Healthy oceans are important for stable climate – Kyei Yamoah 

Mr Kyei Kwadwo Yamoah, the Executive Director of the Human Environmental and Livelihood Platform Foundation (HELP FOUNDATION AFRICA), has called on the public to help the country to maintain healthy oceans. 

Mr Yamoah, speaking with the GNA in commemoration of World Ocean Day, noted that healthy oceans were important to ensure a stable climate. 

World Ocean Day is commemorated annually on June 8, with this year’s theme being “Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us”. 

“A greener world isn’t just about what happens on land. Healthy oceans are equally important to ensure a stable climate. Yet our blue planet is currently facing urgent threats from plastic pollution,” he said. 

He noted that the theme highlighted the ocean’s critical role in sustaining humanity, indicating that the ocean covers over 70 per cent of the planet and served as the life source for humans, supporting humanity’s sustenance and that of every other organism on earth. 

He added that the ocean produces at least 50 per cent of the planet’s oxygen, absorbing about 30 per cent of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming. 

Besides, the ocean is also home to most of Earth’s biodiversity and serves as the main source of protein for more than a billion people around the world, and an estimated 40 million people would be employed by ocean-based industries by 2030. 

The HELP Foundation’s Executive Director indicated that the nexus between World Environment Day 2025 and World Ocean Day 2025 was in the shared focus on environmental protection, particularly plastic pollution and sustainable ecosystems. 

He noted that World Environment Day 2025 called for collective action to tackle plastic pollution, adding that plastics were clogging the country’s rivers, choking the oceans and showing up in humans’ food. 

“Plastic pollution has seeped into every corner of the world, leaching into the water we drink, into the food we eat; now tiny fragments of it can even be found inside our bodies,” he added. 

Plastic pollution, he noted, was one of the most urgent environmental crises currently, adding that it severely affected the ocean by harming marine life, disrupting ecosystems, damaging coastal economies, and even entering the human food chain. 

He explained that marine animals like fish, turtles, whales, and seabirds mistook plastic for food, thereby ingesting it, which could block digestion, cause internal injuries, and lead to starvation. 

“Animals like seals, dolphins, and seabirds get trapped in fishing nets, plastic rings, and other debris, leading to injury, suffocation, or drowning. Also, tiny plastic particles from degraded larger plastics or personal care products are eaten by plankton and small fish, moving up the food chain,” he said. 

Mr Yamoah further stated that plastic pollution disrupted marine ecosystems, damaging habitats, explaining that plastics smother coral reefs and seabeds, disrupting delicate ecosystems and breeding grounds. 

Also, floating plastics could also carry non-native species to new areas, destabilising ecosystems. 

“Plastic pollution has toxic chemical effects. Plastics can absorb toxic pollutants like PCBs, pesticides, and heavy metals. These toxins bioaccumulate in marine organisms and biomagnify up the food chain, eventually reaching humans through seafood.” 

Plastic pollution, he stated, also had livelihood and social costs, impacting fisheries through entangled propellers, damaged nets, and reduced fish stocks, which hurt artisanal and commercial fishers, while plastic-littered beaches and polluted water deter tourism, especially in coastal communities that depended on it. 

According to him, plastic production and disposal also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, impacting carbon sequestration by harming organisms like plankton that help regulate Earth’s climate. 

“Humans consume microplastics through seafood, salt, and water. The long-term health impacts are still under research but may include hormonal disruption and immune system effects. In Ghana, rivers like the Odaw and Korle in Accra carry plastic waste to the sea. Plastic pollution affects mangrove ecosystems and threatens the livelihoods of coastal fishers and processors.” 

According to him, even though plastic pollution was a major concern, it was also one of the most fixable of today’s environmental challenges, with some obvious solutions including reducing single-use plastics such as bottles, sachets, and bags; improvement in waste management systems, especially in coastal towns; supporting beach clean-ups; ban on plastic use; recycling initiatives; and promoting education and advocacy to shift behaviours and policies. 

Source: GNA