More plastic than fish

Alva Ekvall 2020-03-23

More plastic than fish in the oceans

Who does not love our beautiful oceans which is filled with animals and colourful coral reefs! But for how long will we be able to enjoy these amazing creatures and places?

Our use with plastic has gone overboard. Scientists say that by year 2050 our oceans will be filled with more plastic than fish.

Plastic is used in almost every product. That's because plastic has a lot of benefits if you compare to more traditional materials as paper. For instance, plastic is essential in preventing food waste, keeping medical equipment sanitary, and as a lightweight packaging. But even though how useful it might be. Plastic does not belong in the nature.

If you have problem understanding how much plastic we actually are talking about, it might be good to know that every year 8 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans. That is one truck dump every minute. Maybe that's why we will overweight fish with plastic by year 2050.

Where is this happening? Who is responsible?

The irresponsible use of plastic is happening everywhere all around the globe. Every person, community, organization and governments are responsible. Everyone needs to take responsibility for their use in plastic and we need to work together to stop this upsetting incident to happen.

Later follows an interview by Alva Ekvall and Elsa Tilia from Extinction rebellion about what Tilia thinks about this topic.

Who are you?

My namen is Elsa Tilia and I'm a part of Extinction rebellion, ffridaysforfuture, the network for art and climate and the "vänsterpartiets" youth organisation in Sweden.

How are you fighting for the climate?

We do a lot to fight the climate crisis, mostly we do actions about what is going on around the world. For example, this fall we went to Berlin and had a 7 day action together with the extinction rebellion in berlin. We did blockades to stop traffic and highlight the climate crisis. Because we stopped the traffic in a large city the politicians had to act.

What do you think about the studies that say there will be more plastic than fish by year 2050?

The studies about the fact that we will have more plastic than fish in the oceans is really upsetting but it is also giving more motivation to the youth in the climate movement.

Do you think we have to cut down the use of disposable products?

I believe that we need to cut down on the use of plastic especially single use plastic since a part of the plastic we use end up in the oceans and kills our marine life and a lot of the species in the oceans are on the edge of going extinct.

What do you think the politicians should do? And what kind of responsibility lies in their hands?

I think the politicians are sitting on the majority of the responsibility to actually fight the climate crisis. I think the politicians needs to insert higher taxes on both single used plastic and plastic in general to cut down on the amount of plastic in our oceans. The responsibility of our future is in their hands.

As a civilian you also have a responsibility to help. What do you think we can do as a private person?

We need to recycle and try to eat as much organic food as possible and most important we need to help each other to put pressure on the politicians.

Thank you Elsa Tilia, member of Extincion Rebellion Sweden.