We ‘Need Healthy Oceans for a Livable Planet’
At the rate that plastic is being dumped in the oceans, the paper concludes, the amount of plastic there will increase by 2.6 times by 2040 if significant policy shifts don’t occur.
“We know the ocean is a vital ecosystem and we have solutions to prevent plastic pollution. But, plastic pollution continues to grow and has a toxic effect on marine life,” Edward J. Carpenter, a coauthor of the paper and a professor of estuary and ocean science at San Francisco State University, who published the first ever paper on plastic on the ocean in 1972, said in a release. “There must be legislation to limit the production and sale of single-use plastics or marine life will be further degraded. Humans need healthy oceans for a liveable planet.”
