Much attention has focused on what a strong El Niño could mean for food security, disasters, and the economy. Biodiversity loss deserves the same urgency because healthy ecosystems support our global food systems, buffer communities from extreme weather, and sustain livelihoods for billions of people worldwide. Biodiversity is already declining because of land-use change, resource exploitation, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. A strong El Niño could accelerate this decline by driving habitat loss and degradation, altering wildlife movement and behavior, and disrupting conservation efforts.

When Habitats Are Lost and Degraded

Habitat loss occurs when species lose the places they need to feed, breed, shelter, and find water, causing populations to shrink and making local extinctions more likely. Human land-use change remains the main driver of this process, especially through deforestation and agricultural conversion, but a strong El Niño can accelerate habitat loss by increasing the risk of extreme conditions like drought, storms, and flooding. 

In Indonesia, the 2015–2016 El Niño created unusually dry conditions that allowed fires to spread across drained and degraded peatlands in Sumatra and Kalimantan. These fires burned an estimated 2.6 million hectares of land, destroying forests, damaging peat-swamp habitats, and threatening wildlife that depends on these ecosystems, including endangered Bornean orangutans.

Even when habitats are not completely destroyed, extreme disturbances can degrade their quality and weaken their ability to provide food, shelter, and breeding conditions. For example, during marine heatwaves coral reefs expel the symbiotic algae that provide much of their energy, leading to bleaching, disease, and death.  As live coral declines, reefs lose the structure that fish, invertebrates, and other marine species rely on for shelter, feeding, and reproduction. 

In 2024, the Great Barrier Reef experienced its fifth mass bleaching event since 2016 and its most widespread on record, following what (at the time) was the fifth strongest El Niño ever recorded. 2025 surveys showing hard coral cover declines on nearly half of the 124 reefs assessed and losses reaching 70.8% on some reefs.

When Wildlife Shifts Their Behavior and Movement

A strong El Niño can also accelerate biodiversity loss by changing how wildlife behave under stress. When drought reduces food and water, animals may alter their daily behavior by feeding closer to people, entering farms more often, and taking greater risks to survive. 

In Zambia’s Luangwa River Basin and surrounding Eastern Region, the 2023–2024 El Niño-linked drought reduced food and water for people, livestock, and wildlife, which in turn increased confrontations between humans and wildlife. As food and water became scarcer, elephants and other wildlife moved closer to farms, settlements, and shared water points.  Resource Africa reported that elephants and hippos destroyed more than 200 hectares of crops in the Eastern Region. 

Along the U.S. West Coast, marine heatwaves and El Niño-linked warm years can compress cool, nutrient-rich upwelling ocean habitats, pushing humpback whales and their prey closer to nearshore fishing areas. This movement increases overlap with fixed fishing gear, including Dungeness crab pots and vertical lines. A recent study found that reported humpback whale entanglements were highest in years with limited suitable habitat and feeding grounds,  including spikes during the 2015–2016 marine heatwave and El Niño period and 31 confirmed humpback entanglements in 2024.

When Conservation Efforts Are Disrupted

A strong El Niño can intensify extreme storms and flooding, disrupting the infrastructures that conservation work depends on. Protected areas rely on well-maintained infrastructure and operational equipment, such as roads, fences, vehicles, communication systems, and monitoring tools. These resources help staff patrol boundaries, monitor conditions, care for wildlife, and respond quickly to threats.

In Kenya, the 2023–2024 El Niño likely contributed to the severe flooding in March–May 2024.. The floods affected more than 380,000 people, damaged more than 60 roads, destroyed bridges, and caused about $35 million in losses. These disruptions also reached conservation sites, including Ol Pejeta Conservancy, where the flooding badly damaged perimeter and chimpanzee sanctuary fences, closed the chimpanzee facility for months, and increased wildlife-security and chimp-welfare costs.

Climate extremes around strong El Niño periods can also weaken conservation by stretching the institutions responsible for enforcement and land protection. When agencies are forced to prioritize emergency response, fewer resources may be available to prevent, monitor, and stop illegal burning, land clearing, and wildlife crime. 

Peru’s record 2024 wildfires show how quickly this strain can escalate when drought, human-started fires, and limited response capacity converge. The Global Wildfire Information System recorded about 10,400 fires in Peru in 2024, more than double the previous record. As fires spread across grasslands, dry forests, coastal areas, and the Amazon, limited capacity made it harder to contain the crisis and protect vulnerable ecosystems.

Toward More El Niño-Resilient Ecosystems

Building El Niño-resilient ecosystems starts with regenerative approaches that strengthen biodiversity, restore ecological function, and support the communities that depend on healthy landscapes. Regenerative agriculture can improve soil health by increasing organic matter, helping farms retain more water during drought, reducing erosion during floods, and supporting the soil biodiversity that sustains nutrient cycling, crop productivity, and climate resilience. Agroforestry builds on this resilience by bringing trees back into working landscapes, creating shade, habitat, and food sources for wildlife while helping farmers diversify their livelihoods through fruit, timber, fuelwood, fodder, and other tree-based products.

El Niño resilience also depends on stronger institutions and sustained investment for the people working closest to biodiversity loss. Frontline communities, Indigenous peoples, local leaders, conservation organizations, and protected-area agencies need resources before extreme conditions escalate into disasters. Funding should support early-warning systems, biodiversity monitoring, emergency planning, and rapid response, while long-term partnerships can help protect vulnerable species and ecosystems before losses become harder to reverse.

Reducing the pressures that make biodiversity vulnerable is just as important as preparing for El Niño itself. Ecosystems are better able to survive droughts, floods, fires, and marine heatwaves when species have enough food, clean water, breeding sites, shelter, and space to move before extreme conditions arrive. 

Cutting emissions can reduce the heat stress that forces plants and animals beyond their limits and makes recovery harder after an El Niño event. Protecting and reconnecting habitats can help wildlife move away from burned forests, dried wetlands, flooded nesting areas, or warming ocean zones. Managing invasive species can also reduce competition and predation, giving native plants and animals a better chance to recover when extreme events disrupt food webs.

Biodiversity is the foundation of global food, health, and economic systems, making its loss a direct threat to human security and well-being. A Super El Niño would intensify that threat by pushing already weakened ecosystems closer to their limits. The way forward is clear: scale regenerative systems that sustain biodiversity and livelihoods, support frontline communities and the institutions they depend on, and reduce the pressures pushing species and ecosystems toward collapse.

A Super El Niño should inspire a global response rooted in science, equity, and local action. Support EARTHDAY.ORG’s Canopy Tree Project to restore habitats, expand tree cover, and strengthen communities, and join The Great Global Cleanup to remove waste and plastic pollution from the ecosystems we all depend on.

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Today we’re taking a dive into some of the truly crazy things going on in our oceans right now due to climate change. Despite making up roughly 70% of Earth’s surface, we know way less about what is happening beneath the waveline that we do above it but here are some of the crazier things researchers are just discovering. 

