A key issue within the sea is that of plastics and they pollute the sea. Though what is the most polluted sea? The answer is the Mediterranean. One country that is affected greatly by this is Greece.
This video summaries whats wrong about the pollution of plastics. The main problems are marine life consuming plastic and becoming trapped (leads to devastation for different species), and it pollutes the sea which impacts humans. Many of these plastics are deposited by tourism, which is why Greece has been looked at. In fact, 60% of marine waste found in the Mediterranean was found in the Saronic Gulf which is near Athens. It therefore disproportionately affects Greece. The video below explains more about the effects of plastic waste:
When looking at Greece in particular, the country has suffered greatly. Since the recession of 2007/8, their economy has been failing and has recently received a bailout from the EU in the past few years. It could be argued that due to this, they have other priorities other than saving the sea from plastic waste. It links to the wider problems of environmentalism and how often it is put to the back of government’s minds. However with increasing global warming and globalisation, this destruction will only continue and should be addressed.
It is also wrong to assume that this plastic waste is all from Greece when actually, many of it is from Turkey and Spain (other countries in the Mediterranean). This signifies that the sea is not static and is fluid, has the ability to move plastics across the sea. It therefore becomes a more of an international problem, therefore the EU banned single plastics in 2018. Though Tidley (2018), argues more can be done for plastics in the ocean.
This is not to say that nothing has been done by Greece to tackle this. For example, the Greek Island of Sikinos, has recently gone plastic straw free. Plastic straws has been a recent debate with environmentalism, as they take 200 years to dissolve and it is the 11th most frequent plastic in the ocean. Greece themselves has also introduced an ecotax for every plastic bag (9 cents). Both of these are a step in the right direction, but it appears to only really affect the people who live there. Greece have not appeared to confront the waste that is produced from tourism. This needs to change if the issue of plastic waste is going to improve in Greece. If it does not, the picturesque views that were once associated with Greece may be long forgotten. This possibly could result in less tourism in the future. This shows how the sea affects the economy and on land activities and relations altogether.
It is unlikely that tourism will go away so the sea again will have to deal with the consequences of plastic. Though looking to the future, the Greek Islands rely on tourism and its picturesque views and having plastic there, will likely not improve its image.
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