End of the line

I've rather enjoyed completing a weekly blog over the course of this term and I found it a really effective way to engage with the topic. Keeping up with discourse in popular media in conjunction with the reading scientific articles was so effective in presenting a holistic view on the subject.

Im not going to say I'll miss blogging, as the type of person who usually crams an essay into a single day, the whole prospect of blogging was an entirely new concept. But this method of education inspires me to become more engaged in coursework essays in future, allowing ideas to develop fully.

Throughout the course of this blog I have learnt how disastrous the presence of oceanic plastic pollution within our oceans can be on marine biodiversity. The temporal and spatial variation in pollution levels currently found in the Earths oceans is phenomenal and set to increase. Global marine ecosystems are considered by many as having reached a tipping point, given the ever increasing anthropogenic pressure on biodiversity due to pollution, we could see mass extinctions in the very near future.

When considering initiatives trying to prevent and mitigate oceanic plastic pollution, there are a number of approaches from media led initiatives raising public awareness through to national and international laws. When considering international and national laws, though concern for the marine ecosystem began with the Stockholm Conference of 1972 banning vessel based pollution, marine ecosystems have seen ever increasing levels of oceanic pollution. This is due to global population increases and increases in consumerism and the 'disposable culture' of the late 20th century, which lead to increases in pollution from land based sources. Models of the point sources of pollution and their eventual destination as discussed in this essay confirm this increase in pollution from land based sources.

What surprised me through the course of this blog was the environmental movement and their success in bringing about legislation. The 5Gyres charity and their use of twitter and hashtags to promote awareness and to demand governmental action was so successful! With the recent ban on microbeads in the US as a result of pressure from 5Gyres and their #banthebead campaign these environmental movements really are being effective.


Thats all folks, thanks for hanging in there with me!