What is it?

Marine pollution is when humans throw their trash away into bodies of water like seas and oceans where marine creatures live like fish and dolphins for no good reason. Most of the time marine pollution is intentional but sometimes there's always those people who accidentally drop trash into the ocean (however it's usually on purpose). Marine pollution is things like oil, trash/plastic, fertilizer, toxic chemicals, and sewage disposal being dumped in the oceans/seas. But most of the pollution that enters oceans and seas is plastic. Oil spills causes damage to marine animals it destroys animals insulation ability and it exposes them to harsh elements. Also because oil destroys animals insulation ability it can causes them to die from hypothermia because they are not able to maintain a stable temperature. Also oil has a effect on the environment and people. Oil is bad for the environment because it causes different types of chemicals like carbon monoxide and other harmful chemicals. On April 20, 2010 there was a really bad oil spill that happened 11 people sunk and died that day. It was so bad it took them 87 days to have it under control. It was even estimated that 3.19 million barrels spilled into the Gulf. It was also the largest marine oil spill ever. However a good thing is it's only estimated about 12% of oil gets in the ocean or sea (when big oil spills don’t happen).

When fertilizer gets in the water it makes eutrophication flourishing it also depletes waters oxygen and suffocates animals. Eutrophication depletes waters oxygen when to many to much nutrient-rich water gets into water. It usually happens when large blooms of algae also when aquatic plants are there. Eutrophication also produces carbon dioxide and it lowers PH of the seawater. PH slows growth of animal and could kill them. Marine pollution like plastic bags, bottles, and other things animals often mistake them for food and eat them then die. Also things like rubber bands, netting, plastic that holds multiple bottles together animals can get wrapped around them and die because they can’t breath right.

Kehkashan Basu

Kehkashan Basu is a activist who is fighting for peace and a healthy and safe environment and is trying to help fix problems about the environment. Kehkashan Basu was born on World Environment Day. World Environment Day is dated on June 5th the same day as Kehkashan’s birthday. World Environment Day is a day so people can focus on the environment however its mainly to recognize how much pollution there is. that's why she geared her activism to the environment. She also got inspired by her grandmother’s rooftop garden. “I decided to be the change and my first small step was planting a tree on my eighth birthday” (Kehkashan Basu and Green Hope: changemakers for the environment). Then after started being a activist also she decided to towards her activism to the environment.

Kehkashan Basu’s dad says “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing, it was here first.” ( Kehkashan Basu’s story).

After she became a activist when she was 12 years old she decided to start “Green Hope.” She started this foundation to help the environment in many different ways. Green Hope also does different types of things to raise money so they can help the environment. Within 4 years she managed several successful environment projects. Green Hope has planted over 5,000 trees including places like the USA, Colombia, Mexico, Nepal, and much more. They also do things like ground level projects, road shows, and social upliftment campaigns to help fund them and get the word out about them and what they do. When they do ground level projects they do clean ups, tree planting, educational field trips, also door to door community awareness and much more. At the road shows they do they set up booths and stalls at various community’s and they do events and engage with the visitors and spread awareness. The social upliftment campaigns is when Kehkashan Basu raises money for natural disaster victims. All of the people that Kehkashan has helped have been very grateful for them helping out when they needed some help.

Kehkashan also wrote the book “The Tree Of Hope” in the book there's a young girl named Khadra. In this story Khadra makes a big difference to benefit her community. She plants and is caring for trees because of conflict and drought. The book is meant to get you thinking and maybe how you can change some of you habits and be more respectful to the environment.

In 2016 when Kehkashan was just 16 years old she won the International Children's Peace Prize award. She won that award because all she does for the environment and everyone. She also was awarded the Children’s Peace Prize award because of how much she’s an inspiration and spreading awareness. She also won that because how much she cares for the environment.

Impact

70% of the earth is covered by oceans and 40% out of 70% of the ocean is covered with pollution. It's even estimated by the end of this century if we keep up with this pace of how much pollution we put in bodies of water that the surface of the water in 150% more acidic. If its more acidic it will add more carbon dioxide into the oceans and sea and sea creatures will start to die. It's also estimated nearly 8 million metric tons of plastic goes into the ocean every year. Also scientists estimated 90% of seabirds has ingested some plastic.

Marine pollution is also really bad for marine life its bad for marine life because they have to live with all of this pollution. Also they mistake it for something else and usually die. Just because of pollution it could make a population of a animal go down and so a certain type of animal could become endangered or extinct. Sea animals usually mistake pollution for food and that's how the population is going down. Plastic kills fish, birds, sea turtles, and other marine mammals and animals because they mistake the pollution. Also pollution is impacting animals habitats which also is making an impact on animals and how long they are going to live for. Also not only is it bad for animals and the environment but all of this trash and pollution are getting washed up on beaches. It’s not really estimated how much pollution is washed up on beaches however Dominican Republic beach has a bunch of trash there. Sixty tons of trash was collected one time just from the Dominican Republic beach so you can probably imagine how much is on that beach.

If you can't deal with all this pollution or you feel bad for those animals that have to deal with it you can help. If you want to help you can donate or fund an organization or foundation. If you decide to donate to a organization but don’t know where to donate a good place would be Green Hope. You could also help by starting your own organization. Or you could do something so easy and just don’t pollute oceans or stop polluting oceans if you already pollute waterways. One way you could stop polluting the oceans and seas are you could not use so much plastic like plastic water bottles and plastic bags. If you don’t know what else to use try to use reusable things instead. Use reusable things like reusable water bottles also instead of plastic bags use reusable bags.

Around 3 million children under 5 years old die a year because of environment related diseases. “It is a great achievement for such a young