The embarrassing situation depicted by the image below speaks for itself. We are human-beings and used to telling that making mistakes is human. The problem is that we have not still learnt to lessen our mistakes.
It shows the stomach contents of a baby bird in one of the world’s most remote sanctuaries. Cut and dried: human trash travels miles and miles and ends up killing these birds in their own sanctuary. The nesting babies are fed on plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks like food. Based on this human trash diet, tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway Atoll.
This photograph and many more of dead albatross chicks have been made by the North American environmental photojournalist Chris Jordan in September 2009, on Midway Atoll – a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific.
Many can state that it could have been manipulated, but for those Jordan let a carefully-worded message on his website: “To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way”.
How to shun people from keeping doing that? How to change long held habits? I do not know the answers to those intriguing questions. I do not even have a whiff of them.
But I hope images such as Jordan’s can pave the way for change to happen.
The picture is speaking for itself. This is the way we live now and also I do not have answers how to change it.
This is so sad, Luan. Every time I see a plastic bag I think about how many dolphins it will kill…
Our species conquered the world and made all other species our slaves, including a big part of our own species.
I guess we need a sense of responsibility and respect, which is so hard to achieve. And guilt, maybe? Once one starts feeling guilt for their actions, maybe they would change their behaviour? Donno.. Long-held habits won’t die soon, so much more will be lost on the way.
WOW! One picture can speak more than A THOUSAND WORDS! I feel so embarassed for this situation…we really need to do something about this! EDUCATION
Thanks for the comments fellows!
@Giedre and Andrea: I agree with you totally. More will be lost on the way as old habits won’t die soon. Way to change? Awareness and education are essential.
I saw a documentary about this a few months ago; it really is a huge problem. And people don’t see how huge it is. “Throwing away just one plastic little thing doesn’t hurt, I’m only doing it once”. But it does hurt. It really does.
Thanks for this nice post. Development often starts with entrepreneurship and adding value. If the items in the stomach of this bird would generate money, the situation would be different. A perfect example of this happens in Kenya. Around the Aberdares National Park a fence has been constructed (to avoid human-wildlife conflict) of which the poles have been made out of: plastic. These last longer than wooden poles and it is no longer necessary to chop down trees. Suddenly it has become interesting to collect plastic trash: it is now worth money. I am thoroughly convinced that once value is added to trash, things can be different.
@ Hanna, it really hurts. Grain by grain, the hen fills her belly.
@ Bart, thank you so much for your comment. I’ve never thought this way. The Kenyan example is definitely inspiring. It should be done more. In one hand I think we can have value added to trash, but, on the other, I partly disagree as I believe it can not be a requisite for change. Awareness is still the best and less ephemeral option, do not you agree? Ok, I know that most illiterate people do not have it, and then we are obliged to add value. However, broadly speaking, don’t you agree that just adding value is reinforcing disparities without any change for real?
Very strong picture…
nice title!
I remember when I first saw that picture - I was horrified. Before we started chucking stuff in there the sea has only contained life of some description so birds and fish aren’t use to brightly coloured floating things not being food…....
‘The great Pacific dump’ were this waste collects is already huge and growing. I for one, am not optimistic that we can sort this. Where is the will to do so???