One ocean, One climate, One future

     If the earth is regarded as the mother of mankind, then the ocean is the amniotic fluid that feeds mankind. With the development of science, our environment has also suffered serious damages. For example, the rain forest reduced its area every year because of excessive logging by humankind. According to the annual report of the Global Forest Watch published by the University of Maryland on April 25, about 120,000 square kilometers of tropical forests disappeared in 2018, equivalent to the area of United Kingdom. Otherworlds, the area lost per minute is equivalent to 30 soccer fields.

However, the pollution in the sea is more secretive than the pollution on the road, but also more shocking. According to data released by the United Nations, 13 million tons of plastics flow into the ocean every year, and 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals die due to plastic pollution. In order to protect the ocean better, World Oceans Day takes place annually on the 8th of June. The concept was originally proposed in 1992 by Canada's International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) and the Ocean Institute of Canada (OIC) at the Earth Summit – UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. World Oceans Day was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. The International day supports the implementation of worldwide Sustainability Development Goals and fosters public interest in the management of the ocean and its resources.

       When we talk about ocean pollution, the first thing pops out in many people’s mind was The Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It also referred to as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is an industrial disaster that began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect considered to be the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and estimated to be 8% to 31% larger in volume than the previously largest, the Ixtoc I oil spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. federal government estimated the total discharge at 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal) After several failed efforts to contain the flow, the well was declared, better than what it was, and sealed on September 19, 2010. Reports in early 2012 indicated that the well site was still leaking. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is regarded as one of the largest environmental disasters in American history.

In September 2014, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that BP was primarily responsible for the oil spill because of its gross negligence and reckless conduct. In July 2015, BP agreed to pay $18.7 billion in fines, the largest corporate settlement in United States history. But this was only one of the oil spill cases，not only the birds were affected, the other fish and plants live in that ocean, and even the people lived around that ocean was heavily affected by the oil spill.

2010: First 100 days of BP oil disaster

Other than the oil spill, Plastic pollution is more secretive but causes more harm. The plastic products we use on weekdays, such as plastic bags, water bottles, food preservation bags, and many other plastic products, flow along with the rainwater from the human settlement to the ditch leading into the ocean. Not only the United States, but almost all the counties are also facing the same problem with plastic: convenience or pollution? No one will not like plastic, because of its stable chemical properties and thin texture. On the other side, these characteristics make him become almost unable to natural degradation in Several decades.

In Ocean, those unable natural degradation plastic garbage patch formed gradually as a result of ocean or marine pollution gathered by ocean currents. Some of the plastic in the patch is over 50 years old, includes fragments of and items such as "plastic lighters, toothbrushes, water bottles, pens, baby bottles, cell phones, plastic bags, and nurdles". It is estimated that approximately "100 million tons of plastic are generated each year", and about 10% of that plastic ends up in the oceans. The United Nations Environmental Program recently estimated that "for every square mile of the ocean", there are about "46,000 pieces of plastic. "The small fibers of wood pulp found throughout the patch are "believed to originate from the thousands of tons of toilet paper flushed into the oceans daily". The patch is believed to have increased "10-fold each decade" since 1945.

These pollutants are tough and difficult to digest. Basically, all organisms that have been swallowed them must pay the price of life. What’s more, the damage caused by those tiny plastic fragments is greater than the suffocation, trapping, and congestion caused by the larger plastic waste. These plastic fragments will continue to adsorb heavy metals and contaminants like sponges before being eaten by small fish. As they move through the larger fish, birds and marine mammals to the upper layers of the food chain, the toxicity will continue to be concentrated, then finally return to the top class of food chain, human being--ourselves

       What we can do to prevent ocean pollution? For protecting our blue ocean, there are several small things we can help: for the oil spill, we can force our government to amend more stringent measures to ensure that future oil spills are reduced.

And for the plastic pollution, we just need to start with reducing or even reject the use of plastic disposable products, if more and more people do like this, then we can reduce the source of the plastic pollution, then it equally protects the ocean. Also, donate to those Marine Protection Association is a good way to make the ocean blue again.