Alright, that's it. We have finally replicated a scene from SpongeBob: the walls have oozed green slime. Unfortunately, the walls do not always do that in our Krusty Krab, let's call it Earth for the remainder of this article. Where did the ooze happen? Look no further than Florida. Over the last weekend, Florida governor Rick Scott had to call for a state of emergency due to the terrible implications of this green slime covering several waterways and beaches. The algae, sorry it isn't actually some weird arbitrary green slime, can affect the gastrointestinal system, liver, nervous system and skin. Also, many fish and other aquatic organisms can die when in contact, according to a local, Jordan Schwarz, who owns a small business next to the water.
In all of this bad news, you may be wondering why we are the culprits, not just a natural, harmful algae doing what it does. The reason there is so much toxic algae is too much pollution in the waterway by the state of Florida. Why is there so much pollution? The Army Corps of Engineers do watch out for high water levels there, but they are not mandated to check water quality. This dismissal of checking quality has led to the toxic green algae all over lake Okeechobee which primarily gets revenue from tourism. No tourist wants to spend there time at a toxic lake, so the local economy has suffered greatly.
Why is this a problem for people who don't live near this lake? Pollution is something that is happening throughout the world. Although, not everyone is near a lake that could possible develop a toxic algae, everyone has to live on Earth for the time being. With that being said, the Earth has to be taken care of for it to be suitable to live on. Pollution in the oceans, the land, the air, etc. all have negative consequences on everyone. If people in Florida can know that dumping is bad for them, yet continue to do it until their waters are toxic, then what could other people do around the world? Could they not stop dumping garbage into the ocean until mass quantities of fish stock are gone and people starve? Will people continue to trash their environments with plastics or cleaning chemicals until all the wildlife is gone?
I surely hope the answers to the above questions are no. The Earth isn't a self-cleaning oven that you never to have worry about (it does have decomposers but they only can do so much). As one species on this planet who have to coexist with all the other species lest we end ourselves, humans need to wake up the reality around us; there will be no more happy times at Bikini Bottom or anymore Krabby Patties if we cannot control how much we pollute and deal with the pollution that we have already amassed.
