Your Bottlecaps Found In Dead Birds' Bellies
Every wonder what happens to the plastic trash in the streets after a big rain? Some of it gets washed out to sea and makes its way to the Pacific Trash Vortex, where it is fed to baby albatrosses by their confused parents. Photographer Chris Jordan took these pictures of their decomposed bodies, showing how they died with stomachs full of bottle caps, lighters and other plastic detritus. Irresponsible consumerism is deadly.
An Ocean of Plastic...In Birds' Guts [Planet Green]
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Comments:
I'm not sure if "consumerism" is the right word, though I'm sure that the connotation of consumerism extends to "just toss it anywhere when you're done with it." The problem isn't the consumption, it's the disposal. Have I missed a change in the definition and now "consumerism" means "discarding ones trash without a thought to the environment?"
There goes lunch! Thanks Ben!!
Dude, I was all excited for lunch and now this. Why, Consumerist, why? And to top it all off, I'm eating chicken for lunch too. This is like "kick a bird when it's down (after ingesting five bottlecaps)" day.
This is really sad, though. I wish birds were smarter than to eat plastic, and I wish people weren't such idiots about littering. I do my part to destroy the Earth (I drive, use non-biodegradable things, etc.) but I at least throw away my trash properly.
@Hoss: I think they can probably digest shells and driftwood, could be wrong, though. And maybe they can distinguish those items because they're part of the natural habitat, and they've learned? No idea.
@katstermonster: Admittedly no idea... and yet you still offer them up. Lemme guess - You're American?
@Hoss: Maybe they mistake the bright colors for food (assuming they can see color)? Either that or certain debris catches light much like a swimming fish...?
@Radi0logy: Not 'American' - sounds more like 'Liberal' to me.
Anyway........ the ones that can't tell plastic from food will die, and the smarter ones will live, reproduce, and eventually conquer us. Planet of the SeaBirds!
My children used to insist that we cut up the plastic six-pack holders before discarding them because they could injure bottle-nosed dolphins. I had to explain that there probably weren't too many dolphins in the local landfill but we cut them up just the same.
GearheadGeek is right. This isn't a consumer issue as much as it is taking care to dispose of trash responsibly.
@pxf9641: Hahaha I was about to guess that he is a jerk.
Same goes for HalOfBorg. And pretty fucking ironic, that statement he made.
@H3ion: I do that too. I used to do it when I worked in a restaurant; I made people put them in a box for me and I'd cut them up when I got a minute.
@Radi0logy: Lemme guess, someone pissed in your cereal today?
@HalOfBorg: Ooooh they're all coming out of the woodwork today. Do you really need to be a dick this early in the day?
@sixseeds: Watch out, don't make any educated guesses around here...only experts on the topic are allowed to comment, it seems.
"ALBATROSS!!"
@pecan 3.14159265: I throw away my stuff properly too.. but I can't help but wonder what happens to it once they pick it up from the dumpster.
On the news yesterday, they were advertising a new recycling program for the City of Houston (Unfortunately I don't live *in the city*) where they give you points back for everything you recycle. Anyway, it showed a video of the recycling truck picking up the recycling cans and dumping them in the truck, but as it did that a whole bunch of recyling fell out onto the ground. Kind of defeats the purpose, no?
@GearheadGeek: I think that consumerism is the right word and buying consumable good leads to the problem of disposal. I'm ashamed at the amount of trash our household puts out each week on trash day. I don't even know where it all comes from (I'm not the primary earner in the house either). My bottles go in recycling and the caps go in the trash (my understanding is that these don't get recycled for one reason or another), and as a student of computer sciences, I guarantee that bottlecaps do not get tossed until the drink is empty.
I don't see littering (in America) the way I remember it when I was a kid. If something goes out my car window, it's a fruit rind of some kind, and it goes in a ditch (not a gutter). I was raised throughout the 80's being told that, basically, littering is a sin, and even in the Boy Scouts they pushed us to leave any area looking nicer than or as natural as we found it.
@Hoss: Well the big big big thing here is that driftwood biodegrades, is not bright and colorful, and though it would float for the most part, smaller shards would be fairly indistinguishable from the sea surface.
@GearheadGeek: Consumerismm, IMO, is relevant pretty much everywhere. It's not just about what you buy, the financial decisions you make, or the world's economy in general, it's also about making the best decisions to make you a better consumer in the long run.
For instance, this story. Bottlecaps being discarded are hurting birds that can't distinguish between Coke caps and food. If you're really concerned, you may call call a local organization whose volunteers pick up trash around the neighborhood and work to beautify the area. If there isn't a group, you could start one, or just round up some friends to pick up trash. Education about careless disposal of trash may lead to people making more educated decisions about what products they buy, and isn't that one of the basic concepts of good consumerism?
@GearheadGeek: Consumerist wants to turn this into some social liberalism vs. capitalism issue but really it's just a problem with lazy people cleaning up their trash.
@HogwartsAlum: But why? I can understand if these plastic holders were going to find their way into a body of water but in a landfill?
@pecan 3.14159265: I saw this yesterday (posted it to my FB) and was just disgusted. The photographer also has series with the destruction after Katrina and another series of just piles and piles of discarded refuse.
The albatross was good luck until some idiot killed it.
@H3ion: No, but take solace in the fact that you saved the seagulls and other birds that probably would've gotten stuck in them if you hadn't sliced them. We always did it for the birds.
