Deep Sea Plastic Pollution Reaches Alarming Heights
Dear friends around the world,
The amount of waste mankind creates on a daily basis is overwhelming. If we think carefully, we are in fact the most dangerous species on earth, hiding behind the guise of ‘mankind’ thinking that we can get away with things because we are more ‘superior’.
This mindset and way of thinking is wrong and very dangerous. The truth is that every single living being on this planet deserves the most fundamental right of all, which is to have the freedom to live. Instead of further destroying and exploiting the environment, mankind should instead put in more effort to care for the environment because no other species is in a position to do so.
Please read this article thoroughly; digest and realize the importance of this issue. We are the only ones who have the ability and influence to save our oceans and our planet.
Tsem Rinpoche
CONFIRMED: Plastic Pollution Affects Deep Sea Animals
By John Raphael Oct 03, 2016 05:51 AM EDT
A new study revealed that microplastics are becoming a problem for deep sea creatures. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A new study revealed that plastic pollution has already reached deep oceans, negatively affecting deep sea animals.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, showed for the first time that microplastics are being ingested by deep sea animals, such as sea cucumbers, hermit crabs and squat lobsters, living at the depths of between 300m and 1800m.
“The main purpose of this research expedition was to collect microplastics from sediments in the deep ocean — and we found lots of them,” explained Dr Michelle Taylor of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology and lead author of the study, in a press release. Given that animals interact with this sediment, such as living on it or eating it, we decided to look inside them to see if there was any evidence of ingestion.”
The most common kind of plastics the researchers found inside the deep sea animals were polyester, nylon and acrylic. The researchers defined microplastics as particles under 5mm in length, which is roughly the same size as marine snow. Marine snow is the shower of organic materials that falls from upper waters to the deep ocean and which many deep sea creatures feed on.
These microplastics could enter the ocean via washing of clothes with synthetic material or from fishing nets. However, the researchers were baffled and alarmed at the same time when they discovered the microplastics they have observed were not found in the coastal areas but on the deep ocean, about a thousand miles away from land-based sources of the pollution.
“This result astonished me and is a real reminder that plastic pollution has truly reached the furthest ends of the Earth,” said Laura Robinson, Professor of Geochemistry in Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, in a statement.
For the study, the researchers used a remotely-operated underwater vehicle to collect animal samples. The collected animals underwent different forensic laboratory techniques to identify the presence of microplastics in ingested materials of the deep-sea creatures.
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/MicroplasticsInOurWater.mp4
Source: http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/29575/20161003/confirmed-plastic-pollution-affects-deep-sea-animals.htm
For more interesting information:
- How Plastic Destroys Our Seas
- Keep Up the Good Work! Our Earth is Healing
- Buddhist Monks Working to Tackle Deforestation in Cambodia
- There May Soon Be More Plastic in the Oceans Than Fish
- Shell Oil Drilling in Arctic Ocean
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Because human wants convenience, so we invented many products that are actually harmful to our environment. It was due to ignorance I am sure, because in the past, there is no environmental issue and we don’t really study the impact. Nowadays, because we have suffered from the damage we did to our environment and we don’t want our next generation to suffer, there are more regulations and awareness campaign launched to educate people.
Plastic is a very convenient invention, it holds things for us and it is reusable. But we did not think it is no biodegradable and when animals eat it by accident, it will cause them to die. Nowadays, there are many plastic wastes in the oceans, it is one of the causes of death for sea animals. Sea animals eat plastic by accident and they are not able to digest the it. As a result, it affects their digestive system and causes them to die.
We have finally realised that and there are many awareness campaigns being launched all over the world to stop using plastic bags. In Malaysia, many cities have also banned the usage of plastic bag in the supemarket or they choose to use biodegradable plastic bag. People are encouraged to use their own reusable bags for their shopping. We may not reverse the damage we have done to our environment immediately but it will definitely change the situation slowly. Everyone has the responsibility to save and protect our environment but it has to start from ourselves first.
Animals show love for humans! Cow, lions, apes, dogs, bears, parrots and more can all be very affectionate and show surprising emotions when it comes to expressing their love for people. An emotional animals hugging humans video.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videouploads/comment-1546455946.mp4
You guys are going to have a cute attack with these two super adorable videos of Tsem Rinpoche’s doggies Oser and Dharma.-
https://youtu.be/JX1UdH7IjQ8
And
https://youtu.be/YGD7CtNmnuI
The videos JUST came out!
Enjoy!
H.E. the 25th Tsem Rinpoche loves animals and is passionate against their harm, torture, and abuse.
The few minutes a day we spend on social media creating awareness for animals who cannot speak is purely spiritual and humanistic practice because we are trying to alleviate pain from another sentient beings and that makes us more spiritual, and that makes us more spiritual and more humane.