1. Not Clowning Around: Small but Mighty

A recent study found that clown fish are shrinking –  literally. Nestled into the coral reefs of Papua New Guinea, clownfish are typically only 3 inches in length anyway but scientists observed that they shrink their bodies by 1-2% in response to heat stress. This has improved their chances of surviving by a staggering 78%. No wonder they couldn’t find Nemo!

2. Caspian Sea is Shrinking 

It’s not just clownfish shrinking due to warming oceans – the Caspian Sea is slowly disappearing as rising temperatures increase evaporation. As an inland body of water, the lack of rain and river discharge worsens the issue. As a stark contrast to globally rising sea levels, scientists anticipate a rapid decrease in the Caspian’s sea’s water levels. In fact, its average rate of decline from 2020-2023 was 23.3 centimeters per year.

3. A Major Supply of Minerals

Did you know that oceans contain 37 out of 50 minerals that the U.S. relies on for feeding crucial supply chains and national as well as economic security? Unfortunately, essential minerals like manganese, cobalt, and platinum are found deep beneath the sea, meaning deep-sea mining is threatening fragile ecosystems. 

With the exact impact on biodiversity still so uncertain, scientists, governments, conservation organizations, and citizens alike are urging companies to pull back the pickaxe and deep sea dredgers.  In February 2025, the European Union (EU) Parliament voted against Norway’s decision to go ahead with deep-sea mining in the Arctic and instead reaffirmed its moratorium position. It called for the European Commission and member states to back an international moratorium on deep-sea mining.Let’s hope that gets traction, and soon.

4. Heart of the Sea

Like the human regulatory system, ocean currents provide essential heat and moisture circulation worldwide. One such process, El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), increases sea surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean. But recent studies suggest global heating is strengthening El Niño, and occurrences may increase over the next century. This potential positive feedback loop is sure to make Earth’s and our hearts race.

The consequence will amplify global climate instability, leading to more yet extreme weather, more disrupted ecosystems, and greater threats to food, water, and human security. 

5. Enough Salt for the Table?

Apart from record-breaking heat in 2023, El Niño also alters the chemistry of coastal waters. Scientists found that the salinity, an important indicator in the water cycle, is up to 30 times more variable along coasts than the open ocean. Researcher’s anticipate the stronger ENSOs (due to climate change) will heavily impact marine life along our coastlines especially. 

6. Slower Sperm – UV Got to Be Kidding Me

Bleaching and thermal stress pose major threats to coral reproduction, which is vital for maintaining healthy underwater ecosystems. In Montipora capitata, a Hawaiian rice coral, bleaching has been linked to a decline in coral polyp sperm motility—from a healthy 70-90% down to around 40%. 

Fortunately, another species, Montipora spp. (Hawaiian blue rice coral), produces a protein that acts like sunscreen. By filtering out UV radiation, this protein appears to help mitigate the damage that other rice corals are suffering from. 

7. It Actually Is That Deep

The Challenger Deep, is the deepest known part of the ocean and located in the Mariana Trench.  But despite depths of about 36,200 feet, and air pressure 1,100 times higher than what our bodies normally experience, a plastic bag still found its way all the way down there. 

Plastic trash is nobody’s  treasure, with 89% of the plastic scientists recorded in a 30-year debris blog being specifically single-use plastic. Probably used once for mere minutes and then thrown away to go to an imaginary plastic recycling plant – which means dumped in the ocean!

8. It’s Getting Hot in Here

Did you know that almost 60% of the world’s ocean surface experienced a heatwave in 2021? Our amazing oceans absorbed 90% of that excess heat caused from global warming, but marine heatwaves are causing wide scale reef degradation and coral bleaching. 

The UN Environment Programme has warned that every single coral reef could bleach by the end of this century. To combat this pandemic of coral bleaching we need a range of actions – we must reduce our carbon emissions so we can use renewable energy instead. We need to improve water quality, strengthen existing marine protected areas and create many more and we must back sustainable fisheries. 

9. When A Green Thumb Is Bad

Columbus may have sailed the ocean blue, but over the past 20 years scientists have found that the tropics are getting greener. Climate change is increasing the number of phytoplankton,the microscopic, plant-like organisms that form the foundation of the ocean’s food web. 

Unfortunately, overaccumulation of these organisms may lead to toxic algal blooms and this may lead to  virus infected phytoplankton releasing toxins. These algal blooms, paired with unsustainable farming practices, can lead to instances like the 2014 Toledo Water Crisis.

Which saw 500,000 residents in Toledo, Ohio, advised not to drink or even use their tap water for days due to contamination from a harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie.

10. The Twilight Zone

Although not quite an otherworldly dimension, the ocean’s mesopelagic region, or Twilight Zone, extends from 200 down to 1000 metres deep. It could contain about 100 times the amount of fish as fisheries catch in a year. Including vampire squid, bristlemouths, giant squid, deep-sea anglerfish, and stunning bioluminescent jellyfish. Most of its inhabitants have yet to be discovered and named. 

Unfortunately, with no global government protection framework in place for this area of the world’s oceans, this mysterious region’s creatures may be lost to us before we even discover what they are. 

11. A Little OverKrill 

Apart from being the largest animals on Earth, blue whales consume a staggering 40 million krill, small shrimp-like crustaceans, a day!  That’s roughly the equivalent, if we let one krill equals one person, of the population of Canada. 

But with the rapid melting of polar ice due to climate change, the algae plankton that typically grow in the underside of sea ice lose their habitat. These algae are a crucial food source for krill, so once the ice plankton is gone the krill too –  limiting the food supply for beautiful blue whales.

Whale, You Can Help

Unfortunately, like many of our ocean friends, blue whales are classified as an endangered species. Other whales in need are two very specific orcas,  mom Wikie and her son Keijo – trapped in a closed Marine park in Antibes, France. Our article Lost in Limbo: Saving Wikie and Keijo shares the mother-son orca’s plight. 

With the UN 2025 Oceans Conference starting in Nice on June 9th, just 22 km’s from Wikie and Keijo, if you care we urge you to take  minutes to help them by writing a letter to French President Emmanual Macron – to demand his intervention. He must  ensure these animals are cared for to the highest possible standards and not left to suffer or even die in a theme park.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at davies@earthday.org or fielder@earthday.org.Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

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When most people think of ocean plastic, they think of floating bottles, grocery bags, or maybe the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But a large fraction of ocean plastic does not float on the surface but  instead sinks to the ocean floor or is suspended in the ocean’s water column. This is because some plastics are denser than seawater, and even buoyant plastic can and will eventually sink. 