AHHHH, again the Great Pacific Trash Vortex. We meet again.
What an amazing anomaly. It's twice as large as the state of Texas, and so solid you can walk on it and ships get trapped in it. Yet it can not be filmed from space, even with Google cameras, and also can not be filmed from planes. Why? Everything in it is microscopic. But wait, how can it be both?!
That's beyond awful.
This sort of thing (and the continent-sized guyer of plastic floating in the Pacific) got me off my butt to recycle.
The sad thing is it probably isn't making TOO huge a difference, but every bit helps. I hope.
@GearheadGeek: You are misunderstanding the core issue. We buy too much one time use disposable shit.
Plastic lighters, soda bottles, tampons (Oh yea, I went there, bic pens, razors, band aids, chapt sticks and on and on..
We use it, we toss it without thought to where it goes. We CONSUME to much crap. Mass consumerism is killing the planet.
@HalOfBorg: Doesn't sound liberal to me, remember, we're tree huggers, save the planet, all that crap. It does sound like Hoss is a product of the same public school system I went through though, in the American midwest. No offense, Hoss.
@katstermonster: Agreed. It's why I don't feel sorry for birds who are stupid enough not to see a HUGE 200' tall wind turbine, and manage to fly straight into it. I mean, you're flying along the ocean, and there's this huge pole sticking out of the water with things whipping around. Most birds avoid them. The dumb ones fly into them. Why should I not have cheaper power because of some moran bird?
@MostlyHarmless: It's funny.
Hoss' statement, at first glance, seems to be offering a stronger opinion than it is. I had to read it a second time to realize he was asking, not asserting.
Radiology's retort is sorta harsh, but would be appropriate if Hoss was offering a strong opinion.
Hal's pretty much shoulders its way thru with amazing, shiny fail. Way to politicize something that both sides (should) agree is a freaken mess of our own making that we should address, cowpoke!
And yeah, full of unintentional irony, too (not that he could define or recognize "irony")
It is sad and awful, but also pretty cool looking. I wonder if there is anything sweet floating around in my body that I ate when I was little. Or drunk.
@Persistence: It was directed at me. And....no idea what tree-hugging has to do with anything? Liberal was more a shot at me offering an educated guess, it seems.
@Persistence: The phrase was "take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints." We used to pack out all our trash when we went hiking/camping. It was Boy Scout training .
@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: Well, did they even get out to scoop up the stuff that fell off? Sometimes gravity and wind take hold and stuff falls out. It's not a big deal unless they don't pick it up. A garbage truck guy can't exactly heft a giant bin of stuff, but the truck's mechanical arm can. The garbage pickup guys pick up the pieces that fall out.
@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already: To be honest, though, it's a little hard to get that "Earth First" mentality when you've just suffered a catastrophic event.
@chrialg6 is a happy effing cupcake: Agreed! For my part, I am making an effort to consume less and educating my significant other and her son about it. I'm not going to touch the tampon issue though...
@Trai_Dep: Radiology was directing his stupidity at me, for the record. :) Hoss was asking questions, I was offering possible answers, with the stipulation that I actually don't know what I'm talking about.
+1 for "amazing, shiny fail." hahaha.
@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already: We use the landfill on occasion, such as disposing of paint and petroleum products so they don't go into the landfill and find their way into the water table, and I don't know why but I've never seen birds congregating around the landfill. It's pretty far from the ocean so I wouldn't expect sea gulls, but I would expect pigeons at the least. Maybe there's a very effective scarecrow.
@chrialg6 is a happy effing cupcake: Tampons with cardboard applicators (or no applicators) FTW! And they're wayyy cheaper, too.
You went there, and I went further. :-D
@pecan 3.14159265: Earth First? I think we misunderstood - the photographer has different series. One is the birds, another is piles of discarded trash. I think he did the Katrina series just because its so breathtaking - that and he's an extremely talented photographer.
They aren't related, just giving props to his other works that I found interesting.
@katstermonster: Actually, I think that many people here would simply have posted it as cold, hard fact even though they didn't know for sure. So it was kind of funny that you got dinged for being honest about conjecture.
I actually enjoy Radi0logy, curmudgeon fan that I am, but I think s/he was off on this one. Redirect aim, friend!
@Hoss: Because they feed on things FLOATING in the ocean or near the surface of the water, not things on land. Rocks and shells do not normally float, while plastic does. Driftwood floats but is usually too large for baby birds to swallow.
Since trash is not naturally found floating on the ocean (until recently) the bird parents must "assume" material floating in the ocean is organic. Shiny and colorful plastic appears from the air to be a tiny fish or jellyfish, or bit of dead marine creature.
The adults set out into surrounding waters to fish/hunt for food for the chicks (looking for shiny glints in water, like the shiny scales of a fish) scoop it up fast while flying, and bring it back to feed it to the chicks. For thousands of years, it was probably safe for them to hunt by sight like that.
@katstermonster: Yeah, not sure what the liberal thing was about. I'm pretty disgusted and concerned and annoyed and all that jazz, and I'm not liberal.
Why all the plastic and no natural items like shells, rocks or driftwood? I would think if they can't distingish food from other items, there would not lots of stuff in there. Also, why doesnt a bird regurgitate the plastic? I guess I need a lesson in wildlife