Discuss the impact of chemical emissions on marine pollution. Linked to the group’s ppt
Marine Pollution
With every breath we take, every drop we drink, we’re connected to the ocean. Our planet
depends on the vitality of the ocean to support and sustain it (National Geographic, 2019a,
p.1). This might be hard to imagine for those who live far away from the coastal line, that
72% of the Earth is covered by ocean, which supplies half of the oxygen on earth (National
Geographic, 2019). The Earth’s ecosystem and indeed us human’s survival heavily depends
on the condition of the ocean. Let alone the existence of the ocean economy, which
accounted for 3.3 million people’s livelihoods in 2016 (NOAA, 2019a). However, human
activities lead to marine pollution, mainly chemicals and trash. To minimise marine pollution,
and indeed to survive, many regulations and agreements were made and implemented over
the years by all levels of authorities.
On the international scale, The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from
Ships (MARPOL), which was adopted in 1973, is the main convention. MARPOL covers the
prevention of marine pollution caused by ships, be it operational or accidental (IMO, 2019a).
There was also the London Convention or Ocean Dumping, a treaty that entered into force in
1975, attempting to control ocean dumping by encouraging regional agreements (US EPA,
2019). Although there are 87 Contracting Parties to the treaty, marine pollution has only been
getting worse (IMO, 2019b). There are many reasons why this has happened.
The first reason is jurisdiction over polluters. Who owns the ocean? Who prosecutes the
polluters? Under which state or country’s laws and regulations? The 1982 United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea was able to establish exclusive economic zone sea zones
‘belongs’ to each nation, which was due to business concerns (UN, 2019). Lowe (1975)
published his article The Enforcement of Marine Pollution Regulations on San Diego Law
Review. He argued that even with regional and state regulations under the international
treaties, the enforcement of those regulations was extremely complicated and difficult due to
jurisdiction issues and cost issues. The biggest marine polluters are all developing countries
(McCarthy, 2019). These countries simply could not justify or have the resources to comply
with the regulations (Lowe, 1975).
The second reason is that, 80 percent of marine pollution comes from the land, not from
direct dumping into the ocean (UNESCO, 2019). Agreements and conventions such as
MARPOL and Ocean Dumping have little to none jurisdiction here. This part of the pollution
includes agricultural run-off, untreated sewage as well as garbage that did not end up in the
waste stream, mostly plastic. There are conventions and agreements on pollution from landbased sources, however, they came into effect much later and mostly regional (NOAA,
2019b). The absence of an international agreement
What made things worse, is the wide-use and therefore disposal of plastic objects, a
snowballing problem adding to marine pollution. Every country is looking at plastics. Bans
on plastic bags, straws, and containers are no longer news; it has become a trend for years,
the National Geographic (2019b) has a running tap on it if you want to have a look. Those
regulations and bans claim to be extremely successful. For instance, there was a 90% drop in
plastic bag use in England since the 5p levy on the bag was introduced (Ball, 2019). If we just
look at the numbers, this is an extremely successful regulation, however, how much is it
really helping the environment and the ocean? Not enough people are talking or realized the
massive raise in bin liner sales as people who used to reuse free carrier bags now have to pay
for brand new ones (Gee, 2017). Let alone things like plastic bags and straws are only the tip
of the iceberg of the plastic problem.
Apart from plastic bans, there are recycling regulations in place. In the UK, depends on the
councils and the waste company they work with, there are different recycling programs.
While the lost plastics, with the help of wind and rainwater, through drainage networks and
natural water bodies, find their way into the ocean (UNESCO, 2019); you would think the
milk bottle you put into the recycling would never end up in the ocean. Well, they do, more
often than you think. Developed countries like UK ships away their recycling away to
developing countries like China – not anymore after China’s ban on low-grade foreign waste
in January 2018 – Malaysia, the Philippines and Turkey (Harrabin and Edgington, 2019).
Those destination countries often do not even have a proper municipal waste collection
system that deals with separate waste. China used to take more than half of the global north’s
exported waste, and only in this July did China started its first household waste separation
program in Shanghai (Kuo, 2019). How do we expect countries like China to deal with our
trash when they could not even deal with their own? As a consequence, due to insufficient
infrastructure, along the way, the milk bottle you put into your recycling bin escapes and
makes its way into the ocean. The imbalanced regulations made this possible. What the
regulations prevent to be done or not to be done with the plastics over in countries like the
UK is legal, well, is not regulated in some other countries.
There are many different oceans, and they are all one. Marine pollution is a global problem.
We share the planet, and problems do not stop at borders. The earlier agreements did not
cover land-based source pollution. The later ones did but did not address the global context.
The problem is too complex, and the fact that it is the ocean, made it extremely hard to
enforce policies due to jurisdictions. Supplementing policies attempting to control waste in
the first place is hit and miss. On top of that, the global trade of waste worsens the situation
even more. Let us not forget that, none of the major polluters had signed to any legallybinding agreement. In conclusion, the world is still figuring out ways to deal with the
problem while keeping up the GDPs. Frankly, we are failing pretty hard.
References
Ball, F. (2019). Plastic bag use down 90% in England since 5p levy. [online]
Economia.icaew.com. Available at: https://economia.icaew.com/news/august2019/plastic-bag-use-down-90-in-england-since-5p-levy [Accessed 24 Dec.
2019].
Gee, S. (2017). Does a plastic bag ban cause a spike in bin liner sales?. [online]
ABC News. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/curiouscanberra/2017-08-28/does-a-plastic-bag-ban-cause-a-spike-in-the-use-of-binbags/8819504 [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].
Harrabin, R. and Edgington, T. (2019). Where the UK’s recycling really goes.
