# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Es sind bedrückende, dramatische Bilder, die das Team von A Plastic Ocean für ihren Film eingefangen hat. Aufnahmen von riesigen Mengen Mülls an der Meeresoberfläche, auf dem Meeresgrund, an den Ufern und Stränden. In Plastikschlaufen gefangene Robben und verendende Seevögel. Es ist nicht nur die Visualisierung eines unüberschaubaren Problems. Es ist das Sichtbarmachen einer globalen Katastrophe.

Als die Meeresbiologin Jo Ruxton vor einigen Jahren eine Forschungsreise zur größten Plastikinsel des Pazifik, dem Great Pacific Garbage Patch unternimmt, findet sie nicht die erwartete feste, zusammenhängende Masse an Plastik. Vielmehr entdecken die an der Expedition beteiligten Wissenschaftler kleinste Plastikpartikel, die frei im Wasser treiben. Jo Ruxton kehrt zurück und wird zur Produzentin des bisher aufwändigsten Films über die Plastikkatastrophe in unseren Meeren: A Plastic Ocean

Acht Millionen Tonnen. Pro Jahr.

Acht Millionen Tonnen Plastik landen jährlich in unseren Weltmeeren. Das bedeutet, dass nur ein kleiner Teil unseres benutzten Einweg-Plastiks tatsächlich dem Recycling zugeführt wird. Der Rest findet seinen Weg in die Meere, wird dort zerkleinert und landet so auch in den Mägen von Fischen, Meerestieren und Seevögeln.

In einer Einstellung des kurzen Trailers zu A Plastic Ocean ist die Aktivistin Tanya Streeter in einem Gespräch: „Wenn das Plastik in der Nahrungskette für Delfine ist," stellt sie fest, „dann ist es auch in unserer, oder nicht?" In einer anderen fährt die Kamera über Plastikmüll am Meeresboden. „Dies hier verrottet nicht," erklärt einer der Expeditionsteilnehmer. „Es wird nirgendwo hingehen." In einer weiteren Filmsequenz ist zu sehen, wie Süßkartoffeln und Zuckerrohr auf riesigen Plastikmüllbergen angebaut werden. Es ist abstoßend. Umso wichtiger ist es für uns, diese Aufnahmen zu sehen.

Aufklärung und Lösungsansätze

Der Trailer soll aufrütteln, der Film A Plastic Ocean will aber vor allem aufklären. Vier Jahre war das Team aus Meeresbiologen, Wissenschaftlern, Sporttauchern, Filmern und Aktivisten unterwegs, um ein möglichst umfassendes Bild von den Ausmaßen der Plastikkatastrophe zu gewinnen. Gedreht wurde an 20 verschiedenen Orten der Welt. Das Team liefert im Film nicht nur genaue Analysen, wie sich der Plastikmüll auf das Ökosystem in unterschiedlichen Teilen der Welt auswirkt. Es geht auch auf mögliche Lösungen ein und stellt insbesondere zwei Ansätze vor, um die riesigen Mengen Plastikmülls wieder aus den Ozeanen herausfiltern zu können. Unterstützt wurde das Projekt von namhaften Organisationen wie z.B. Sea Sheperd, Greenpeace und dem NaBu.

In Kürze soll der Film verbreitet werden und dabei ein möglichst großes Publikum erreichen. Wer sich für A Plastic Ocean interessiert, kann sich auf der Website des Projekts in den entsprechenden Newsletter eintragen.

„Veränderung ist möglich. Sie beginnt mit uns"...

...hören wir ein Mitglied des Teams am Ende des Trailers sagen. Die Aufnahmen zeigen eindrücklich: Allein mit einer Reduzierung des eigenen Plastikmülls ist es nicht getan. Aber jede große Veränderung beginnt mit einem ersten Schritt.

Über Ideen zu Vermeidung und Reduzierung von Plastik berichtete codecheck ausführlich (Link führt zum ersten Teil der mehrteiligen Tipps zum Plastikverzicht).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Plastik im Meer: So schlimm ist es tatsächlich - Der Film „A Plastic Ocean" macht die Katastrophe sichtbar

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Es sind bedrückende, dramatische Bilder, die das Team von A Plastic Ocean für ihren Film eingefangen hat. Aufnahmen von riesigen Mengen Mülls an der Meeresoberfläche, auf dem Meeresgrund, an den Ufern und Stränden. In Plastikschlaufen gefangene Robben und verendende Seevögel. Es ist nicht nur die Visualisierung eines unüberschaubaren Problems. Es ist das Sichtbarmachen einer globalen Katastrophe.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Many of you may have already seen the photograph above, of an albatross carcass full of undigested plastic junk. But how representative is that of the wider issue facing seabirds?

