By Abraham Castaneda
The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals are goals that are trying to be accomplished by 2030. These goals are really important because they allow everyone to have a chance to live in a world where everything is stable. They will also protect the earth from significant problems like climate change and pollution, so we can keep our home healthy for generations to come.
Life Below Water – Goal
The Life Below Water goal is just as important as the other 16 goals which are a way to help the earth become a better place to live in. One huge problem we are facing is that the ocean waters are not that fresh and clean as they used to be. One of the main causes to this problem is pollution. Many people don’t realize that the ocean is one of the world’s most valuable resources and the creatures that live there need a safe home to keep surviving. About 3 billion people depend on these animals for their main source of food and other uses. Professionals, like scientists and engineers, study these creatures so that they can come up with medicine, machines, and inventions that revolutionize the world. Another reason why we should help ensure the safety of the ocean is obvious since we can see it with our own eyes. It's all the marvelous wonders and the beauty of the nature that lives and thrives under these beautiful oceans.
Why is the ocean in danger?
First, we need to know why this goal is set in the first place. One huge problem that we are all facing is climate change. This is harmful mainly because it's affecting our waters. Carbon dioxide from pollution coming from sources like factories harm the earth’s atmosphere and caused the ocean to absorb about 80% of the carbon dioxide. When this happens, the ocean’s waters start to absorb the heat that is trapped and the water starts to get warmer. When that happens, many species of fish adapt, migrate, or die to this change. Plankton, one of the main sources of food for many species and the organism at the bottom of the food chain, is also being affected by climate change. We all know that messing with the bottom of the food chain will slowly start affecting the ones at the top and possibly wipe out a whole ecosystem. These actions of pollution always come back right to us in different ways. There are many forms of human pollution in the ocean such as fertilizers, manure, untreated sewage, waste oil, and even mercury is found in the ocean’s waters which disturbs marine life. One significant portion of the pollution in the ocean is plastic. About 250 pieces of plastic are thrown by one person a day, and about 8 billion pieces of plastic are thrown in the ocean every year. That is a lot of waste not being disposed of properly. When plastic is thrown in the ocean, what happens to the plastic that’s already in the ocean? There’s one thing that’s guaranteed, there’s no way that plastic is coming back. When plastic such as plastic bottles and containers are thrown in the ocean, that bottle can start to break down, down into smaller bits called micro-plastics. These micro-plastics can easily be consumed by fish and sea creatures near it. Scientists have found plastic almost everywhere in the ocean, even at the bottom where its pitch black. Even animals can mistake plastic for food. When the plastic is eaten up by fish and other sea creatures, these creatures with plastic in them might be eaten up by us and we won't even know we are consuming plastic, even in our drinking water,