Plastic pollution is an urgent global issue that impacts all living things, yet remains complex due to the scale and hidden nature of the problem. Scientists struggle to estimate how much plastic is in the ocean and continue to debate whether the ocean’s surface, water column, sea floor, or coastlines serve as the largest ocean plastic reservoir. Currently, there is not enough reliable data to know, and existing models are often inaccurate or carry significant uncertainty. 

Yet despite the gaps in data, the magnitude and severity of the problem remain clear. In some of the world’s most ecologically significant marine regions, sinking plastic presents a growing concern. From the Mariana Trench to the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Coral Triangle, plastics are posing a serious threat to underwater ecosystems. 

How and Why Plastics Sink

Plastics that are less dense than seawater, such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), tend to float, whereas polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which are denser, will sink. That being said, buoyant plastics can still sink due to processes such as biofouling and plastic breakdown.

Biofouling is a process where microorganisms, plants, and animals attach themselves to underwater surfaces— in this case, plastics. This causes the overall density of the plastic debris to increase, leading to its sinking. 

Plastics also break down into microplastics over time and may eventually sink. Microplastics, small plastic particles between 1 nanometer and 5 millimeters, may enter oceans directly, but are also produced from the gradual breakdown of larger bits of plastic. Degradation is driven by a combination of sunlight, wind, heat, and waves, with sunlight being the most crucial and leading to a process known as photodegradation. 

These smaller plastic particles, created from the degradation of larger pieces,  disrupt the bottom of the food chain, being consumed by plankton and thus creating a cascade of harm. Small, plastic-contaminated marine organisms are consumed by larger species like fish and shellfish and may eventually harm humans through contaminated seafood. Plastics, large and small, are everywhere in the ocean. Understanding how and why plastics sink helps explain their omin-presence, even in some of the ocean’s most extreme environments—  one of which being the Mariana Trench. 

The Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world’s ocean, located in the western Pacific Ocean and reaching almost 7 miles deep. In 2019, a diver set out to reach the deepest point in the ocean, Challenger Deep, and found multiple pieces of plastic debris down there. In fact, in a database of 5,010 submersible dives, 3,425 man-made debris items were detected. Over 33% of these items were macro-plastics, or larger pieces of sunken plastic, 89% of which being single-use products. But it’s not just these large plastic objects that were found—  small plastic particles are there in abundance too. 

The worrying thing is that these plastics are essentially permanent; with little sunlight and cold conditions, plastic degradation rates slow down further and biological forces weaken. It’s not just the deep ocean that’s contaminated with plastics. The Tyrrhenian Sea, located off the west coast of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea, has been identified as a microplastic hotspot– an area of the ocean with an especially high concentration of microplastic. With 1.9 million pieces of microplastic per square meter, the Tyrrhenian Sea has the highest concentration ever recorded from the deep seafloor. 

A Plastic Ocean Hot Spot

In the deep sea, bottom currents carry oxygen and nutrients across the sea floor. However, new research suggests that these currents also transport microplastics, which, as a result, become more available to deep sea organisms and allow them to enter the food chain.

Microplastics also have the ability to absorb toxic chemicals from the surrounding water, and these pollutants are then passed up the food chain and will accumulate in living organisms over time. Research suggests that plastic ingestion by fish is rising by 2.4% annually and plastic debris has been detected in 386 fish species, including 210 species used commercially.  This build up can impact animal behavior in fish and sea birds, such as navigation and their ability to detect chemical cues. It is estimated that each year, plastic pollution leads to the deaths of 100,000 marine animals, such as whales, turtles, and dolphins, and 1 million seabirds.

The Coral Triangle

The Coral Triangle, another  biodiversity hotspot home, is also impacted by plastics: 75% of the world’s coral species and 2,200 fish species, are under increasing threat from plastic pollution. The Coral Triangle is a marine region in the Western Pacific Ocean and includes the seas of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. The region is considered the global center of marine biodiversity, but is heavily polluted with plastic.

Corals are vital to these marine ecosystems. Tens of thousands of species and one billion people rely on coral reefs for storm protection, livelihoods, food, and even medicine. In the Coral Triangle, over 50 million people are dependent on them, yet more than 90% face serious threats from human activity. 

Reefs impacted by plastic are also significantly more likely to develop disease. While unaffected reefs show only a 4% disease rate, this rises to 89% when plastic is present. This occurs because plastics cause abrasions in the coral, allowing pathogens and bacteria to enter. Additionally, plastic blocks light and can create low oxygen environments that encourage the formation of harmful microbes. A reduction in coral reefs has significant knock-on effects for marine ecosystems that rely on them for habitat, food sources, and protection from predators. 

Looking Forward 

Plastic pollution is not just an issue impacting the ocean’s surface. The sinking of plastics into our coral reefs and the deepest parts of the ocean reveals an urgent environmental crisis. 

This World Ocean Day, check out EARTHDAY.ORG’s End Plastics Initiative page to learn more about plastic pollution and how you can take action today. Then, sign the Global Plastics Treaty petition to add your voice to the demand for action to address the plastics problem. 

Together, we can push for systemic change and protect our oceans.

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Justin Perrault, Ph.D., is the director of research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Florida.

The ocean is a host to millions of species, many that have yet to be discovered. But climate change and environmental stressors are putting even our most recognizable ocean species at risk.

Amid our rapidly changing environment, one of our most familiar, modern-day species is struggling to survive. This crowning jewel of the sea is the endangered leatherback sea turtle. 

To reverse this trend, we must rely on science and research. Surprisingly, despite sea turtles’ longtime existence, sea turtle research is still in its infancy. Today, teams of researchers are racing the clock to discover underlying threats.

One such team is located at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Florida. Since 2001, we have studied and cataloged the local leatherback population to create a year-over-year sea turtle database. In doing so, we’ve found that leatherback nests, despite rising in number between 2000–2014, have declined over the last six years.

• 2000-2004: 125 nests
• 2005-2009: 186 nests
• 2010-2014: 229 nests
• 2014-2018: 178 nests

To prevent this ongoing trend, we’re making sure no stone is left unturned to protect this valuable and telling creature. A few of the research projects within our Leatherback Project include…

• Examining stable isotopes composed of carbon and nitrogen specific to certain areas around the globe, will provide detailed information about the animals’ diet, movements and habitat use
• Analyzing microplastics in leatherback sea turtle nests
• Discovering the impacts of endocrine-disrupting chemical plasticizers, or chemicals that disrupt hormone regulation, on leatherback and reproductive success

Leatherbacks also balance our ocean ecosystems. For example, leatherbacks keep jellyfish populations in check. Additionally, leatherbacks maintain healthy coral reefs and funnel critical nutrients to our coastal dunes.

Leatherbacks and sea turtles also serve a larger purpose, shedding light on the health of our oceans. Everything that’s affecting our livelihood — from what we eat to the 50 percent of the oxygen the ocean supplies — is being foretold through our sea turtles.

