PreciousVenus
Well-known member
What I like about this documentary is that it highlights something that has bugged me for years, which is the relative insignificance of everyday plastic use versus industrial use, which yes mostly comes from the fishing industry. I think the numbers they have used in this documentary are inaccurate (I have a PhD in an environmental sciences subject related to climate change and the figure I was always told was that closer to 20% of ocean plastic comes from the fishing industry, here it is presented as 50%) but they are correct that as consumers we pay so much attention to reducing plastic straws and plastic bags when they are a literal drop in the ocean compared to global fish demand. In fact, in many cases reducing plastics has an overall negative effect on climate emissions, for example paper bag production is much higher in emissions than plastic, meaning you would have to reuse a paper bag 3 to 4 times to offset the increased carbon. Our policy focuses on all the wrong things, let's ban plastic straws and replace them with equally if not more harmful paper ones, let's transport food out of plastic and increase food wastage, let's not focus any attention on fishing or animal agriculture (which DOES create roughly equivalent emissions to car transport). High intensity farming, both on land and on ocean, has an utterly devastating effect on the environment, animal lives AND human lives.
One thing I wasn't aware of (my PhD specifically relates to carbon cycles in the oceans so no idea how I didn't) is how much whales are involved in the ocean carbon storage. The amount of carbon locked in the ocean is astronomical, if it loses its ability to further absorb then it is absolutely game over for us.
One thing I wasn't aware of (my PhD specifically relates to carbon cycles in the oceans so no idea how I didn't) is how much whales are involved in the ocean carbon storage. The amount of carbon locked in the ocean is astronomical, if it loses its ability to further absorb then it is absolutely game over for us.