Consumerism: a word representing society's obsession with material goods. An unhealthy bond between humans and materials that has been increasingly growing as time goes on. Most of us are aware of consumerism's negative effects on human life. However, consumerism is harming more than just humans -- marine life has also been greatly disturbed. It might be hard to understand how our obsession with goods could be so detrimental to aquatic life. Humanity needs to understand the negative impact our actions have on marine life.
In "Sonic Sea," a film aired on the Discovery Channel, the detrimental effects of our consumerism are revealed. Chris Clark, a bioacoustics expert at Cornell University featured in "Sonic Sea," describes the detrimental effects of consumerism: "We are basically acoustically bleaching the ocean." Essentially, our consumerism is keeping animals from communicating with each other. As you may be aware, many marine animals communicate through sound waves. Noise pollution is interfering with marine animal's communication. The communication between marine animals is vital considering their ability to find food and a mate depend on it. Because of noise pollution's interruption of these sound waves dolphin and whale populations have declined greatly in areas where the noise pollution is taking place.
You might be asking how could buying a product cause noise pollution. Consumerism demands more product, in order for this demand to be met more goods must be shipped through commercial shipping on the ocean. More product means more commercial ships which creates more noise pollution. However, commercial shipping is not the only source of noise pollution. Other sources include: naval sonar and gas development. So essentially, as our consumerism grows so does the three main sources of noise pollution.
Consumerism is hurting more than meets the eye. Its effects on humanity is obvious but its effect on marine life is kept under wraps. If we continue our selfish ways and take over the ocean we may not be able to enjoy the beautiful marine life that takes refuge in the big ocean blue. These issues must be addressed before it's too late. Consumerism kills and it's time we do something about it.