[online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/scienceenvironment-49827945 [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].
IMO. (2019a). Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of
Wastes and Other Matter. [online] Available at:
http://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/Environment/LCLP/Pages/default.aspx
[Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].
IMO. (2019b). International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships
(MARPOL). [online] Available at:
http://www.imo.org/en/About/Conventions/ListOfConventions/Pages/Internati
onal-Convention-for-the-Prevention-of-Pollution-from-Ships-(MARPOL).aspx
[Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].
Kuo, L. (2019). ‘A sort of eco-dictatorship’: Shanghai grapples with strict new
recycling laws. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/12/a-sort-of-eco-dictatorshipshanghai-grapples-with-strict-new-recycling-laws [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].
Lowe, A. (1975). The Enforcement of Marine Pollution Regulations. San Diego
Law Review, 12(3).
McCarthy, N. (2019). Infographic: The Countries Polluting The Oceans The Most.
[online] Statista Infographics. Available at:
https://www.statista.com/chart/12211/the-countries-polluting-the-oceans-themost/ [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].
National Geographic (2019a). Why the Ocean Matters. [online] National
Geographic Society. Available at:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/why-ocean-matters/ [Accessed 24
Dec. 2019].
National Geographic (2019b). A running list of action on plastic pollution. [online]
Nationalgeographic.com. Available at:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/07/ocean-plasticpollution-solutions/ [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].
NOAA (2019a). NOAA Report on the U.S. Ocean and Great Lakes Economy.
[online] Charleston: NOAA Office for Coastal Management. Available at:
https://coast.noaa.gov/data/digitalcoast/pdf/econ-report.pdf [Accessed 24 Dec.
2019].
NOAA (2019b). NOAA Office of General Counsel International Section – LandBased Sources of Marine Pollution. [online] Gc.noaa.gov. Available at:
https://www.gc.noaa.gov/gcil_land_based_pollution.html [Accessed 24 Dec.
2019].
UN (2019). United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. [online] United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Available at:
https://www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].
UNESCO (2019). Facts and figures on marine pollution | United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. [online] Unesco.org.
Available at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/ioc-oceans/focusareas/rio-20-ocean/blueprint-for-the-future-we-want/marine-pollution/factsand-figures-on-marine-pollution/ [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].
US EPA. (2019). Ocean Dumping: International Treaties | US EPA. [online]
Available at: https://www.epa.gov/ocean-dumping/ocean-dumpinginternational-treaties [Accessed 24 Dec. 2019].
Ocean Pollution
By Bingjie Chen, Peishan He
Why it is a huge problem?
–
8 million tons of plastic products are estimated to
leak into the ocean every year
–
negative impact on marine life, fisheries and
tourism (loss $8 billion)
–
kill seabirds and marine mammal
–
affect the food composition of the food chain and
the human plate
–
accounting for around 5% of global GDP
the livelihoods of more than 3 billion people depend on the ocean
–
the market value of marine and coastal resources and industries is
estimated at $3 trillion annually
–
marine fisheries employ more than 200 million people directly or
indirectly
–
the ocean absorbs about 30% of the carbon dioxide
The Sustainability Principle
In Spaceship Economy – resources are limited
– resources must be recycled
– need to reduce comsumption
–
More than 60 countries have developed policies to control marine plastic pollution, including the ban
on the use of plastic bags, etc.
–
43 countries have made relevant commitments to protect the oceans
–
The United Nations Environment Program launched the Clean Seas campaign, with the goal of
–
eliminating such waste by 2022
In 2008, the United Nations annoxunced the establishment of World Ocean Day
The Polluter Pays Principle
As Ling, Z. h. u. & Yachao, Z. h. a. o. (2015).depicts: “a principle of International
harmonisation of national environmental policy” and “a principle of allocation of
costs between States in international law” .
The PPP now appears in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union.(European Commission . 2019)
Aplication of PPP in the courts (Adshead, J. u. l. i. e. 2018)
Measures
–
Adopt and fully implement current international conventions and guidelines for marine, climatic and
chemical substances
–
Unified global water quality standards
–
Biomonitoring programmes that provide information for governance
–
Expand and implement producer extension responsibility programs
–
Develop and implement zero waste policies
–
Prevent pollution and new problems
–
Repair and clean-up
–
Community awareness, capacity building and empowerment
Conclusion
The development of world cause the marine pollution more serious, as humanbeing, We have rights and responsibility to protect the ocean, the earth and the
ecosystem.
Reference
Adshead, J. u. l. i. e. (2018). The Application and Development of the Polluter-Pays Principle across Jurisdictions in Liability for Marine Oil Pollution:
The Tales of the ‘Erika’ and the ‘Prestige’. Journal of Environmental Law, 30(3), 425-451. Retrieved from https://academic-oupcom.libaccess.hud.ac.uk/jel/article/30/3/425/5094964#124219739
European Commission . (2019). Environmental Liability. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/environment/legal/liability/
Ling, Z. h. u. & Yachao, Z. h. a. o. (2015). Polluter-pays Principle – Policy Implementation. Environment policy and Law, 45(1), 34-39. Retrieved from
https://search-proquest-com.libaccess.hud.ac.uk/docview/1673949037?pq-origsite=summon
???????????????? ???????. (2019). Retrieved 15 November 2019, from https://news.un.org/zh/story/2018/06/1010561
??????????????????????????????. (2019). Retrieved 13 November 2019, from http://www.lvziku.cn/c1269.htmlcx
Ocean Heath Index. Chemical Pollution. Retrieved from http://www.oceanhealthindex.org/methodology/components/chemical-pollution