In April 2020, an explosion at BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig released over 130 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the biggest oil spill in US waters, and remains one of the world’s worst environmental disasters. 11 rig workers lost their lives and millions of marine mammals, sea turtles, birds, and fish died. As the world watched helplessly, oil gushed into the world’s most diverse marine habitat for 87 long days.
In July 2020 a Japanese tanker Wakashio ran aground off the Indian Ocean Island. It brought out the dangers of moving large quantities of oil by sea. Although it didn’t leak a huge amount of oil, the spill was near two protected marine ecosystems and a wetland of international importance. The result was disastrous.
Other oil spills have destroyed sea life and polluted the oceans. As demand for oil boomed, supplies increased and refined products came to be used in vehicles, ships, automobiles and in the industrial sector. However due to human error and bad luck, oil tankers released tens of millions of gallons of oil on the oceans and beaches, resulting in fouled coastlines, polluted fisheries, dead and injured wildlife and loss of tourism revenue. In humans, reproductive system failure occurs from exposure to poisonous chemicals in the sea.
Plastic is another major pollutant. It is used by all countries and is virtually irreplaceable because it is cheap, strong, lightweight, and resistant to corrosion. Plastic is not always industrially treated into renewable plastics products. In many countries plastics thrown away on the land and rivers ultimately reach the seas and oceans.
According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, up to 100,000,000 metric tons of plastic trash is in the world’s oceans. Eroded into micro-plastics less than 5 millimetres long, they are eaten by fish and sea animals, then as predators consume them they make their way up the food chain to the sea food that we eat. We all potentially absorb tens of thousands of micro-plastic particles.
Pollution takes many forms. Many beaches are littered with trash that came from hundreds of miles away by sea affecting human health and recreation. Sewage and human waste is passed directly into the ocean in countries that do not have waste water and sewerage treatment plants. Chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus particulates are flushed away as rain runoff from urban and agricultural land, vehicles, septic tanks, farms, timber harvesting operations etc.
Much land pollution ultimately reaches the oceans adding to threats to marine ecosystems, as also to human health. We are used to the danger of minor illness from swimming in unclean sea or river water, but chemical toxins accumulating in our organs can be much more serious. Industrial and agricultural wastes include poisonous chemicals which, if untreated, are carried to the oceans. These do not get dissolved. Cancer, birth defects, and long- term health problems can be the ultimate result.
Even lost or discarded fishing nets can pose a surprisingly large problem. They entangle wildlife, restricting their movements, injuring and even starving them. Especially vulnerable are dolphins, turtles, crabs, crocodiles, sharks, and sea birds. They trap and kill seals and large whales annually. An estimated 640,000 tons of such gear is left in our oceans every year from all over the world.
Rain also adds pollutants from the atmosphere; particularly from the enormously increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the air since the Industrial Revolution, the original basis of climate change. The oceans are becoming more acidic after decades of absorbing excessive CO2.
One early consequence is that calcium carbonate structures such as corals are being destroyed, together with the dense fish life they support. The Great Barrier Reef of Australia is the world’s largest coral reef stretching for over 2,300 kilometres. It is the biggest single structure made by living organisms and visible from space. Half has been lost already.
Ocean pollution is a vast global problem but is of course only one aspect of the even more complex and vast problems posed by climate change and currently under discussion at COP26. Bangladesh is recognized as one of the countries most at risk, particularly from higher ocean levels, storm surges, and the inroads of salinity. The World Bank predicts the temperature of Bangladesh will rise by around 1.4 degree Celsius by 2050 and rainfall by 74 millimetres by 2040-2050.
The worsening effects of climate change will impact the physical and mental health of people in Bangladesh. Besides changes in weather patterns and the pandemic, we can expect greater mosquito breeding, worse dengue outbreaks, and other difficulties. Mental health will suffer. Already more people suffer from depression. Women will be at a higher risk than men, and more prone to anxiety. Greater numbers of people have been reported to be depressed in Dhaka and Chittagong compared to the national average.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a one metre rise in sea level will bring most of the southern and western region of Bangladesh under water, leading to 3 crore people severely affected. The Sundarbans, the country’s most important ecosystem, will be totally lost.
There is increasing recognition that all these issues must be tackled, mitigated and ultimately solved as early as possible. Some new pledges and projects are emerging from COP26, including new technological methods of transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.
Consequently, we must not lose hope. New technologies have a means of bettering our lives in a way we cannot anticipate. There is no demonstrated reason to believe that our future will be worse than our present if we collaboratively undertake careful management of the challenges and risks.
Selina Mohsin is a Former Ambassador.