E34: toefl TOEFL Vocabulary conversation English Daily Conversation grammar Learn grammar by example idioms Learn American idioms

First, we should be clear as to what is meant by 'the sea'. To get the concept into proportion, it is worth remembering that the area of the earth's surface covered by water is 140m square miles, i.e. 71%. Secondly, its mean depth is 12,450 feet, i.e. c.4000 meters. Obviously the depth varies. There are points in the Atlantic rift and in the Pacific Ocean where depths up to 8 miles have been recorded. Hence, there is no argument for saying that eventually the seas will be filled with human waste of various kinds, and there is no apparent reason why this waste should not be dumped in the sea. The all-important point is the control that must be exercised by international agreement over such dumping.

The fact is that the consumer countries will produce more and more rubbish as time goes on, and somewhere, somehow, this has to be disposed of. What are the options? They vary according to the source of the material, but there can only be three: sea, land and air. The disposal of rubbish as land-fill material is certainly not popular, at least in small countries. Nobody wants to live near land-fill sites. They disfigure the countryside and can prove positively dangerous. Poisonous material can leach out into rivers and adjacent farm land, damaging productivity, causing disease among animals and wildlife in general, and killing fish. People, and especially children living in such areas may also be exposed to disease. Read the whole essay
Source: www.englishdaily626.com