-
based, coming from urban and stormwater runoff, sewer overflows, littering, inadequate waste disposal
and management, industrial activities, tyre abrasion, construction and illegal dumping. Ocean-based
plastic pollution originates primarily from the fishing industry, nautical activities and aquaculture. Most
of this is single-use plastics.
Jemima Webber 2024 "Single-Use Items Make up 89% of Plastic Waste in the
Ocean," LIVEKINDLY, https://www.livekindly.com/single-use-items-make-up-
89-of-plastic-waste-in-the-ocean/ //VA
A new press release by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) highlighted the threat of
plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. According to the organization, 89 percent of the plastic in the
ocean is single-use plastic items such as plastic bags, straws, and disposable utensils. This data was
collected through more than 5,000 dives that collected 3,000 pieces of manmade debris. Further, the
pollution is now reaching deeper ocean locations than ever. UNEP stated plastic bags were found in the
Marina Trench, the world’s deepest ocean trench. The region extends 10,898 meters below the surface of
the water. “Finding plastic this deep in the ocean reveals the devastating link between human activity on
land and the consequences from marine life below water,” UNEP noted. The prevalence of plastic in the
ocean is of increasing concern to the public and government bodies as its impact on the environment and
marine life becomes more understood than ever before. UNEP pointed out that plastic can last for
thousands of years on Earth and leads to the death of more than 100,000 marine animals annually. Plastic
is often found in the stomachs or necks of dead marine animals as various species, including sea turtles
and whales, mistakenly ingest the trash. “This is especially concerning for oceanic ecosystems, since
these ecosystems have very slow growth rates,” the press release explained. “Cleaning up our oceans is
more important than ever, with more and more plastic being dumped into the ocean every day.”

Claire Asher, 10-9-2023, "Microplastics pose risk to ocean plankton, climate, other key Earth systems,"
Mongabay Environmental News, https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/microplastics-pose-risk-to-ocean-
plankton-climate-other-key-earth-systems/ //VA Plastic pollution pushes Earth out of ‘safe zone’
Plastics, along with other synthetic chemicals and pollutants dubbed “novel entities” by scientists, are
considered a threat to the stability of Earth’s operating system because of their persistence in the
environment and potential toxicity to humans and wildlife —with the harm done to biodiversity in turn
altering life-giving geophysical processes. The production and release of vast amounts of plastic into
marine ecosystems is now being recognized as a key potential threat to environmental stability as
defined by the Planetary Boundaries framework. That theory attempts to
quantify nine Earth system thresholds that humanity cannot transgress without risking life as we know it.
Researchers suggest we have already exceeded the safe threshold for novel entity chemical pollution.
Plastics are also pushing us further into the danger zone for other planetary boundaries, especially the
loss of biosphere integrity and function, through their lethal and sublethal effects on living organisms.
Research is also showing that plastics, via their impact on microscopic ocean life, may have knock-on
effects, destabilizing three other critical boundaries, including ocean acidification, climate change and
biogeochemical flows of nitrogen. The smallest plastic particles “are likely the ones that pose the biggest
planetary boundary threats,” says Meredith Seeley, a postdoctoral researcher studying marine
microplastics at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland, U.S.

This is because microplastics kill phytoplankton.

Santa Barbara, 06-28-2022, "Monitoring Plankton to Protect Wildlife, People, and Ocean
Health," No Publication, https://www.sbck.org/monitoring-plankton/ //VA
Plankton are also threatened by plastic pollution and microplastics billions of tiny bits of plastic, less
than five millimeters in size. Plastics float, block sunlight, and do not degrade. By blocking sunlight,
plastics disrupt phytoplankton’s ability to produce energy through photosynthesis, causing them to die
off. Zooplankton can also consume microplastics and die from blockages in their digestive tracts.
Because they are a primary food source for many marine creatures, when plankton populations
diminish, many other species are affected throughout the ocean food web.
Empirically,
Kristen Minogue, 07-28-2010, "Critical Ocean Organisms Are Disappearing," No Publication,
https://www.science.org/content/article/critical-ocean-organisms-are-disappearing //VA
The number of marine phytoplankton, the microscopic organisms that gobble greenhouse gases and
directly or indirectly feed every animal in the ocean, has been declining by about 1% of the global
average per year, according to a new study. If the trend continues, it could decimate ocean food chains
and accelerate global warming. Researchers know that phytoplankton numbers have been dropping for
the past 30 years. Satellite images show a decline in the concentration of chlorophyll—a green pigment
that helps phytoplankton photosynthesize. But because satellites have been collecting data only since the
late 1970s, scientists couldn't determine whether this drop was a long-term trend or just a fluke. To get a
more comprehensive record of phytoplankton numbers, Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax,
Canada, and colleagues dug into old shipboard records from sailors who had studied the ocean as far back
as 1900. In those days, sailors used a tool called a Secchi disk to gauge how clear the ocean was. They
weren't trying to measure phytoplankton, but they inadvertently did because chlorophyll clouds the water.