Loggerhead Marinelife Center is one of the longest-running sea turtle monitoring programs in the state of Florida. And astoundingly, Palm Beach County accounts for approximately 30 percent of the leatherback nests laid in the state.

The hub of leatherback nesting is at our fingertips to study. But how we provide lifesaving work hinges on the support from people everywhere.

Help keep more leatherbacks coming on our shores: Donate to sea turtle research. Learn more at Earth Day Network’s Conservation and Biodiversity campaign.  

Photos above courtesy of Loggerhead Marinelife Center. All photos have been acquired under a FWC permit with LMC.

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Dan Mele is a research assistant at the University of the Virgin Islands. Dan’s research focuses on developing cost-effective techniques in coral restoration that are scalable to the wider Caribbean region.

Picture yourself in nature.

Did you see yourself in the forest or on top of a mountain? What about the ocean? Oceans are by far the greatest expanse of wilderness on the planet, with over 228,000 described species and an estimated 1–2 million still undescribed.

Approximately 25% of species found in the ocean depend on coral reefs at some point in their life cycle, making coral reefs the epicenter of ocean biodiversity. These high levels of biodiversity provide many benefits (“ecosystem services”) to the more than 500 million people that directly rely on coral reefs for their livelihood.

Coral reefs provide shoreline protection, eco-tourism, fisheries and medical advancements, as well as many other environmental benefits. These ecosystem services, however, are threatened by the ongoing degradation of coral reefs worldwide.

The two biggest stressors to corals — and sunscreen isn’t one of them

While sunscreen is harmful, coral bleaching and disease are the two most deadly stressors to coral reefs. Globally, climate change has warmed oceans, causing coral bleaching and widespread coral die offs. Caribbean reefs have experienced the brunt of bleaching events, while showing the least signs of recovery.

In addition to bleaching, disease has harmed nearly every species of coral in the Caribbean, with some species losing 97% of their population. Currently, many regions in the Caribbean are battling the spread of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease, which affects at least 22 species of coral. Despite these threats, widespread efforts are assembling to restore damaged coral reefs.

Coral nurseries and coral sex

In the last decade, coral gardening in field– and land-based nurseries has become a leading coral-restoration technique. Through coral fragmentation, restoration efforts can rapidly increase the amount of living coral in their nurseries.

Other techniques involving sexual propagation are becoming increasingly sought after, as these methods can increase the genetic diversity among a given species. Increased fertilization rates can create new genotypes better suited to deal with climate change, a process known as “assisted evolution.”

Can coral restoration prevail over climate change?

The United Nations’ decade of ecosystem restoration from 2021–2030, creates long-term goals to revitalize vanishing ecosystems, including coral reefs. Coral Restoration Foundation, Mote Marine Laboratory and Fragments of Hope have already seen long-term success at many of their outplanting locations. 

Though not an end-all solution, coral restoration provides many benefits. Restoration allows us to preserve the genetic material or corals and propagate them in nurseries. Restoration also keep species from going extinct by advancing sexual propagation techniques. By targeting specific locations, restoration has the potential to rebuild reef structure for the persistence of reef health.

Additionally, coral restoration has peaked the public’s interest. Many citizen science programs have been an integral component to the success of coral restoration work.

But in a rapidly warming environment, it’s unlikely that restoration efforts alone can save coral reefs.Supporting and volunteering with coral restoration efforts will put the power back in the hands of communities to be stewards of their natural resources.

Learn more at Earth Day Network’s Conservation and Biodiversity campaign.

Photo at top: In Belize, Fragments of Hope has restoration sites with over 10 year survival of coral outplants. Here, Elkhorn Coral (Acropora palmata) and Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis) grow in high density among each other, a site rarely seen in the Caribbean. Photo credit: Dan Mele

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The 50th anniversary of Earth Day came in the middle of a pandemic, completely restructuring what a traditional demonstration may look like. But these changes also allowed an opportunity for reflection: Digital Earth Day let people hit the reset button and discuss a different Earth, one we haven’t seen in decades. 

With everyone at home, the Earth seems to be reverting to its natural self. Sea turtles are hatching and surviving at record rates. Oceans are the quietest they’ve been in decades, allowing whales and other marine wildlife to safely migrate and communicate. And, air pollution has plummeted in major cities.

“It’s a time of reflection,” said Sylvia Earle, renowned oceanographer and conservation activist, during an Instagram livestream on Wednesday. “Never before has the world come together in such a comprehensive way. We have a common enemy. We’ve had the wake up call to take care of nature and protect the underpinnings of what keeps us alive.”

Earle spoke with National Geographic photographer of ocean wildlife, Paul Nicklen, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The extended online conversation aired on Earth Day Live and was framed around the future of the oceans, as well as the hope that still exists amid a warming world.

For Earle, who has spent more than 7,500 hours ocean diving on conservation and research expeditions, the oceans keep us alive. Oceans are huge carbon sinks, and they regulate weather and climate, making life on land possible. 

But the ocean is in danger, taking the heat for unchecked climate change. Just this month, the Great Barrier Reef saw one of its worst coral bleaching events in history.

“We’re not addressing the overall problem: The planet is sick,” said Nicklen, who is also a co-founder of conservation organization SeaLegacy. “In one year we had the biggest fires in history in Australia, in the Amazon and the biggest hurricane ever. And now with the pandemic, it’s all stacking up. It’s our global health system. The problem is us.”

Infectious diseases have been on the rise since the 1950s, and a warmer climate only makes them harder to eradicate. When we clear forests  — which also act as carbon sinks  — and burn fossil fuels, CO2 flows into the air and into the oceans, accelerating acidification.

“No ocean, no life. No blue, no green,” said Earle.

Earle isn’t the only one driving the urgency of climate change and environmental degradation. Ashok Sridharan, the president of Local Governments for Sustainability, declared 2020 a turning point for sustainability and climate action. Sridharen promised new frameworks on biodiversity and innovations in urban development so that humans and our environments can better coexist.

Near the end of the livestream, Nicklen asked Earle what the 100th anniversary of Earth Day might look like.

“We’ve begun to develop this network of hope,” said Earle. “We will still see consequences on the land and in the sea, but we are beginning to respect nature and treat all life with dignity. Fifty years from now, the children of today will be thinking about their grandkids, and they will look back at us and say, ‘thank you,’ for doing what we could.”

In the last several months, we’ve seen how much the Earth can change without our negative influence. That should give us hope. But only if we act on this knowledge. Join Earth Day, the largest environmental movement in the world, and share your hope for the planet’s future. And come election day, vote for the Earth.

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For decades the ocean and cryosphere — the frozen parts of the planet — have been the unsung heroes in our climate crisis, absorbing 90 percent of the world’s excess heat. But now all that warming is catching up to us, a U.N. report out today warns.

The beating the ocean and ice have taken is outlined in full in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, released this morning in Monaco.

