that s nearly 2000 times more pieces of plastic in our oceans than there are stars in the milky way galaxy, and most of it was put there since 2004. no really, this is an you can look at the curves of plastic waste. this is a business decision. this is petrochemical companies and plastic lobbies. who want to double and triple the production of this stuff as the demand for gasoline goes down, petrochemicals are the are the new frontier, especially in africa, in places where there s zero regulation. but this is i mean, look at this, and there s a big problem with ghost nets, which just float around about 10% or 20% of the waste comes from the fishing industry. scientists just came up with a new disease for seabirds plastic co sis they eat so much plastic destroys their trachea. um so yeah, this is a crisis and the united nations has tried to put together a treated address this it has to happen, but just what s the more responsibility of the companies that made all that stuff to at least
from pollution from um starvation, plastics. we collectively alison dumped over £10 billion of plastics in our oceans every year, and that often ends up into these incredible creatures in their digestive systems. they get entangled and ghost nets. all of these things contribute to what would cause these creatures to strand. it s so disturbing, jeff . but is there any indication yet? or is it too early to know what happened with these eight dolphins? well they ll be trying to this is now a big marine mammal, sexy stories. so the state of new jersey along with local experts, like the marine mammal stranding center will be doing what we call a necropsy, which basically is an op topsy for an animal, and they will delve into that to look at their chemistry. we know. for example , whales will, uh, dolphins along the florida coastline in the inter coastal system. have a
of these ice shelves. it s keeping all that fresh water locked on land down under. and if it s released, that means coastal cities around the world will be forcibly rearranged. the hope is that we can control just how much that happens, how fast it happens with a transition of a feels that burn. that s what scientists have been calling now for generations. and when we are down there, there is actually an ocean treaty that passed in the u.n.. as more nations try to protect the high seas, where so much pollution is evident, with plastic pollution, noise pollution for the animals, ghost nets that are floating around out there. a lot to think about with the health of the planet. when you take it from the perspective of down below. but i wish i could share with everybody. when you see how beautiful, how much amazing life is left, and makes you want to work for it even more. lauren? thank you so much, bill. you really paint a picture. i think all of you also for watching.
12 nations signed oon there is now 55 nations, they stopped the slaughter of humpback whales back in our great-grandparents generation, killed them by the millions, this he would kill the penguin, use their blubber to kill the whales. all of those species, many of them have come back fully now. there are other new pressures, the climate change, ocean pollution, ghost nets, shipping traffic that threatens these creatures as well. but as an example of what can happen if humanity agrees on something, some people even think we should use antarctica for a model of how to behave in space and how to think about colonizing the moon or other planets as a cooperative way. we learned our lesson down there, the request he is can we keep that going and extend it, create blue corridors for some of these massive creatures, turned out to be my biggest climate allies. so i came back inspired of what we re capable of when it comes