Featured Image Credit: Daily Mail UK
By: Lauren O’Brien
Plastic is cheap and useful for many purposes, which is why it is all around us. But, plastic bags, straws, and lids, water bottles, they all add up to a massive problem for wildlife. Plastic water bottles take 450 years on average to completely degrade; and until they do, they pose a huge threat to animals. Trash in our oceans has been a huge issue for conservationists for decades, but it is extremely difficult to make headway without major lifestyle and policy changes.
The Daily Mail posted a disturbing article recently, with troubling images of marine life being affected by plastic refuse. The images were derived from BBC’s series, Blue Planet II, whose last episode will cover the shocking amount of plastic in our oceans. The episode will be aired this Sunday, but in the meantime, here are a few images that highlight the sad and disturbing reality of the effects humans have on our environment.
This albatross chick ate a plastic toothpick, which later ended the bird’s short life by piercing its intestine.
Many animals mistake plastic waste for food, and many die like the chick pictured above. Plastic bags floating in the ocean look like jellyfish, which entice animals like sea turtles and then suffocate them once ingested.
This image depicts a whale that, like the albatross, mistook a plastic object for food. The object the whale is attempting to eat is a large plastic bucket.
Here a turtle floats next to a plastic bag.
Blue Planet hopes that exposing the horrific consequences of negligent usage and disposal of plastic will help create pressure on the government to create policy changes that help protect marine life, and reduce the consumption, distribution, and reckless disposal of plastic products. The problem causes more than isolated incidents of unthinkable suffering and death for unsuspecting animals. Pollution, especially industrial pollution, it making its impact on entire species of animals. With the population of albatrosses (as well as many other animals) on the decline, researchers, conservationists, animal and ocean lovers find it imperative to generate pressure for social and political change to ensure that the epidemic ends.
Learn more from our source.