Empirically, ocean biodiversity is decreasing right now.

Aaron Orlowski, 5-31-2019, "UN report: Ocean biodiversity in peril due to overfishing and climate
change," SeafoodSource, https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/environment-sustainability/un-report-
ocean-biodiversity-in-peril-to-due-overfishing-and-climate-change //VA
The biodiversity of the world’s oceans is declining in a manner unlike any time in human history. A
recent report from the United Nations paints a dire picture for wildlife around the globe, in both land-
based and marine environments. About two-thirds of the marine environment has been significantly
altered by human actions and climate change
has the potential to make the situation much worse, the report said. The report, from the
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity Ecosystem Services (IPBES), was written by
nearly 150 expert authors from 50 countries who assessed global changes over the last five decades.
Only the initial summary of the report has been released; the full report is expected to exceed 1,500
pages and will be released later this year. “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species
depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever,” IPBES Chair Sir Robert Watson said in a statement.
“We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health, and quality of
life worldwide.” Climate change poses an extra threat, the report said, and could drive a decline in fish
biomass of 3 to 25 percent by the end of the century, depending on how much humanity does to prevent
rising temperatures. At significant risk are the more than 90 percent of global fishermen – more than 30
million people – who are in small-scale fisheries and who account for nearly 50 percent of global fish
catch.
Without change, phytoplankton collapse causes extinction.
Harshit Poddar, 4-13-2021, "How The Loss Of Phytoplankton Could Lead To Our Demise," Medium,
https://medium.com/climate-conscious/how-the-loss-of-phytoplankton-could-lead-to-our-demise-
8f9c91b937a8 //VA If the phytoplankton were to indeed die, it would be the end of almost all marine life
on Earth. With that, a major source of our food would disappear. That, however, is not the only concern.
Without them, the capacity of our oceans to serve as carbon sinks will diminish greatly, which would
further broaden the scope and impact of climate change. Not only this, the air around us will lose a lot of
oxygen. Consequently, life on Earth itself would be challenged and humanity’s days would become
numbered.
They’re crucial.
S. Witman, 9-13-2017, "World’s Biggest Oxygen Producers Living in Swirling Ocean Waters," Eos,
https://eos.org/research-spotlights/worlds-biggest-oxygen-producers-living-in-swirling-ocean-waters
//VA
Plankton may be small, but these tiny drifters play a huge role in aquatic ecosystems. Many animals,
including whales, rely on them for food. Plankton that are plants, known as phytoplankton, grow and
get their own energy through photosynthesis and are responsible for producing an estimated 80% of the
world’s oxygen. As such, climate scientists are interested in learning more about phytoplankton because
of the role they play in oxygen production, as well as in carbon sequestration.

Without change, phytoplankton collapse causes extinction.

Harshit Poddar, 4-13-2021, "How The Loss Of Phytoplankton Could Lead To Our Demise," Medium,
https://medium.com/climate-conscious/how-the-loss-of-phytoplankton-could-lead-to-our-demise-
8f9c91b937a8 //VA If the phytoplankton were to indeed die, it would be the end of almost all marine life
on Earth. With that, a major source of our food would disappear. That, however, is not the only concern.
Without them, the capacity of our oceans to serve as carbon sinks will diminish greatly, which would
further broaden the scope and impact of climate change. Not only this, the air around us will lose a lot of
oxygen. Consequently, life on Earth itself would be challenged and humanity’s days would become
numbered.

