Will Cigarette Butts Be Our Environmental Legacy

Summary: Improperly discarded cigarette butts negatively affect the environment in several ways, such as the micro-plastics in the butts harming wildlife and the pollutants caught in the filters damaging ecosystems. Cigarette butts also make up an immense amount of humanity's waste, with between 4 and 5 trillion of the 5.6 trillion cigarettes being consumed every year ending up in the environment. Both sunlight and water can minimize the effects of cigarette butts, though. Sunlight works to decay them, while water provides an environment for bacteria which can eat the butts. Regardless, though, cigarette butts last for a long period of time, assuming they are unable to be decomposed, and have lasting environmental consequences.

https://eos.org/articles/will-cigarette-butts-be-our-environmental-legacy

Response: Not only do cigarettes have harmful effects on individuals, but they also damage the environment. I can't say I'm surprised, though, as a person littering a cigarette butt is a very common sight. This idea of individual actions adding up to create consequential situations is also a good point to meditate on, as well. It takes an effort from many people in order to correct an issue like this. Individuals changing their habits are crucial, but will only cause change in the long term. It seems as though many environmental issues are like this, too (take climate change due to over-consumption as an example).

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 11, 2019 at 6:45 AM

    This was a very interesting article to me and how we are leaving a trace for many generations. I think its interesting how were changing the planet in such small but large ways

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 13, 2019 at 8:30 AM

    You make a very good point. A single person might not think that their actions are all that harmful. However, when you take that single person and multiply that same mindset and those same habits by a million, then the consequences really add up. It's hard for us to correct important issues when there are people like this all over the world.

    ReplyDelete

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