I don’t know what a short essay would look like but here’s a paragraph to help you start !
Doubt, as we can read from the Oxford dictionary means “A feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction.” Throughout our lives many of us have experienced doubt. It’s feeling that we feel as we go about our lives. (Go on about your own experience with doubt)
A few other ways to reduce pollution could be to reduce the use of single-used plastics like water bottles, straws and utensils. To recycle properly, as it helps keeps plastic out of the ocean.
Organizing Cleanup campaigns and spreading the word, for example to help remove plastic from a local beach.
To support bans, or the adoption of them in your community. There's many municipalities where there's plastic bags bans or straw bans for example.
We should avoid products containing microbeads (tiny plastic particles), we can find them on face scrubs, toothpastes and bodywashes.
Lastly, we could definitely support organization that address these situations such as Oceanic Society, 5 Gyres, Algalita, etc
Hope this helps!