Plastic almost leads to a fight
Submitted by ernie on Fri, 2007/07/27 - 09:39.
While out and about, we saw a car driver throw a piece of plastic out of his brand new, shiny MPV. As we regularly see dolphins and turtles saved from plastic, and have seen various animals die by drowning as they have been caught in plastic, or die because they have eaten it, this for me was enough reason to tell the man about the consequences of his carelessness. I got out of the car and walked towards his car. Before I could say a word, the ‘gentleman’ had jumped out of his car and was aggressively holding up his fists, ready for a fight.
Plastic is one of the biggest dangers in the ocean
You often hear swearing and cursing in ports when a ship has picked up plastic in the pipe leading to the raw water cooling pump. This causes thousands of euros of damage. The swearing is only the expression of frustration for something visible. The real damage on the large scale is less visible. Plastic kills land animals, and if it finds its way to the ocean, it causes even more problems. For turtles, a piece of floating plastic looks like a jellyfish, one of its food sources. Many of the plastic bags that we see in the ocean have clearly been picked at by birds and other animals.
Dolphins are regular victims of plastic. They
can easily suffocate if they swim into plastic – they cannot remove a plastic bag from their blow holes by themselves. The week before we filmed a necropsy at the Veterinary Faculty at the University of Las Palmas, the vet and students had done a necropsy on another dolphin. Why the animal had died was initially puzzling. It looked healthy and well fed. The puzzle was solved when they reached the stomach. This was entirely filled with an enormous plastic bag that the poor animal had started to swallow. As dolphins are unable to regurgitate, once the plastic was in its mouth the dolphin could do little else but swallow.
As big as Africa
In the Pacific Ocean is an area of broken down plastic the size of Africa that runs throughout the entire water column. The currents and waves have brought the plastic there, and have broken it down into miniscule pieces. It is so small that even the krill, minute shrimplike animals and food for many predators including whales, ingest the plastic. The result is that not only does this affect their health and numbers, but puts other predators at risk of inadequate food resources. On top of this, the plastic is passed up the food chain into the bodies of the predators, and thus comes into our own food. As top predators, we are eating our own plastic and other rubbish with associated negative consequences.
It takes 150 years to break down plastic bags, and 400 years for plastic bottles. This does not mean that it is gone, only broken down into such tiny pieces that it is no longer visible. And no longer possible to remove. Apart from the problem of plastic for animals, there is another problem. The floating plastic drifts from continent to continent, and forms a part of the so-called ‘marine debris’. Various plants and animals attach themselves to the debris, while under the debris swim all sorts of other creatures. These ‘invasive species’ are transported to new destinations where they can destroy the ecosystem.
Back to the ‘gentleman’
After telling the man about the consequences of his behaviour, and ignoring his ‘animal instincts’, the whole affair fizzled out. Red in the face he stepped back into his ‘palace’ and drove away swearing. I hope that he will stop and think the next time before he throws plastic out of his window.
I too have caught myself, before I knew of the dangers of plastic, throwing a simple piece of plastic out of the window in the interests of keeping my car clean so I can hardly judge others. But what we can do is tell people about the consequences of their actions. It sounds so simple to put a rubbish bag in your car. You can throw your rubbish in it, and when it’s full it’s easy to dispose of at any petrol station. You keep both your palace and your nature clean.
Links
The problem:
http://www.marine-litter.gpa.unep.org
http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/1103/1103_feature.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Pacific_Gyre
http://www.blueoceansociety.org/plastics.htm
http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/whatis/welcome.html
Becoming part of the solution:
http://www.acfnewsource.org/environment/eco-plastic.html
http://www.science.org.au/nova/061/061key.htm
http://www.greenplastics.com
| Unfortunately plastic has become a fact of everyday life in our modern world. Still, until there is a mass produced alternative, we can try to deal with plastic as well as possible. Here are some ideas:
• Try to buy as few products as possible that are packaged in plastic |
I'm so saddedn by this news,
I'm so saddedn by this news, plastic is a huge issue, maybe we should keep using glass even if tis more expensive and heavy, it at least can be recycled.
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we really need to stop our
we really need to stop our dependency on these materials 90 day loans
that is sad, Government
that is sad, Government should intervene and take care of the issue i guess..
It is tragedic that animal
It is tragedic that animal living in oceam are dying because of the unresponsiblity of the human.
Awful
This is so awful for marine life. Humans are such polluters!
there is a lot of garbage in
there is a lot of garbage in seas
This is really sad, plastic
This is really sad, plastic definitely hurting the almost every creature on earth
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Really Sad!
Littering has become over-done. We are forgetting about the animals around us.
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It is amazing to me how many
It is amazing to me how many people just don't give a dam and will pollute our waters like it is no big deal. I think it is great that you approached this guy and put him in his place. Working as a Realtor selling Franklin MA Real Estate, I am very aware of the green movement and keeping our environment safe and clean. If there were more people like yourself out there we would live in a cleaner world.
This was rather a
This was rather a interesting read. Never really hear of discoveries nowadays.
Just this morning I was
Just this morning I was obsessively scanning every article in 4 newspapers about the recent BPA results finally hitting the mainstream and worrying about all the plastic containers in my home and stressing about how I never did get around to that lead test for my son that they referred to us routinely during the last doctor visit.
Thanks for the interesting
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My name is Kurt. I'm
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Shame on them
The drivers of the highway should obey a strict rule.Otherwise they should be banned from driving.
thats why recycling nowadays
thats why recycling nowadays is so important. in ny its a law to recycle otherwise its a fine that will start ripping your wallet apart.
Thanks
I almost dropped my fork (filled with overpriced salad leaves from organic eatery Mixt Greens) reading this post it hit home so closely. Just this morning I was obsessively scanning every article in 4 newspapers about the recent BPA results finally hitting the mainstream and worrying about all the plastic containers in my home and stressing about how I never did get around to that lead test for my son that they referred to us routinely during the last doctor visit. But I think you are right ultimately - worry less, do more.
Yes indeed plastic is a
Yes indeed plastic is a problem because we can't really destroy it except by burning it thus resulting more damage. We gained so much by discovering it and now we only have so much to lose.
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