To help answer that question, we carried out the first worldwide analysis of the threat posed by plastic pollution to seabird species worldwide.

Our study, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that nearly 60% of all seabird species studied so far have had plastic in their gut. This figure is based on reviewing previous reports in the scientific literature, but if we use a statistical model to infer what would be found at the current time and include unstudied species, we expect that more than 90% of seabirds have eaten plastic rubbish.
Rising Tide Of Plastic
Our analysis of published studies shows that the amount of plastic in seabird's stomachs has been climbing over the past half-century. In 1960, plastic was found in the stomachs of less than 5% of seabirds, but by 2010 this had risen to 80%. We predict that by 2050, 99% of the world's seabird species will be accidentally eating plastic, unless we take action to clean up the oceans.

Perhaps surprisingly, we also found that the area with the worst expected impact is at the boundary of the Southern Ocean and the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New Zealand. While this region is far away from the subtropical gyres, dubbed "ocean garbage patches", that collect the highest densities of plastic, the highest threat is in areas where plastic rubbish overlaps with large numbers of different seabird species - such as the Southern Ocean off Australia.
Expected number of seabird species ingesting plastic. PNAS
Seabirds are excellent indicators of ecosystem health. The high estimates of plastic in seabirds we found were not so surprising, considering that members of our research team have previously found nearly 200 pieces of plastic in a single seabird. These items include a wide range of things most of us would recognise: bags, bottle caps, bits of balloons, cigarette lighters, even toothbrushes and plastic toys.

Seabirds can have surprising amounts of plastic in their gut. Working on islands off Australia, we have found birds with plastics making up 8% of their body weight. Imagine a person weighing 62 kg having almost 5 kg of plastic in their digestive tract. And then think about how large that lump would be, given that many types of plastic are designed to be as lightweight as possible.

The more plastic a seabird encounters, the more it tends to eat, which means that one of the best predictors of the amount of plastic in a seabird's gut is the concentration of ocean plastic in the region where it lives. This finding points the way to a solution: reducing the amount of plastic that goes into the ocean would directly reduce the amount that seabirds (and other wildlife) accidentally eat.

That might sound obvious, but as we can see from the stomach contents of the birds, many of the items are things people use every day, so the link to human rubbish is clear.
Plastic from a dead flesh-footed shearwater, amounting to 8% of the bird's body weight. Britta Denise Hardesty, Author provided
Our study suggests that improving waste management would directly benefit wildlife. There are several actions we could take, such as reducing packaging, banning single-use plastic items or charging an extra fee to use them, and introducing deposits for recyclable items like drink containers.

Many of these types of policies are already proving to be locally effective in reducing waste lost into the environment, a substantial portion of which ends up polluting the ocean.

One recent study of industrial practices in Europe found that improved management of plastic led to a clear reduction in the number of plastic items found in seabirds in the North Sea within a few decades. This is encouraging, as it suggests not only that the solutions are effective, but also that they work in a relatively short time.

Given that most of these items were in someone's hands at some point, it seems that a simple behaviour change can reduce a global impact to our seabirds, and to other marine species as well.
This work was carried out as part of a national marine debris project supported by CSIRO and Shell's Social investment program, as well as the marine debris working group at the US National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, with support from Ocean Conservancy.
Chris Wilcox is Senior Research Scientist at ; Britta Denise Hardesty is Senior Research Scientist, Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship at , and Erik van Sebille is Lecturer in oceanography and climate change at Imperial College London

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Seabirds Are Eating Plastic Litter In Our Oceans - But Not Only Where You'd Expect

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many of you may have already seen the photograph above, of an albatross carcass full of undigested plastic junk. But how representative is that of the wider issue facing seabirds? To help answer that question, we carried out the first worldwide analysis of the threat posed by plastic pollution to seabird species worldwide.

# data[].attributes.body
Whales,birds,seals, and turtles are all hurt by plastic thinking it´s food.Plastic bags are mistaken for jellyfish, so when an animal eats it the plastic, once ingested it will stay in the animal and kill it.

# data[].attributes.body
From just India, 15,000 ton of plastic waste is created a day and that only 1/195 countries in the world!

# data[].attributes.body
If something is not done soon, by the year 2050 there will be 352,800 pounds of plastic in the ocean by the least the largest amount will probably be 917,280 pounds of plastic in the ocean.This much plastic will make most ocean creature´s go extinct.

# data[].attributes.body
One metric ton is about 2,205 pounds and about 5-13 metric tons of plastic meaning the lowest amount of plastic out there is 11,025 pounds and the highest is amount out there is 28,665 pounds.That´s only one year worth of plastic.

# data[].attributes.body
Plastic can go very far.If you drop a piece of plastic in the ocean when you are at Shanghai,China it could travel up to about 10,046 miles a couple hundred miles away from the coast of California.