{"id":14978,"date":"2018-02-26T05:19:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T05:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=14978"},"modified":"2019-11-06T09:48:33","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:48:33","slug":"bearing-witness-to-an-oil-spill-made-my-heart-ache-but-also-made-me-determined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/14978\/bearing-witness-to-an-oil-spill-made-my-heart-ache-but-also-made-me-determined\/","title":{"rendered":"Bearing witness to an oil spill made my heart ache, but also made me determined"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Oil residue found by Greenpeace Japan on the shore of the island Amami Oshima.<\/p><\/div>\n

Going to the beach to listen to the sound of waves is one of the best remedies for stress. It reminds me how beautiful our planet is and how lucky I am to be part of it. <\/span><\/p>\n

But our oceans are under threat from human activities. Overfishing, plastic waste, acidification, deep sea mining… the list is long.<\/p>\n

And on top of that, oil spills are happening regularly.<\/p>\n

Last week, I went to the southwestern Japanese islands to witness one firsthand. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d heard about oil spills happening in other parts of the world but this was the first one I\u2019d seen with my own eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Akiko Tsuchiya from Greenpeace Japan traveled to Amami Oshima to contribute to the clean-up effort there, and\u00a0observe how much damage has been caused by oil washing ashore.<\/p><\/div>\n

The beautiful island of Amami Oshima is home to various types of coral reef, as well as fish and endangered marine animals like sea turtles and humpback whales. <\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of January, the Sanchi tanker started spilling oil into the East China Sea<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Oil has now reached the shores of these Japanese islands. <\/span>I went to Amami Oshima and could see small blocks of oil in the waves and an oil soaked fishing net. <\/span><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know for sure where the oil has come from, but it’s there. <\/span>Creepy, black, sticky lumps of oil spreading onto the beach.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Oil

Oil found by Greenpeace Japan on Sutego beach, Amami Oshima, Kagoshima.<\/p><\/div>\n

Seeing the oil on the shore made me sad. Sad for the people and wildlife that might be affected.<\/p>\n

A dead streaked shearwater was found with oil attached to its feathers. A week earlier a sea turtle was found choking to death on oil residues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My heart was aching.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

A dead seabird found on the shore of Chinase, Amami Oshima, Japan.<\/p><\/div>\n

The clean-up operation started on one of the iconic beaches, and collected waste was piled up on the beach. I met local people who said they hoped everything would get back to normal soon, and that people from outside the island would remember what had happened there.<\/span><\/p>\n

I came to learn that even if the oil is cleared up until there\u2019s no obvious residue, it doesn\u2019t mean the toxicity problem has been removed completely. <\/span><\/p>\n

We know from previous oil spills that toxic residues can persist for a long time in beach sand and sediment, leading to elevated levels of toxic chemicals in marine life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Waste

Waste collected from the clean-up operation on Asani beach, Amami Oshima.<\/p><\/div>\n

The reality is that oil spills can happen anywhere and at any time.<\/p>\n

While we continue to depend on fossil fuels and hydrocarbon chemicals – and transport them by sea – it is inevitable that these accidents will happen. <\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone who lives on oil consumption is responsible for this, including me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a huge problem to tackle, and it can make me feel helpless. But I believe we can change this. <\/span>We can be the generation that puts an end to fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

All we can do is to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and petrochemicals by changing our lifestyles. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Firstly, let\u2019s reduce using petrochemicals like single use plastics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly, let\u2019s walk more, ride a bicycle or choose transportation using less fossil fuels. <\/span><\/p>\n

Thirdly, give our support to renewable energy over dirty energy. <\/span><\/p>\n

Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean. <\/span><\/p>\n

Akiko Tsuchiya is a Communications Officer at Greenpeace Japan<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":14990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69,73],"tags":[67,87],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-14978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-consumption","tag-oil","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14978"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16946,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14978\/revisions\/16946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14978"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=14978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}