EPILOGUE

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Every year, about 12 million tons of plastic parts end up in our oceans. Over one million marine animals die each year from plastic waste alone. They die in agony as plastic fills their stomachs or causes inflammation in their digestive systems, some get entangled and become easy prey or suffocate. Not only larger animals are affected, but also tiny organisms that are poisoned by microplastics and thus the entire food web that follows.

And plastic waste is only one of the many areas of marine pollution. Humans are destroying the ocean by overfishing and emitting CO2, which leads to ocean acidification and eutrophication, resulting in the massive death of coral reefs. 70% of oxygen is produced by marine plants, 30% of our emissions are absorbed by the oceans, causing international species extinction at a rapid rate that can hardly be slowed.

We as individuals do not want to take responsibility for an exploitative system that we never agreed to. We wonder and fret, and wonder how the wheel keeps turning and turning, after all the destruction it has visibly already wrought. You don't have to live near the coast to turn a blind eye to the strain on the oceans.

Change is the big goal, but a goal has never been achieved from one day to the next. Change is hardly conceivable on its own.

But neither is it conceivable to close our eyes to it.

We may not be able to change it. But each of us can do our part. Each of us can decide to open our eyes.

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