Paul Watson, "Sea more," No Publication, https://us.oceanfilmtour.com/sea-more/parley-for-the-

oceans/ //VA Paul Watson: The reality is that if the ocean dies, we die – because the ocean provides all
of those things which make it possible for us to live on the planet. Over 70% of the oxygen is actually
produced by phytoplankton in the ocean, and since the 1950 there's been a 40% diminishment in
phytoplankton population. If phytoplankton disappear, we disappear also, we can’t live on this planet
without phytoplankton. The laws, the ecological law of interdependence states that our survival is
dependent upon other species, we're not standing alone here. So it's very important that we stop this
diminishment of biological diversity within the oceanic ecosystem. There are many factors attributing to
that, from overfishing, illegal fishing, plastics in the ocean, chemicals, sonic pollution, radiation,
acidification, climate change – all of these things are contributing to a massive diminishment of
biodiversity in the sea. Looking at all these threats toward the health of the sea, how long do we have left
to turn things around? When will the oceans be dead? That's really a difficult thing to assess, but
considering that 90% of the large fishes have already been destroyed, I would say that it's only a few
decades, at the most the end of this century. The ocean has a way of being more resistant than we
sometimes think, but we're seeing the collapse of fisheries worldwide. So I think it is the number one
concern that we should have, that our oceans be protected. For the most part that is something that's out
of sight and out of mind for most people, people just don't think about that that the fact that their entire
existence depends upon a healthy ocean.
https://www.condorferries.co.uk/marine-ocean-pollution-statistics-facts#:~:text=There%20is%20an
%20estimated%2075,year%20from%20plastic%20waste%20alone. - 100 million
 Wildfires

Plastic is causing fires.

Kate Holland, 9-15-2022, "Why plastic is building up at recycling centers and catching fire," ABC
News, https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/plastic-building-recycling-centers-catching-fire/story?
id=89125707 //VA More than 82 million metric tons of PET plastic are produced globally every year,
the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy
Laboratory says. This is over 30 times the amount of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which
is currently about the size of Mexico. Experts say the number of reported fires has steadily increased
over the last five years and they believe this is due to a buildup of a combination of combustible
materials like paper and plastic, sparks from discarded lithium-ion batteries and increasing
temperatures as the climate warms. Fogelman,
who is part of a company that promotes fire prevention systems, began collecting data on waste and
recycling facility fires in 2016 when he noticed a gap in data reporting on those type of fires. "There was
absolutely no data anywhere," he told ABC News, "and if you look at the U.S. there's no regulation."
There were 343 fires reported at waste and recycling facilities in the United States and Canada in 2019,
causing 49 injuries and two deaths, according to Fogelman's data, which was cited in an EPA report.
That figure increased to 367 fires in the U.S. and Canada in 2021, Fogelman reported, resulting in 37
injuries and two deaths. Recent fires at recycling plants around the world have been reported in Turkey,
South Wales and Austria as well as Northern California, New Mexico and the Bronx, where five
firefighters were injured putting out a fire in June 2019, according to ABC affiliate WABC in New York.
Jan Dell, a chemical engineer, former White House national climate advisor and founder of watchdog
nonprofit Last Beach Cleanup who tracks the fires, said she's noticed a lack of data reporting on
recycling facility fires. "I honestly can't keep up, there are so
many of them," Dell told ABC News regarding the fires in recent years. Plastic piling up Jeff Donlevy,
the general manager of Ming's Recycling facility in Haywood, California, said since the Chinese
government banned plastic waste imports in 2018 these bottles have just been collecting in reprocessing
facilities or sent to landfills. "Americans aren't converting this material to new bottles, that's not
happening here," he said.

This is due to plastics.

