{"id":4904,"date":"2015-06-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www-prod.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollution-climate-change\/"},"modified":"2024-11-20T14:10:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T14:10:23","slug":"pollution-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/oceans\/pollution-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollution &#038; Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class='p4descriptive_paragraph'>Nearly half of all ocean pollution comes from activities that take place on land. <\/span><\/p>\n<figure class='wp-block-image size-large p4featured_image'><img src='https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/5fb027b3-gp0stozn4-oceans-greenpeace.jpg' alt='Harbor Clean Up in RotterdamHaven Clean Up in Rotterdam' \/><figcaption class='wp-element-caption'>Cleaning up plastic pollution from Rotterdam Harbor in the Netherlands. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Oil spills and other pollution at sea\u2014while they carry serious consequences\u2014actually account for a small fraction of ocean pollution.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly half of all ocean pollution comes from activities that take place on land, like sewage, industrial and agricultural runoff, garbage dumping, and chemical spills. Another third comes from airborne pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and mercury from coal-burning power plants.<\/p>\n<p>Pesticide and fertilizer runoff are creating huge dead zones\u2014oxygen-depleted areas where many marine species struggle to survive. The world\u2019s largest dead zone, located in the Gulf of Mexico, is roughly the size of Connecticut.<\/p>\n<h2>Plastics in the Ocean<\/h2>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_53812\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/948e661c-gp0stpnoc_web_size_with_credit_line.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53812\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-53812\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/948e661c-gp0stpnoc_web_size_with_credit_line.jpg\" alt=\"Plastic waste and rubbish floating on the coast of Senegal. Plastikmuell und Abfall schwimmt vor der Kueste von Senegal.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-53812\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plastic waste and rubbish floating on the coast of Senegal.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Plastics are another major source of contamination in our oceans. Of the 100 million metric tons of plastic produced every year, about 10 million end up in the oceans.<\/p>\n<p>Plastic pollution comes in all shapes and sizes. Larger pieces make up the Eastern Garbage Patch, a floating whirlpool of trash in the Pacific oceans that\u2019s about the size of Texas. Smaller pieces\u2014like the microbeads in your toothpaste and cosmetics\u2014are choking hundreds of different marine species.<\/p>\n<h2>Ocean Acidification<\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0same greenhouse gases causing climate change are also having disastrous effects on the ocean.<\/p>\n<p>Our oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide, rapidly causing them to become more acidic. This is threatening the habitat of every species that calls the ocean home, particularly vulnerable coral as well as many types of plankton, which form the base of the food chain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly half of all ocean pollution comes from activities that take place on land. Cleaning up plastic pollution from Rotterdam Harbor in the Netherlands. Oil spills and other pollution at sea\u2014while they carry serious consequences\u2014actually account for a small fraction of ocean pollution. Nearly half of all ocean pollution comes from activities that take place [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":5866,"parent":1586,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_hide_page_title_checkbox":"","p4_title":"","p4_subtitle":"","p4_description":"","background_image_id":"","background_image":"","p4_button_title":"","p4_button_link":"","p4_button_link_checkbox":"","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":[223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4904","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oceans"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pollution &amp; Climate Change - Greenpeace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/oceans\/pollution-climate-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pollution &amp; Climate Change\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nearly half of all ocean pollution comes from activities that take place on land. 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