It’s vital to safeguard our seas and oceans. Healthy oceans are a guarantee of security for the planet as a whole.
Water covers 72% of the world’s 509 million km2 surface area, which is a considerable amount. Lake Baikal, located in southern Siberia in eastern Russia, is the largest reservoir of liquid freshwater on the planet’s surface. With its 23,000 billion cubic metres of water. Canada, with its numerous lakes, also possesses over 20% of the world’s freshwater.
The oceans are in danger because of warming water temperatures, acidification, deoxygenation and rising sea levels, combined with the impact of overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction, leading to an erosion of marine biodiversity, threatened before it is even totally …
Plastic pollution has risen sharply in recent years and is set to double by 2030, with disastrous consequences for human health, the global economy, biodiversity and the climate.
Today, plastic accounts for 85% of marine litter, exposing all marine life to a serious risk of toxicity, behavioral disorders, starvation and suffocation. Between 19 and 23 million tonnes of plastic enter the world’s waters every year, much of it ending up in the sea, according to WWF.
Cigarette butts are the most common plastic waste on beaches, making marine ecosystems more sensitive to microplastic leakage. When ingested, the hazardous chemicals they contain cause long-term mortality in marine organisms.
Microplastics then enter the food chain and are associated with serious impacts on human health, which can include changes to genetics, brain development, respiration rates and more.
A drastic reduction in unnecessary plastic is crucial to solving the global pollution crisis, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Chemical pollution is equally worrying. Hydrocarbons and other noxious liquid substances, fertilizers and pesticides, but also sunscreens and drug residues, cause developmental abnormalities, loss of immune response and reduced fertility in aquatic species.
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