Some big industries might not like me after reading this article. I am part of a program called LEAP. Which stands for Leaders for Ethics, Animals and the Planet. This program works with animal sanctuaries all over the country to teach young people how to become leaders in the fight for a better planet. It was through this program that I learned more about the causes of climate change than ever before. I learned about some of the leading factors of climate change. Two of the most important and striking ones are the effects that the fishing industry and the animal agriculture industry have on Earth.

There is an area in the Pacific Ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex. After hearing that, my mind went to plastic, but in reality, 46% of what is there is fishing nets. These nets are even more dangerous to animals than plastic straws ever have been. Plastic straws are only 0.03% of plastic entering the ocean. The nets that the fishing industry uses are huge. They are so big that for every one pound of fish caught, there are up to five pounds of untargeted species that are also caught. “But even if not a single gram of plastic entered the oceans from today onwards, we would still be ripping those ecosystems apart, because the biggest issue by far is commercial fishing” (George Monbiot, Seaspiracy).

In the documentary, Seaspiracy, Ali Tabrizi interviewed a worker and the CEO of the Plastic Pollution Coalition. “Plastic Pollution Coalition is a non-profit communications and advocacy organization” (PPC Website). The website had a lot of information about plastic straws and micro plastics in the ocean. Ali Tabrizi first interviewed Jackie Nuñez, who works with the PPC. When asked about what the main source of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is, she answered, “microplastics.” Ali Tabrizi presented the information from studies that 46% is fishing nets and the majority of the rest is other fishing gear. He then asked if there is anything to do to stop the fishing net trash. She responded with, “one thing you could do is eliminate or really really reduce your intake of fish.” When asked, she didn’t know why there wasn’t any information about fishing waste on the website.

After the last comment from Jackie Nuñez, Ali Trabizi interviewed the CEO of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, Dianna Cohen. Ali started off by asking why they hadn’t put the message about not eating fish and talking about the fishing gear on their website. In a disgusted and mildly angry tone Diana responded by saying, “a consumer message to eat less fish? It’s not my area of focus, I hear you.” She then said that she didn’t have time to cut the cameras. Right after seeing that, I thought it was weird how defensive she got over that information. But the interviewing team cut the cameras and just used the microphone. Ali told her what Jackie said about eliminating fish. Dianna denied what Jackie said.

Ali Trabizi left the building as confused as I was. He looked at their website and where the donated money went. He saw that the Plastic Pollution Coalition was a project of Earth Island Institute. The EII is the company behind the dolphin safe label. The dolphin safe label works with the fishing industry to sell more seafood. Now it made more sense. The PPC couldn’t put that message on their website because it would directly impact the income of the company that owned them. I said it made more sense because I was still wondering why the PPC didn’t try to start again as an independent company instead of being owned by a company that helps pollute our oceans. The thing that I realized is that maybe they did try or are trying. 

Another huge problem for the environment is the animal agriculture industry. This industry is the number one contributor for human caused climate change. It is responsible for 51% of greenhouse gas emissions. The animal agriculture industry occupies 45% of Earth’s land. To make space for all of this, they started to destroy forests in a process known as deforestation. The industry caused 91% of the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. Rainforests are one of, if not the most important ecosystems in the world. The trees provide lots of oxygen for our atmosphere, but these rainforests are being destroyed at a rate only less than the oceans. The animal agriculture industry causes 91% of the Amazon deforestation. The industry uses ⅓ of all the freshwater we have. That water is used to grow crops to feed animals and for them to drink. It was determined that one quarter pound hamburger requires 660 gallons of water to produce. 15% of the grain that is grown is just fed to the animals. If we used the crops grown to feed humans, it would be able to feed 12-15 billion people. That means that enough food is being grown to feed almost double the human population on Earth. There are 1 billion people starving everyday. Most of these people come from countries where their grown food is being fed to animals. And well it may seem silly, the flatulence and waste from animals is a massive contributor to climate change. 

All of the evidence of just what these industries are doing to the environment disgusted me. I wondered, why isn’t all of this in the news? The industries are so powerful that the news can barely make a comment on this without being in fear of the consequences that would come from these industries. I think it is important to look at all of this information and come to the conclusion that this needs to be talked about. If you care about our own planet, then I would recommend getting the word about this out there. More people need to know the reality and the truths of pollution.