Why People Litter Without Being Cognizant of Their Actions.

My research this week was focused on finalizing this part of my project that is focused plastic bottle pollution. In all the research I have done pertaining plastic bottle pollution, the ocean was affected the most out of anything.  In the beginning of this week, I was in the search to find out why people pollute. I interviewed my cousin, who is a freshman in high school, my mother and my friend and asked them why they think people pollute the environment and their answers were: “People are naturally lazy and we have this attitude where we don’t think beyond our choices to see how we affect others and everything around us, “For many people, it’s easier to throw something on the floor than rightfully place it in a garbage can because firstly, we undermine what problems the trash might bring up and secondly, people and be every lazy and ignorant to this world” and “I sometimes pollute the environment because I see other dirt on the floor so what difference will it make if I throw my water bottle on the ground. There is dirt everywhere so my bottle won’t make much of a difference”. My reasoning based on their answers is that the environment, including the sea, is being destroyed partly because many of us can’t be bothered to do the right thing and place trash where it should go. How hard is it to do the right thing? The more I pondered about this question, I realized that this question is meant for another research that isn’t in much correlation to my project so I went back on track.  TED is the place to be when it comes to finding the answers to many question concerning plastic pollution so I visited the website and found multiple TED talks about plastic in the ocean. Co-founder of the website and movement Plastic Pollution Coalition (Plasticpollutioncoaltion.org), Dianna Cohen, presented what she has discovered about plastic in the oceans and what she thinks we can do to prevent more plastic from ending up in the oceans. Sylvia Earle is another speaker that I found who was concerned with the ocean and her presentation was focused on how the oceans and it’s marine life is being affected by the imprudent decisions people are making. The end of her presentation showed a lot of marine life and showed that if we continue doing bad things that affect the ocean, then we will be affected in the long run. It was an inspiring talk and I think seeing all the marine life can motivate people to think more about protecting our oceans.

http://www.ted.com/talks/sylvia_earle_s_ted_prize_wish_to_protect_our_oceans http://www.ted.com/talks/dianna_cohen_tough_truths_about_plastic_pollution