Kate Holland, 9-15-2022, "Why plastic is building up at recycling centers and
catching fire," ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/plastic-building-
recycling-centers-catching-fire/story?id=89125707 //VA
Recycling plants are amassing millions of tons of plastic bottles, the Environmental Protection Agency
says, with some becoming part of a growing problem of toxic fires at these plants, according to data
provided by environmental advocates. Critics say beverage companies should be doing more to make
their products more recyclable. The majority of the combustible build-up at facilities is polyethylene
terephthalate plastic, better known as PET, a clear, strong plastic typically used to make single-use
beverage bottles, packaging, clothing and carpets. Most consumers believe this type of plastic can be
recycled, but the majority of it is sitting in recycling facilities where experts say it is at risk of catching
fire. The problem of PET trash has been made worse because so much of it is not recycled. In the U.S.,
plastic bottles are sold to reprocessing plants where about 29% of them are recycled, according to the
National Association for PET Container Resources. The rest end up in landfills, or often pile up until
they can be sold and exported to other countries. Previously, the primary buyer for PET plastic was
China, but it issued an import ban on plastic waste in early 2018. Another reason PET bottles are building
up is because so many are made with
colorful dyes, most commonly green like in soda bottles, and use shrink-wrap labels, destroying the
recyclability of the plastic, experts say. "I've seen more fires in the last two years than I've ever seen,"
Ryan Fogelman, a fire suppression entrepreneur who tracks fires at recycling plants around the U.S., told
ABC News. While the exact cause of the fires is unclear and can vary, experts say a buildup of plastics
and other materials ignited by batteries may be to blame.

Indeed,
Kim DeGracia, 11-2020, "How Can Forest Fires Be Helpful For Ecosystems?,"
Environmental Nonprofit Organization, https://oceanblueproject.org/forest-fires-be-helpful-
for-ecosystems/ //VA
Eliminate single-use plastics from your lifestyle. We want to enjoy the benefits nature brings to our
lives. But when humans leave plastic debris in forests, oceans, rivers, and streams, they provide
flammable materials that can intensify fires. By eliminating single-use plastics, you can help
contribute to balanced ecosystems.

These turn into wildfires.

Ciara Nugent, 4-13-2023, "Why Recycling Plants Keep Catching on Fire," TIME,
https://time.com/6271576/recycling-plant-fire-indiana/ //VA
Recycling fires are increasingly common in North America. The number of major fires reported at plants
in the U.S. and Canada has increased by more than a third since 2017, hitting 390 in 2022. By the end of
March this year, 75 more had taken place. Those figures come from Ryan Fogelman, an entrepreneur
who works with fire prevention
company Fire Rover and began tracking media coverage of recycling fires in 2016 in the absence of
official data. With smaller fires going unreported, he estimates that the real number is closer to 2,400.
The blazes killed three people and injured 63 last year. They also release toxic fumes, increase the risk of
wildfires, and cause millions of dollars in damage for a sector under pressure to scale up as part of cities’
green goals. Experts say the recycling industry is facing a cocktail of factors that increase the risk of fires,
from a growing number of new plants opening to deal with growing demand, to major new hazards in the
products people recycle, to global shifts in the management of waste. On top of that, a hotter, drier
climate is making it easier for fires to spread inside plants, with blazes starting earlier each year.

Independently, plastics cause more deaths

Environmental Protection Agency, 3-1-2022, "Study Shows Some Household Materials Burned in
Wildfires Can be More Toxic Than Others," US EPA,
https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/study-shows-some-household-materials-burned-wildfires-can-be-
more-toxic-others //VA “Our study can help to better understand the health effects of combustion smoke
from dwellings in the wildland urban interface (WUI) during a wildfire,” explains Yong Ho Kim, lead
author on the study.1 “Wildfires are bad but the burning of synthetic materials like plastic can make it
worse.” The World Health Organization has reported that when wildfires impact urban areas, the
materials burned contain more toxic chemicalsthan from wildfires that consume wood and other natural
materials. Using a laboratory scale combustion system to produce smoke, EPA researchers have the
ability to quickly conduct controlled studies on toxic outcomes of different types of materials burned. For
the study, researchers simulated burnpit fires using five different materials – military grade cardboard and
plywood, several common types of plastic, a mixture of materials, and a mixture with diesel fuel, often
used as a fire accelerant. Each type of waste was tested under two burning conditions—flaming and
smoldering. Researchers analyzed the emissions and condensed the PM into liquid form called
condensate. They then used the condensate in two tests – one to evaluate potential toxic effects in the
lungs of mice and the other to determine if the condensate caused DNA mutations in salmonella bacteria,
a precursor to cancer. “The health effects of the synthetic materials varied depending on the fuel type and
the combustion temperatures (flaming versus smoldering), with the plastic burning in flaming conditions
being the most toxic condition,” Kim says. Specifically, smoke from flaming combustion of plastic
caused more inflammation and lung injury and was more mutagenic than other samples. The burning
plastic waste also generated 20 times higher PM than other burned materials under flaming conditions.
The research has been published in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology.