About Me

header ads

Shocking Images Raise Awareness Of Plastic Pollution Of The World's Oceans

CLEAR MIND 1:13 PM
The debate about single-use plastic is one that has been going on for many years. While some people just don't seem to care, many do care but continue to use them anyway. There are also some who disapprove of it and actively campaign against plastics due to the effects they have on the environment. An NGO has launched a new campaign to try and shock people into realizing what their plastic is doing to animals in the ocean. It has, however, raised many questions and concerns and in fact, it has become quite controversial.


What is this new campaign?

The wildlife NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation), Sea Shepherd, has started a new campaign using quite graphic, computer-generated images of marine animals choking to death with carrier bags tightly wrapped around their heads. They launched the graphic images of a turtle and a seal apparently suffocating in an attempt to raise awareness of plastic pollution of the world's oceans.
However, many have said on social media that the campaign may have the opposite effect and could de-sensitize the public by using fake images rather than showing the real suffering of marine life and what it actually does.

Shock Campaigns

Raw displays which are intended to shock people, such as these, have become more and more commonplace these days showing images of dead birds with their stomachs bursting with refuse, seals' necks snared in frisbees and turtles and fish caught in fishing nets have all been surfacing recently.

That said, they aren't popping up without good reason. The fact of the matter is, around 700 species of marine animals have been reported to have consumed or become entangled in plastic so far. This is likely to increase drastically though as more and more pollution fills the oceans every day. Plastics from items used in daily lives get generally discarded without any special care. Many people just throw them out their car or leave them on the floor. When they are near coastal areas, these plastics make their way into the oceans and end up harming poor, helpless creatures.
Guiga Giacomo, from Tribal Worldwide São Paulo, who partnered with Sea Shepherd on the campaign has said that unfortunately, a small and thoughtless action in someone's life can cause huge damage to nature without anyone even realizing it what is happening. The NGO aims to stop this by reaching the largest number of people possible and bring awareness to the fact that with small and easy steps everyone can work together to ensure that terrible scenes like these do not happen in real life.
There is no doubt about it - something needs to change. We as a species are destroying such a delicate and beautiful ecosystem. The oceans are a spectacle of nature and in our stupidity and ignorance, we are slowly killing them off. Hopefully, these campaigns do shock people into realizing what they are doing. How long before the oceans completely collapse? Will we go with it?