This article serves as another example the callousness manner in which humans inhabit this world. It is not hard to see that the magnitude of plastic pollution carried to sea has significantly multiplied over the past several decades. In fact, the direct negative repercussions towards both marine and non-marine beings alike (including to humans), such as wildlife being injured due to entanglement or ingestion of the plastics found in the environment, to humans ultimately consuming the chemicals from the eroded plastic pieces; have been publicly made known for years. Yet for the sake of convenience, many still turn a blind eye and worse, out greed, some even try to downplay the magnitude of the plastic pollution. It is sad that people fail to comprehend that whatever we do will create an impact on the overall ecosystem and all living beings including us, humans. Presently, even though we are striving hard to clean-up and restore the beauty of the marine eco-system, it would have been in everyone’s better interests to have not polluted the ocean and caused this problem in the first place. That being said, no point crying over spilt milk and the good news is that all is not lost as things can still be turned around. All it takes is as little as for us to be conscious enough in our daily lives and change our lifestyle which can contribute to the reduction of plastic consumption. Naturally, it would be great if we can progressively do more to clean up the ocean pollution.
I can’t all the various impacts of microplastics, onto the survival of the many marine species. In some ways, if humans find marine life inedible, well thats one good news for marine life in away. Microplastics /microbeads are truly alarming and could damage the marine environment.
The humans that eat ocean animals, are worried about the microplastics, that is one of the drivers for research into this phenomenon. We should ban microbeads/microplastics, it is poisoning these marine animals.
This is terrible. Absolutely disgraceful. I cannot believe that human kind has done this to the seas of our beloved world. The fact that these deep sea creatures are actually consuming and digesting all this plastic really makes me sick. I mean can you imagine eating plastic? Probably not right. Plastic is not edible. And yet they do.
And that is not because they are dumb and choose to eat it. Its because the amount of plastic in the sea is just so much they cant help but consume it. We need to spread awareness about this situation and reduce, or better yet, prevent the dumping of plastic and other dangers objects into our seas.
It is really alarming to know that all our plastic items are ending up inside the ocean.
Plastic is quite a marvelous material and it is just about everywhere from water bottles to money, in fact it is hard to live life without seeing a piece of plastic. Sadly as marvelous as plastic is it also has a downside, and that downside is that it can be ingested by animals and as a direct or indirect result kill them. Plastics also harm the environment since oil is required to produce it and when plastics are thrown away they take hundreds of years to decompose since many natural decomposers can’t break down plastics.
I really hope that the people inhabiting the earth can take efforts to cut down the use of plastics to help save planet earth’s ecosystem.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing. It is indeed alarming to learn that plastic pollution has reached the depth of the Earth. When plastic is ingested, it can get lodged in the windpipe, obstructing air flow when swallowed, eventually causing suffocation. Once in the digestive tract, plastic debris can either block the tract, or accumulate in the stomach, producing a false sense of fullness, causing the animal to stop eating, resulting in malnutrition as it slowly starves to death. Plastic is harmful to the environment too, as it will take thousands of years to break down. Please reduce the usage of plastic in our daily life, replace it with the recyclable and reusable materials.
To keep our environment clean, we should have the practice to ensure the unused items that can be recycled and disposed correctly. For example, we can the follow the directions on the label and recycle the items container when the container is empty. We should not simply throw the empty container into the river/sea negligently. Consequences, many living beings in the river/sea are suffered due to the unmindful actions of human beings.
Thanks Rinpoche and the blog team for sharing this alarming issue.
I agree that human are the most dangerous species on earth as we destruct everything that mother earth gives us. However, with media and education, we can slow down the situation.
The micoplastics come from plastic or artificial products that we invent for our conveniences, but yet we forgot how these things will end on earth where most of them end up to be the cause of sickness for human and animals.
We need to be more conscious in every action and invention that it would lead to our self destruction. May more people understand this and start adopting a more environmental friendly life style.
Thank you.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this depressing news, we human being out greed to satisfied our convenient that create all these suffering to all these sea creature they are all innocent they do not know why they have to suffer so much . We as a Dharma practitioner should apply what we have learn to apply on our daily life like be aware of our environment like recycle what we use and be responsible to what we do attempt a lifestyle that is eco friendly.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. OMB, human’s activities to earth pollution has gone until that extend! It has done more harm than recover! From what I see in that video, human pollute the sea, deep sea, sea animal been fed by chemical, plastics, and in the end of the day, human eat the fish. I think this is the simplest karma. Human gotta face the cause and effect they did to the environment themselves. Pray that more and more human realize how much damage we’ve been done to the environment, and stop polluting the earth that we’re living in. Hope they understand, in the end of the day, who is going to face the consequences? We human, gotta face it back ourselves. _/\_
This is the age of convenience. The science and technology has been applied to provide creature comforts to the human race. New and more advanced materials have been created and research is based on mainly reducing cost and developing more innovative materials. Less emphasis is put into reducing waste/contamination and the impact of residues in the environment.
Governments began to be concerned of the impact of these wastes and residues in their home turf (imports), but did not really care about what leaves the country (exports). So third world countries became the dumping ground of toxic chemicals. But we are interdependent. The nasty stuff they get rid of by export if overall harmful, might come back and bite them years later. Environmental degradation does not affect only a few backward countries but will have a ripple effect with larger impact. An easy reference is the transboundary haze that the entire South East Asian region has had to choke upon these days that comes from one country.