“The world’s ocean and cryosphere have been taking the heat for climate change for decades,” said Kim Barrett, vice-chair of the IPCC, at a press conference early Wednesday. “The consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe.”

The message from the report was clear: We need urgent action on climate change to avert the worst impacts to the ocean, ecosystems and the world we leave for future generations.

Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and their effect on planetary warming, have already thrown off the delicate balance of nature, melting ice caps and glaciers and acidifying waters, according to the report. The report also warns that sea ice melt has caused sea levels to rise dramatically, while warmer oceans feeds more intense storms, putting many already-vulnerable communities at ever-increasing risk.

The report stressed that these changes in climate and the world aren’t limited to some patch of water in the middle of the ocean. Rather, the impacts are far-reaching, influencing the Arctic and the tropics, as well high and low regions, from mountaintops to coastal areas.

“The ocean and cryosphere … might feel very remote to some people, but they impact all of us,” said Hoesung Lee, chairman of the IPCC, at the Wednesday press conference releasing the report. “If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, global warming will drastically alter the ocean and the cryosphere.”

The report’s findings, detailed in a 45-page Summary for Policymakers, are striking.

In the last 26 years, the rate of ocean warming has more than doubled. The frequency of marine heatwaves has also doubled since 1982 and are getting more intense every year.

As greenhouse gas emissions are left unchecked, everything gets worse: By 2100, the ocean will absorb two to four times more heat if global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius — an almost best-case scenario given our current emissions projections. Beyond 2 degrees, oceans could take in as much as seven times more heat, with devastating impacts on warm-water corals, kelp forests and the distribution and productivity of marine life.

For ice caps and glaciers, the report’s projections are not much better: Sea ice loss from the Antarctic ice sheet tripled in the last ten years, compared to the previous ten years, according to the report. In the mountains, shrinking snowpack and glaciers will put people at risk of more floods, landslides and avalanches, with impacts also on recreational activities, tourism and other cultural assets.

With increases in winter runoffs and earlier spring peaks from melting ice and snow, people will likely face more water shortages during the hottest months of the year, the report warns. Again, these impacts will be felt worldwide by both developed and developing nations. In areas like the American Southwest, for example, more than 40 million people rely on the Colorado River, which is fed by the snowmelt of the Rocky Mountains, for drinking water and irrigation.

Wednesday’s special report is the first time the IPCC has directly assessed the connections between greenhouse gas emissions and extreme weather events like hurricanes and floods. The report points to growing scientific evidence that emissions fuel intense weather events and contribute to the recent phenomenon of more intense and frequent storms, like the Category 5 Hurricane Dorian, which recently ravaged the Bahamas.

From an ecological standpoint, as oceans absorb more carbon dioxide, waters become more acidic, a double-edged sword for marine environments: Acidic waters have decreased levels of oxygen — the report notes the upper layer of the ocean has lost 0.5–3.3 percent of oxygen since 1970 — and also reduce the ability of shellfish species to build protective shells, as acidic waters literally eat away the calcium carbonate that comprises marine ecosystems.

In short, warmer waters force species to adapt, some of which cannot keep up with our current rate of warming. The result is extinction and the loss of species we can never get back.

“One of the saddest things is that some of these species are trying to respond to these changes and can’t,” says Katie Wood, conversation and biodiversity manager at Earth Day Network. “It’s not an economic issue. It’s a morality issue, and as stewards of the earth, we’re failing our planet and its creatures.”

One of the questions addressed this morning by the panel of scientists concerned tipping points, a moment when the effects of climate change are so great that, regardless of emission cutbacks, the climate system begins to work against itself, greatly contributing to climate change in the process.

One example of a tipping point is permafrost thawing, which is projected to continue through this century and beyond, the report stated. As permafrost thaws, it exposes centuries-old organic matter to sunlight, releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Today’s report includes warming pathways that could lead to the release of hundreds of billions of tons of permafrost carbon by 2100. And once permafrost melts it’s unlikely it will ever freeze again, at least not until the next ice age.

Oceans and the cryosphere are almost uncomprehendingly large, but the special report gives perspective on how to join science with policy, knowledge and resources to drive innovative solutions and curb the worst effects of climate change.

The first step is to quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the root of most all these problems.

“The more decisively and earlier we act, the more able we will be to address unavoidable changes, manage risks, improve our lives and achieve sustainability for ecosystems and people around the world, both today and in the future,” said IPCC Co-Chair Debra Roberts at the press conference.

In addition to urgent action, we need “ambitious emissions reductions, together with coordinated sustained and increasingly ambitious adaptation actions,” the report stated.

The report suggested protection and adaptation measures like engineering more climate-resistant infrastructure, alongside more conservation management for fisheries and marine-protected areas and restoration efforts for wetlands and coral reefs.

We also need to consider what used to be a controversial strategy but has since become commonplace: managed relocation, which would require moving families from areas they’ve called home for generations.

As in previous reports, the IPCC stressed the inclusion of indigenous and local knowledge to combat the worst effects of climate change on oceans and the cryosphere. The special report was also the first from the IPCC to formally include education as part of the solutions.

The IPCC released the report during the U.N. General Assembly, which kicked off Monday with the Climate Action Summit at U.N. headquarters in New York City. Though the scientists refrained from commenting on actions of world leaders, they did acknowledge the timing of the report and its ability to influence discussions in New York.

The IPCC panel also recognized that people are more aware of the effects of climate change than ever before. This is especially true for young people, who last week led a global climate strike movement that mobilized 4 million people around the world and helped lead to the first-ever U.N. Youth Climate Summit on Saturday. The weekend was punctuated by an impassioned speech by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, calling out government inaction in the face of climate change at the U.N. Climate Action Summit, convened by Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday.

Said Barrett Wednesday morning, “The events surrounding the gathering in New York has certainly demonstrated groundswell of action across the world, particularly by youth, that have been very much supported by the science that we and others provide.”

Perhaps that is the greatest takeaway from the IPCC’s latest special report. For the last thirty years, the IPCC has provided science and statistics that outline the dangers of climate change and unchecked greenhouse gas emissions. While previous generations have ignored these warning signs, young people are heeding reports as ammunition to inform and drive the fight against business-as-usual politics.

Action has been taken around the world, showing that we can cut down on greenhouse gas emissions while still improving society’s well-being. Now we need to scale these actions up to the global level, and quickly. This latest report may serve as additional fuel for the youth movements to further pressure our world leaders into action. And to solve this issue, it will require a unified response from all sectors and generations, as today’s scientists explained.

“We can act,” said Roberts. “We need to mobilize at scale and work together to pull resources at multiple levels across scales.”

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Without sunscreen, we burn. But with it, we might burn ecosystems. Chemicals in commercial sunscreens are petroleum based, disruptive to biodiversity and not biodegradable. If you’re just looking for a tan this summer, what’s a beach bum to do?

