We are turning our beautiful Ocean into a plastic soup. About 8 million tonnes of plastic enters the sea every year, and at this rate, we face a future with more plastic in the Ocean than fish by 2050. Our plastic addiction and waste mismanagement are condemning countless marine birds and animals to death by entanglement or poisoning, and even leading to chemical contamination of the fish we eat. The vast swirls of plastic rubbish visible on the sea surface – horrifying as they are –represent just the tip of the iceberg. What lies beneath are the masses of microbeads and broken-down particles of plastic that are easily ingested by sea creatures, and impossible to remove. The urgently needed solution calls for a combination of enhanced awareness, reduced plastic use, and massively improved waste management. The most effective way to have less plastic in the Ocean is to use less plastic in the first place.
Centre for Ocean Research, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology (SIST), Tamil Nadu, India along with IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management and Commission on Education and Communication is organizing a National workshop on the Awareness of Marine Plastic Debris in Indian Seas (Pollution and Solution) – ‘WAMP 2020’. The main motto of the workshop is to seed awareness in the younger generations about the alarming plastic pollution running through the river, backwater, estuaries, and mixing in the ocean environment finally. The workshop focuses on attracting and gathering the present younger generations to create awareness on marine plastic pollution using visual media.
Dates: 22 and 23 January 2020.
Venue: Col. Dr. Jeppiaar Research Park, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai
Details of the workshop are available here.