Now global warming has become a serious world-wide phenomenon that many people still argue about. President Trump can even say “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive”! I find that entirely laughable due to the gross ignorance and stupidity behind that tweet.
Countries are now becoming stricter in enacting regulations and even third world countries are already stepping up in developing regulations. However the product stewardship initiatives of industries usually start from when they buy raw materials to when they sell their manufactured goods. What happens after that is none of their business. They’ve already made their profit and will want to continue to do so. So they don’t tell you what’s in the product that could cause harm to health and environment. When the user doesn’t know what they’re dealing with, they can’t be entirely blamed for causing the destruction. The corporations have a major part to play, to inform, to educate and to assist in the safe use, handling and disposal of these ever so convenient and advanced products. Sadly, that is still not happening. They take the profit and run, and what is left is a global environment that is increasingly irreversibly destroyed.
We really need to thank these researchers for doing these studies and tell us the truth. Normal people like us would not even understand the problems we cause when we use plastics on a daily basis.
The research didn’t say how did the plastics travel so far till the furtherest part of the ocean, but I am curious to know. I hope people will be aware or mindful of what we use daily in order to help curb this issue.
We live in a world of following what others do – herd mentality. We assume that it is ok to consume plastic and discard it without a thought. We assume that if others are doing it, it is ok for us to do the same.
We have to be aware of our actions and the long term effects. So, we have to be mindful and not consume so much plastic. It is about educating the masses about the long term ill effects of plastic on our Earth. Then, we will be more conscious and modify our consumption pattern accordingly.
It is akin to dharma. If we are not mindful of our actions, the karma created will come back to bite us. So, we have to study the dharma and apply it.
Thank you, Rinpoche for drawing our attention to what is happening in this world with excessive and thoughtless consumption and making us reflect on the situation.
Recently i have saw a clips where a biotech company in India has used natural starch, vegetable oil derivatives and vegetable waste are used to produce Edible Bags. These products are non-toxic to the environment, animals and plants. This company claims that their product is edible and could be the food for many small insects and fishes. This is definitely a very exciting news, billions of insects, animals, sea creatures and lives could be safe, and in return, we are able to lives in a cleaner and healthier environment
Watch this:-
http://envigreen.in/
contains no conventional plastics at all.
It is very sad that the effect of pollution and rubbish is getting worse. All of us are living in this world and have the responsibilities to take care of our environment. We can stop all this by starting from our self. Always be mindful, throw rubbish in the right place and use more recycle items.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. It is indeed alarming to see that microplastics are able to penetrate the deep sea ocean and affect the animals that live in it. The only way to stop this pollution is to be mindful. We need to pause and think before we throw anything into the sea. We don’t know where the things that we throw might end up. Every sentient beings deserve to live in a clean environment even we as human would not like to live in a place is dirty and polluted.
With folded palms,
Vivian
The global problem with plastics pollution reminds me of the parallel we all face – the generation of negative karma.
Both are not obvious to us – that we are generating negative karma all the time and so are we plastics pollution. We become not mindful of both. We behave as if it does not exist or is not a/our problem…
Until it bites back!
And when it bites back such as when we see the above clear evidence of plastics pollution, due to our deeply etched habits and self-centered behavior, we find it hard to change or believe it to be someone else’s problem.
Some do transform to better action of course but as a whole, the strong gravitation to our habits wins. That is why public education and awareness campaigns is very important and so too is its parallel – the spreading of the Dharma. _/:\_
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing Its alarming that plastic pollution has already reached deep oceans which has negatively affecting deep sea animals.The researchers found inside the deep sea animals were polyester, nylon and acrylic.That is bad enough causing ingestion in deep sea animals, such as sea cucumbers, hermit crabs and squat lobsters .Sooner or later they are becoming extinct due to all these plastic pollution. Deep sea animals have the freedom to live too. Do hope all of us take responsibility to care for the environment. Attitude and educating ourselves and sharing with others on the best and safest ways of disposal of rubbish will be wonderful.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing. It is so sad to learn about the negative impact of our human lifestyle and usage on the animals living in deep sea. Nothing on this Earth can escape our influence because we are a member and a crucial one for all intent and purposes, of this big ecosystem call Earth. I hope through these discoveries and learning, it will awaken our conscious to do something to preserve Earth.
In one previous blog-report, it was predicted by Ellen MacArthur Foundation, that discarded plastic will soon ourweigh fish in the World’s ocean! A Study has found that 32% of plastic packaging escapes waste collection, and is eventually deposited into the world oceans. With datas collected in a reveiwed study of more than 200 studies and 180 interviews from experts, the afforesaid percentage of plastic wastes is expected to occur in the “high leagage” markets in developing countries where sanition systems are often very unreliable. But, as a great relief, the MacAurther report has urged plastic producers to step up and address the problem with the development of plastic products that are “reusable” and easily recycled and should be less toxic in nature. At least there is this glimmer of hope if any, in the phenomena! Om mani Padme Hung.