This guilt-ridden dilemma is what a team of chemists set out to address with a potential plant-based sunscreen. The research, published this month in the European Journal of Organic Chemistry, highlights a potentially ecofriendly way of making sunscreen: by using cashew nut shells.

“Cashew nut shells are waste,” said Charles de Koning, professor at University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and principle author of the paper, in an email. “We have extracted compounds from [cashew nut shells] to be used as ‘building blocks’ to make what we call ‘functional materials.’” One functional material would be a more environmentally friendly sunscreen.

Finding an ecofriendly sunscreen is important for our health as well as the planet’s. Many compounds found in sunscreen are petroleum based, making them a contributor to global warming. And then there’s the negative impact on biodiversity in marine life.

A recent study suggested that oxybenzone, a common ingredient of sunscreens, “poses a hazard to coral reef conservation and threatens the resiliency of coral reefs to climate change.” The study showed that this common chemical, found in more than 3,500 skincare products, affected developing coral in several ways: increasing susceptibility to bleaching, damaging DNA and causing deformities in baby coral.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, chemicals in sunscreen can also impair growth and photosynthesis of green algae, deform mussels and sea urchins and decrease fertility in fish.

A nutty solution

Cashew nut shells “contain building blocks that can be converted into UV absorbers that are aromatic and have a hydrogen-bonded moiety,” explained de Koning, making them good absorbers of ultraviolet radiation, the rays emitted from the sun.

Additionally, cashew nut shells are common waste products in places like Tanzania, so finding a productive use for them would be a net benefit. And since nut shells are waste, potentially turning them into sunscreen doesn’t take away from food sources, either.

To convert these hard nut shells into something useful like sunscreen, the team of researchers used a process called xylochemistry, or wood- and plant-based chemistry, to extract aromatic compounds from the shells. After extracting these compounds — specifically anacardic acid and cardanol — the team used chemical reactions to convert the compounds into UV absorbers.

The researchers showed that some compounds from plant-based products effectively absorb UV rays, even better than some sunscreens currently on the market. Now the team is exploring ways to test the toxicity of UV absorbers, as well as ways to invent better chemical reactions to synthesize UV absorbers.

Coral reefs play a major role in industries like eco-tourism and fisheries and are home to more than a quarter of marine life. But climate change, chemicals and pollutants threaten the resiliency and biodiversity of coral reefs. Innovations like nut-shell sunscreens could help curb these threats and put us on the path of a more sustainable future.

Learn more about coral reefs at Earth Day Network and remember to buy and use sunscreens that are free of oxybenzone.

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It’s Shark Week, Discovery Channel’s eight days of shark programming. All week we’ll binge TV shows like “Laws of Jaws: Dangerous Waters,” “Capsized: Blood in the Water” and “Great White Kill Zone.” Who’s ready to see some blood-thirsty killers on the prowl?

As these show titles suggest, sharks get a bad rap.

“Sharks are often thought of as mindless predators with an insatiable tendency for attacking humans,” said Ryan Murray, a shark researcher at Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines, in an email to Earth Day Network. “This misconception has been largely fueled by sensationalized movies or media outlets which tend to boost biased news stories to generate and maximize ratings.”

Sharks, no matter how frightening they’re portrayed, are vital parts of ecosystems. Whenever we portray sharks as hungry, dangerous predators, we lose a chance to talk about their importance. And when we see sharks in this latter lens, we realize how fascinating, and fragile, they are.

Who’s the real villain?

On average, sharks kill six humans per year. Conversely, humans kill 100 million sharks per year. We’re villifying the wrong species.

Sharks are in rapid decline. This decline can be linked to increasing human populations and the industrialization of commercial fishing. This vulnerable landscape, combined with sharks’ natural life cycles, makes for a shaky future.

Sharks mature later in life, reproducing infrequently and giving birth to relatively few pups, explained Murray. Sharks must navigate waters of fishing nets and hooks for years until they’re old enough to pass their genes onto the next generation. One study suggested that a quarter of shark species are at risk from unsustainable fishing practices.

And then there’s finning, a particularly grotesque fishing practice. Fishermen catch sharks, cut off their fins and throw the finless sharks back into the water. No longer able to swim, the sharks simply drown. The fins are then used in upscale dishes like shark fin soup, as well as traditional medicines.

Fins from up to 73 million sharks are estimated to hit the global market every year. Shark finning is illegal in U.S. waters, but the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act of 2019, currently before Congress, would make it illegal to possess, buy or sell shark fins or any product containing shark fins. Tell Congress to pass the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act of 2019.

Other threats to sharks include pollution and climate change, the latter driving warmer sea temperatures and ocean acidification that degrade shark habitats and affect shark development and behavior.

Just because they’re predators doesn’t mean they’re bad

Sharks are apex predators, or predators at the top of the food chain. But that doesn’t mean they’re bad. Lions are also apex killers, but unless they’re named Scar, we give them a pass.

“Instead of only highlighting and promoting the fear of sharks, we should be answering questions like, ‘What are their feeding behaviors? Where do they like to go?’” says Earth Day Network Protect Our Species Campaign Manager Katie Wood.

Answering these questions will provide insight on shark management plans and sharks’ influence on ecosystems. A study published in the science journal PLOS ONE, showed that a high density of apex predators may actually increase the resilience of coral reef ecosystems from warmer waters and other effects of climate change.

Apex predators like sharks also keep in check certain species of fish. Without sharks, mid-level species overconsume species at the bottom of the food chain. When this happens, entire ecosystems can collapse.

“When we are hearing about the disconcerting decline of sharks around the globe, we also need to consider the bigger picture of the knock-on effects this may have on marine ecosystems as a whole,” said Murray.

Shark attacks sell

While focusing on the more sensational aspects of shark attacks may strike box office gold, outside of Hollywood, shark attacks are remarkably rare. In 2018, there were 66 unprovoked shark attacks. That’s a one in 3.75 million chance of being attacked by sharks — you’re more likely to be hit by an asteroid than bitten a shark.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is that sharks consume relatively small prey such as flying fish, squid and reef fish so being human sized automatically removes us from the menu for the vast majority of shark species,” said Murray.

When sharks do attack, it’s often a case of mistaken identity. Sharks lack long appendages, so they rely on their mouths — and consequently, their bite — to investigate foreign objects. Humans sometimes are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Next time you swim in the ocean, remember that you’re a guest in their home, not the other way around.

Become a shark scientist

Observing and collecting data on sharks can be a daunting and costly practice. Even full-time researchers have trouble gathering all the information they need to conserve shark habitats. Research institutes rely on donations, as well as volunteers, to carry out their objectives. They also rely on contributions from citizen scientists.

Citizen science brings together amateur scientists — students, educators, enthusiasts — to gather data that supports research. In the case of sharks, citizen scientists contribute photos and videos that shed light on sharks’ behaviors and locations.

