Ocean Legacy Foundation launches EPIC Academy
People around the world can take part in a free online course from the newly launched EPIC Academy to learn more about ocean plastic and how to combat it
Vancouver-based Ocean Legacy Foundation wants to help us understand why ocean plastic is so deadly and how we can all do our bit to combat it, whichever part of the world we live in. So sign up for EPIC Academy's 10-lesson course that will give you the knowledge you need. See the curriculum here https://edu.oceanlegacy.ca.
Ocean Legacy Foundation is a Canadian non-profit organization that develops and implements worldwide plastic pollution emergency response programs, with the aim of ending ocean microplastic pollution. To coincide with Earth Day, it's launching EPIC Academy, a free online educational platform providing communities around the world with essential knowledge regarding ocean plastic pollution. Sign up for 10 90-minute lessons pertaining to ocean plastic pollution, its environmental impact and how different communities can take action to manage plastic waste and solve the ocean plastic pollution crisis.
OLF says its goal is to provide any people, businesses and organizations interested in learning more about ocean plastic pollution with an easily accessible and free resource to start gathering knowledge.
Lessons are available in English, Spanish and French. Level 1, beginner lessons 1 – 5, is targeted towards the individual learner and includes special guidance for school teachers to help them lead their students through the lessons. Level 2, advanced lessons 6 -10, is targeted towards individuals and organizations, especially local leaders and waste management and recycling professionals, who are concerned about plastic pollution and want to learn how to take action to stem the flow of plastics into the environment.
Chloé Dubois, president and co-founder of OLF, says communities around the world have specific environmental and emergency needs when managing ocean plastic. 'During our cleanup efforts we see single-use disposable plastics, cigarette butts, derelict fishing gear, and polystyrene littered all over the coastlines. Without intervention, global ocean plastics are expected to double by 2035. If practices remain unchanged there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean, by weight, by 2050. OLF believes that every action towards eliminating ocean plastic pollution counts, and EPIC Academy is a step in that direction.'
Plastic debris is found on every beach in the world and recent studies have found that marine plastic pollution have been ingested by 100 per cent of marine turtles, 59 per cent of whales, 36 per cent of seals and 40 per cent of seabird species examined. Ocean plastic pollution causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals every single year. Plastics have also been found in drinking water, beer, seafood, table salt, and in the human body.
