Source : Manila Times, Philippines, 29 Mar '05
By : Heherson T. Alvarez
  

We are made doubly aware to take care of our waters—the oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, streams, even our lowly canals and esteros. When we throw away that plastic bag from the grocery or even that tiny plastic cap of our favorite bottled water, chances are they will find their way into the world’s oceans and accumulate into a floating sea of garbage. Garbage that will cause the eventual loss of marine life. For us Filipinos who thrive on the bounties of our seas, this would mean hunger for future generations unless we curb land-based pollution of our waters.

Poisonous plastics

Scientists are now alarmed at discovering that a three million-ton mass of plastic debris that may contain toxics like DDT (dichlorodiphe­nyltrichlo­roethane) and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), is floating in the North Pacific subtropical gyre and continues to get bigger each year from plastic thrown by Japanese, Canadians and Americans from their respective eastern and western Pacific coastal lands.

How does this mass of plastic from Japan, Canada and USA threaten marine and human life?

Most common plastics today do not biodegrade. Instead, they “photo-degrade,” a process whereby sunlight breaks then into progressively smaller pieces that remain as plastic polymers which are still too tough even for bacteria to digest or biodegrade.

The estimated physical existence of photodegradable but nonbio­degra­dable plastic is about 1,000 years.

Plastic polymers, it turns out, are sponges for DDT, PCBs, and other oily toxic pollutants. These polymers are digested by fish and other marine species, thereby contaminating the food web.

DDT affects the nervous system causing excitability, tremors and seizures while PCBs cause cancer and affect the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems.

‘Oceanfill’ reaches the Philippines

While garbage is thrown in landfills, scientists have learned that we have unknowingly been building an “oceanfill” in the North Pacific gyre since the “plastic boom” beginning in the 1950s and 1960s. It is estimated that more than 14 billion pounds of garbage is dumped each year into the world’s oceans.

Each year, we join and organize Clean Up the World events in the Philippines. During the coastal clean up months of September and October, plastic is the number one item of concern making up well over 76 percent of the garbage collected.

For the past 50 years or so, plastics that have made their way into the Pacific Ocean have been fragmenting and accumulating as a kind of swirling sewer in the North Pacific subtropical gyre.

In 1998 alone, the US Marine Mammal Commission reported that 267 marine species have been reported entangled in or having ingested marine debris including 86 percent of all sea turtle species, 44 percent of all sea bird species, and 43 percent of marine mammal species.

The plastic constricts the animals’ movements or kills the marine animal through starvation, exhaustion, or infection from deep wounds caused by the tightening material. The animals may starve to death, because the plastic clogs their intestines thereby preventing them from obtaining vital nutrients.

Toxic substances present in plastics can cause death or reproductive failure in the fish, shellfish, and wildlife that use the habitat. Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and birds eat bits of Styrofoam. At least 50 different seabird species are known to ingest plastic debris, primarily styrofoam.

Choking wildlife to death

A 1980 Fish and Wildlife service study showed 45 of 50 albatrosses (90 percent) on Midway Island had plastics in their intestines. An extremely high incidence of young turtles fail prey to ingested plastics.

When plastic film and other debris settle on the bottom, it can suffocate immobile plants and animals, producing areas essentially devoid of file. In areas with some currents, such as coral reefs, debris can wrap around living coral, smothering the animals and breaking up their coraline structures.

There are also photographs of jellyfish hopelessly entangled in frayed lines and transparent filter feeding organisms with colored plastic fragments in their bellies.

Ironically, the plastic debris is reentering the oceans where it came from. The ancient planktons that once floated on Earth’s primordial seas gave rise to the petroleum now being transformed into plastic polymers.

In 2001 results of a study of the plastic garbage published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin showed that there are six pounds of plastic floating in the North Pacific subtropical gyre for every pound of naturally occurring zooplankton.

In effect, the plastic polymers the “civilized plankton” we manufactured is now competing with its natural counterpart as the food-base of life forms that directly or indirectly feed on them.

National policies to save oceans

Initiatives to address the problem of disposing plastics in the world’s oceans are now being undertaken by the Advisory Committee on Protection of the Seas (Acops), a UK-based NGO founded 50 years ago by former British Prime Minister Lord Callaghan of Cardiff.

Acops is spearheaded by a council of vice presidents from leaders all over the world. It aims to promote strategies for the sustainable development of the coastal and marine environment through scientific, legal and policy research, and advisory and public awareness activities. Work is carried out at the global, regional and national levels.

Studying our seas and oceans both as indicators of pollution and as a threatened resource in their own right, Acops strives to identify cost effective, long-term environmental solutions that can effectively be implemented across the world.

In 1996 the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources and the EarthSavers Movement, joined the House of Representative and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in organizing with Acops the meeting of environment ministers of East Asian countries entitled “National and Regional Application of the Washington Global Program of Action in the East Asian Seas” held in Manila.

The meeting resulted in the signing of the “Manila Declaration” that explored measures for regional implementation of the Global Program of Action (GPA) in East Asian Seas and proposed principles, strategies and elements for a regional program of action against the pollution of our seas from land-based sources.

Acops also sponsored the Asia-Pacific Clean up the World Conference and El Niño Summit in 1996, both held in Manila, with President Ramos as patron-host.

Potomac Declaration

With this environmental disaster in the high seas, I am now pushing for a national and global policy to reduce the toxic oily sea debris now polluting the great Ocean gyres as part of a global program on ocean security.

In 1997 Acops advocated the development of a new concept in “ocean security” which encompassed such aspects as environmental, food and economic security, as well as research and defense.

A program on “Oceans and Security” was initiated at a Conference held in the United States’ House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., from May 19-21, 1997, attended by then-US Vice President Al Gore, then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and 18 Ministers and Deputy Ministers.

Some 200 high-level government officials and representatives of the defense and scientific communities, NGOs and the private sector also attended the event, where I represented the Philippines when I was senator.

The conference adopted the “Potomac Declaration” which made a number of proposals relating to food, environmental, and economic security of the oceans.

It further recognized the importance of environmental issues as a security aspect, thereby adopting a prism that transcends the sectoral approach usually favored by both governments and intergovernmental agencies.

High-level decision

I now propose that nations implement the Potomac Declaration of Acops in conjunction with the Pacific Ocean pollution research project targeted for completion in 2007, that I helped initiate at the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) as head of the Philippine delegation then as DENR secretary.

WSSD, which took place in Johannesburg, South Africa from August 26 to September 4, 2002, brought together 21,340 participants from 191 governments, intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations, industry and academia, including many heads of state and other high level officials.

Oceans, coasts and islands were not initially on the WSSD agenda, which emphasized issues concerning water and sanitation, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity.

However, thanks to the mobilization of interested governments, NGOs and UN agencies early in the WSSD preparatory process, advances in oceans, coasts and islands represent one of the most important outcomes of the World Summit.