“Think of it like a community-based, inexpensive tracking system,” said Murray.

The Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines, for example, uses marine tourists to contribute data to its studies on sharks in the Philippines. Citizen science helps the institute build national population catalogues for sharks that answer important questions about their populations. Online platforms like Whaleshark.org let citizen scientists upload images of shark sightings to their international database.

To support global citizen science efforts, Earth Day Network recently partnered with the Wilson Center and the U.S. Department of State to launch the world’s largest coordinated citizen science campaign, Earth Challenge 2020. Sign up to learn more about how you can help.

People should not fear or vilify sharks, but rather respect them for what they are: valuable, complex and curious species that live within a mysterious oceanic landscape. Learn more about how you can protect sharks at Earth Day Network’s Protect Our Species campaign and Sharks page.

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23 April 2018

Do you use your reusable water bottle and coffee mug?

Do you use your reusable shopping bags?

Do you remember to say “no straw” when ordering a drink?

Good for you! You’re part of the solution.

Now.

Do you own a fleece vest or throw?

Do you own yoga wear or other synthetic clothing items?

Sorry. You’re part of the problem, too.

We all know that plastic waste is a problem. It is a particular problem for the ocean. Currently approximately 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the ocean every year! That’s enough to line every foot of our coast.

Ocean plastics can loosely be categorized in the following ways:

Marine Debris—This includes everything from construction materials to beer coolers, but when we’re talking about ocean plastics, we generally mean the bigger pieces that are easily seen and can readily be picked up. Part of this is debris from marine sources such as fishing gear.

Microplastics—These are the tiny pieces that plastic breaks into over time—not disintegrating, but simply fragmenting, making it ever more accessible to marine life. Microplastics are found in every part of our global ocean.

Microfibers—These are the very tiny fibers from your fleece, athletic, or other synthetic clothing that shed every time you wash them in a machine. They are everywhere in the ocean as well as in lakes, rivers, streams, and even your drinking water.

So, what does plastic in the ocean do? Some effects are not fully understood—such as the degree to which microfibers themselves or the toxins they carry cause harm in humans and other animals and at what scale. Others we know all too well.

Plastic poisons and injures marine life as shellfish, corals, and other marine life eat microplastics and fibers as they filter for real food. Whales, fish, and other animals get entangled in derelict fishing gear and other debris and die a slow painful death from asphyxiation or starvation. When animals—sea birds and corals for example—take in plastics, it leaves no room for real food—and they suffer starvation as a result.

Plastic is capable of emitting and absorbing or carrying all types of toxins, including flame-retardants and pesticides (DDT). Small pieces of plastics e.g. microplastics (microbeads, microfibers) can serve as vector for chemicals to get into the bodies of marine animals, where they can accumulate in fat cells. These can damage tissues and organ function. They can be absorbed into the brains of fish, altering behavior. Plastic is also a vector for bacteria and viruses.

These properties of plastic, especially microplastics, have implications for human health as we consume fish and shellfish. Two Belgian researchers, looking at the amount of microplastics in some shellfish, concluded in 2014 that the average European seafood consumer could be eating 11,000 pieces of microplastic every year. And that’s just in shellfish (mussels in particular in this case).

Plastic litters our beaches and landscapes which in turn affects tourism revenue. It’s no surprise that people like to visit clean beaches more than dirty ones. It also affects community health not only for the reasons above, but because plastic waste can collect water, allowing disease-bearing mosquitoes to breed, and poorly managed debris can clog the outflows of rivers and streams, causing flooding.

So, what is it about single-use plastics? They represent somewhere between a third and a half of all global plastics production, which reached about 335 million metric tons in 2016. Some single use plastics should stay that way—especially for hypodermics and other medical uses. Others should be used only when and where they meet a unique or emergency need—think plastic straws, bottled water, bottled sodas, and plastic packaging—and that’s probably not in the EU or the US. Finland is one leader on plastics management, the European Union is doing quite well over all.

The scale of use is overwhelming. We buy about 1 million plastic bottles every minute of every day! Where sanitation is a huge problem (e.g. hurricanes, floods, etc.) bottled water is a public health good and delivery in plastic is cheaper. But for daily use, it’s the more expensive choice, has a huge climate footprint, and is a big part of the plastic waste mismanagement problem. Only 1 percent of the 4 trillion plastic bags used annually is recycled. We use half a BILLION plastic straws a day in the U.S. alone—almost two for every man woman and child!

So where is the plastic coming from besides littering? More than two billion people live without any waste collection. In China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines ― which were identified in a 2015 Ocean Conservancy report as the top five plastic-polluting nations in the world ― the amount of mismanaged waste was close to 75 percent or more of the total waste generated. Getting a handle on that source at scale is a slow process because of the nature of governance in those countries and the ways in which waste disposal is managed.

Landfills can leak harmful pollutants into the watershed and plastics on top of a landfill can be carried away by the wind and rainwater. Out of 50 largest uncontrolled dumpsites around the world, 38 of these are on the coast and spill directly into the sea. Thanks to sea level rise and storms, coastal landfills are eroding everywhere creating challenges for waste managers even in places where waste management has been reasonably well-addressed. The United States is one of the world’s top five waste-generating developed countries.

Plastic waste to enter the ocean from land is expected to increase tenfold within 7 years. Can you even visualize 80 million metric tons?

More on the Danger to fish and humans:

What are the Trends? New uses for plastic are being discovered all the time—and the demand for lightweight, flexible, sterile, and inexpensive packaging and other materials grows as the population grows. Plastic production is growing exponentially and is expected to double again in 20 years. Thus, plastic waste is too.And, we’re not doing a great job of managing it. As of 2015, 6,300 million metric tons of plastic waste has been generated since the end of World War 2. Only about 9 percent of that has been recycled—the rest was burned, is sitting in landfills, or is slowly breaking into smaller pieces on land or in the water.

Perhaps the most famous example of the scale of the plastic problem in the ocean is the ever-expanding “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a gyre in the Pacific Ocean where currents and winds have fostered the movement of plastic waste into a defined area. The Patch is a mixture of marine debris, microplastics, and ocean life including microscopic crabs hitching a ride—and now covers an area three times the size of France! And it is just one of the five ocean gyres where plastic has collected.

But as famous as the Patch is, the sad truth is that plastic waste—at every scale—is found throughout the global ocean, in bays and estuaries, in the deepest crevasses, and the coastal marshes, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows. It is everywhere.

So, how do we end plastic pollution?

We’re human. We’d like to engineer away the problem- like a magic pill to lose weight or live forever.

What removal system is being tested? It is likely you have heard of the young Dutchman Boyan Slat and his ocean boom system. The idea is that the booms will be towed out to the Pacific from San Francisco to begin operating next July. The system involves hanging nets from booms (made, of course from plastic pipe) and using drifting anchors positioned almost 2000 feet down to tap into where the ocean currents are slower than they are at the surface.

