The 2018 Mekong Tourism Forum tries to do its small part to raise awareness of the issue and make the event plastic free.
On June 28th, we will put the Plastic Issue front and center and invite anybody to join the discussion how we as an industry can reduce single-use plastic in the Greater Mekong Subregion.
Also, for the second year in a row, MTF 2018 is has designed a limited-edition refillable water bottle, as part of our MTF Plastic Free Kit.
Join Mekong Tourism Forum for free in Nakhon Phanom from June 26-29, 2018, and be part of the change.
Most of us reading this piece will no doubt work in the travel and tourism sector and therefore will have some awareness of the scale of plastic the industry attracts and consumes. In the last 10 years, we have made more plastic than ever before. In this year alone, every man, woman and child will consume on average 300 pounds or 136 kilos of single-use plastic. By 2025, 10 times more plastic each year is estimated to be dumped in our oceans. Furthermore by 2050 the population is expected to grow to a whopping 10 billion people and our plastic consumption is expected to triple. The truth is, only a fraction will be recycled.
These are just some of the facts we learned watching the Plastic Oceans documentary this week, and there are more here:
- Eight million tons of plastic are dumped into the world’s oceans every year
- In the western Mediterranean recent findings show 1-2 ratio of plastic to plankton (microscopic creatures eaten by a variety of marine life including whales).
- Scientists estimate that there are more than 5 trillion particles (pieces of plastic) in our oceans.
- As plastic bottles and debris float on top of the ocean they are broken up by sunlight, waves and salt to create what is known as microplastics.
- Toxins such as pesticides and heavy metals entering the ocean hitchhike onto microplastics, causing devastating effects on marine life when they are ingested.
- A Bryde’s whale was reported to have 6sqm of plastic inside it when it washed up on the shoreline off Cairns in Australia. The post-mortem found that the whale’s stomach was tightly packed with mostly plastic checkout bags.
- Birds are affected too: shearwater birds and albatross are often found dead with their stomachs full of microplastics. One shearwater bird was found with up to 270 pieces of micro plastics inside its body, that’s the equivalent of 6-8 kilos of plastic inside a human being.
- The plastics and toxins found in marine life can (and do) enter the food chain, and end up on our plates.
Our oceans are in trouble. As if the rise in ocean acidification, coral bleaching, and the overexploitation of fish stocks wasn’t enough of a crisis, the staggering levels of marine pollution is cause for very real concern and requires concerted efforts from every person on this planet. An estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the ocean every year and every square kilometre of ocean holds an average of 13,000 pieces of plastic litter according to the Plastics Oceans Foundation and the United Nations. Plastics account for a sizeable portion of marine waste, and that has to change.
Plastics have both a direct and indirect effect on the planet. Plastics directly entering the oceans account for a massive percentage of marine pollution, and plastics also play a role in climate change, warming the world’s oceans. Fabien Cousteau, grandson of world famous ocean explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, is an ocean advocate and filmmaker. In the summer of 2014, the younger Cousteau lived under the ocean for 31 days to conduct science experiences and give the world a “better grasp on what oceans mean to climate change, and a better understanding of what the over-consumption of natural resources means to us as a species.” Dubbed Mission 31, the scientists on board researched a broad range of issues affecting our oceans, from the effects of man-made pollutants like fertilisers to how zooplankton respond to prolonged changes in water temperature.
This research is just beginning to increase our understanding of the devastating effect plastics have had on the planet’s oceans.
Proudly contributed by Jens Thraenhart Company contributor Mekong Tourism Office
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