Viewers of Blue Planet II, the latest opus from wildlife TV titan David Attenborough, have been stunned – not just by the astonishing images it has captured of ocean life, but by the shocking statistics it has raised about pollution in our planet’s seas.
Attenborough has called for immediate action by manufacturers, retailers, governments and – most importantly – each of us as individuals to halt the flow of plastic into the oceans, saying humanity has the future of the planet now “in the palm of its hands”.
We could actually do something about plastic right now. I just wish we would
He said: “What we’re going to do about a 1.5 degrees rise in the temperature of the ocean over the next 10 years, I don’t know, but we could actually do something about plastic right now. I just wish we would. There are so many sequences that every single one of us have been involved in – even in the most peripheral way – where we have seen tragedies happen because of the plastic in the ocean.
“We’ve seen albatrosses come back with their belly full of food for their young and nothing in it. The albatross parent has been away for three weeks gathering stuff for her young and what comes out? What does she give her chick? You think it’s going to be squid, but it’s plastic. The chick is going to starve and die. But we could do things about plastic internationally tomorrow.”
These stark calls to action have struck a chord. And The Big Issue Shop wants to help make a difference.
Internationally renowned street artist Mau Mau, who has put ocean pollution at the heart of his work for more than a decade, was shocked by a report that highlighted there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050 unless industry radically changed its practices. In response he produced an exclusive, limited edition T-shirt design ‘Plastic In Our Oceans’ – which is available to buy from The Big Issue Shop. It’s part of our #WEARABIGISSUE line of shirts, which turns fashion into a real statement.