The idea is that the floating plastic debris will move faster than the booms, and thus be concentrated into a central area held by the booms. Fish and other sea life are expected to swim under the nets. Ships are to collect the gathered trash once a month to convert it to pellets or other purposes. Slat raised $2.2 million in crowdfunding from 40 countries, and millions more in California to test the prototype and begin the process of moving it thousands of miles out to sea for deployment.

The challenges include the potential for “corralling” of ocean life; addressing the incredible amount of energy (and expense) to go out to collect the trash and transport it back; as well as unintended consequences. And, of course, this collects plastic of a certain size at the surface and not the debris that has sunk nor the microplastics found everywhere. Booms have proven to be one good way to capture debris in streams and rivers to prevent their migration to the sea.

Prevention is key. The plastic already in the ocean is nearly impossible to collect, especially at scale, without harm to sea life.

It’s very simple really: Don’t let the plastic get into the ocean.

What you can do with your friends, colleagues, and family: Collectively, we are addressing many of the key problems, beginning with promoting personal action. None of what we recommend is new, and we hope repetition helps. Bad habits are hard to break—especially when it’s easier to just go with the plastic flow! The people who make the biggest difference are the ones who do the little things consistently.

• Water: If you use a reusable water bottle, you personally could avoid an average of 156 plastic bottles annually—this sounds like a small thing but it’s doing your part and multiply it by everyone in your office, home, or school, and it really starts to add up. Likewise, bring your coffee mug with you—the go-cup might be paper, but the lid is probably not.

• Carriers: Bringing your own bag to shop (and carrying one with you just in case) can help make a dent in those 4 trillion plastic bags used each year. Bag fees and bag bans do work to reduce waste—with immediate effect on cleanup statistics as to what is collected following their implementation.

• Straws: Remembering to ask for no straw can become a habit. Straws only by request is a huge first step—and a great thing to ask of your favorite restaurant. Paper and reusable straws are an option too—and the movement is slowly growing.

• Clothing: Limit how often you wash synthetic clothing, including fleece. Seek out natural fibers (bamboo, cotton, wool, etc.).

• Entertainment: Remember our roots—we can use glasses, cloth napkins, and real cutlery at events as much as we can. We can use compostable tableware, napkins, and other products (and compost them).

• Prevention: Beach, stream, and river clean ups actually help, even though they seem like a drop in the bucket. Many organizations host regular clean ups and we need everyone to pitch in and pick up in their own neighborhood.

Personal Action is a big start—but real change has to be regional, national, and even global in scale.

We are positioning plastic pollution as a major environmental and transnational problem—

• multiple movies, events, and other outreach seems to have drastically increased ocean plastics awareness,
• educated/mobilized citizens demand less plastic, and

choose to reject plastic where we can identify safer alternatives

• increased public awareness of the role of NGOs in working towards change, especially where NGOs are working with governments at every level in Southeast Asian countries, and
• increasing the public expectation that solutions will be implemented.

I should note that we all can be part of the outreach. A good starting point is Earth Day Network’s toolkits and web-based content to educate and support behavior change and action for different audiences.

Existing studies have shown us the sources and some of the pathways towards cost-effective solutions, but waste management and pollution prevention is a government scale challenge. Countries and corporations have to do their part—the public truly understands and expects them to fulfill this role.

And there is an inherent financial incentive to do so even beyond the obvious benefits. For example, governments and tourism businesses know that a clean beach makes money, and a dirty beach turns visitors away. The same sort of argument can be made for better waste management everywhere. Likewise, good waste management has a positive impact on public health which also reduces costs and increases productivity.

Corporations are working on a variety of solutions, some that monetize ocean plastics, and others that address a challenge. Patagonia and other outdoor clothing manufacturers are striving to figure out how to address the microfiber problem especially since synthetics have their own advantages. Adidas is producing the first shoe made from recycled ocean plastic. Bureo has its skateboard decks made from recycled fishing gear. Norton Point has its “Tide” line, featuring sunglasses made from recycled ocean plastic.

We need national government policies that mimic the European Union’s guidelines for waste and to promote the adoption of a global framework to regulate plastic pollution. Such polices:

• aim to PREVENT the generation of waste
• contribute to the REUSE of waste
• REDUCE the adverse effects of waste management

Governments need to respond to, and work with, NGOs organizing on the ground to promote waste management practices that improve public health and water quality. Some NGOs are working with small island communities to identify ways to substitute fuel or use alternative methods to burning plastic trash for cooking fuel—a practice that is harmful to humans and marine life alike.

To address packaging, we can all support policies in our communities that charge fees for plastic bags that in turn pay for cleanup and restoration and promote circular economy solutions to excess packaging waste. When local efforts to address plastic pollution are stymied by state governments, we can work to educate our legislators about the costs of dealing with plastic waste and the need for local and state action to reduce the amount we use it in the first place.

The R&D costs for alternatives to plastics, for better, cost-effective, and energy-efficient recycling methods, and to define cost-effective clean up solutions is way beyond more non-government organizations’ capacity. It’s a role for countries and corporations, and some exciting projects are under way.

For example, in 2016, Japanese scientists reported the discovery of bacteria that is able to digest polyethylene terephthalate (PET)—the plastic primarily used for making plastic bottles—in less than six weeks. More recently, scientists from the University of Portsmouth in the U.K. and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the U.S say they have engineered a plastic eating enzyme from that bacteria that breaks down PET even faster. It is going to now be tested on an industrial scale to see if it improves the management of plastics—better broken down into its constituent parts and reused than sitting in a landfill or blowing into the ocean. It is also to be hoped that any large-scale production of bacteria and enzymes is monitored carefully and managed for unintended consequences.

It is also possible that these processes will prove to be a cost-effective way to turn plastics back into constituent parts as fuel that can be used to generate electricity. Waste to energy also includes burning plastics for fuel, but we have to do it cleanly to avoid air pollution problems.

Personal action, corporate programs, and government strategies offer opportunities to address the global challenge of plastic pollution and the harm it inflicts on our ocean.

There is hope. All we have to do is to stop putting bad stuff into the ocean! And, this is why we get up each morning.

The content of this article reflects the Keynote speech given by Mark J. Spalding, President of The Ocean Foundation, at the Embassy of the Republic of Finland on April 23rd, 2018, during the Dialogue on Ending Plastic Pollution: Opportunities for the Public and Private Sectors. The event was co-hosted by Earth Day Network, DC Greening Embassies Forum, and the Embassy of Finland.

Mark is a member of the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He is serving on the Sargasso Sea Commission. Mark is a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Blue Economy, at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. In addition, he serves as the CEO and President of SeaWeb, is the advisor to the Rockefeller Ocean Strategy (an unprecedented ocean-centric investment fund) and designed the first-ever blue carbon offset program, SeaGrass Grow. 

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