There is a stretch of "plastic-soup" that starts about 500 miles off the California coast, and continues west past Hawaii, extending nearly to Japan. Covering a length of ocean nearly twice the size of the United States, and in places nearly twice the size of Texas in width, this plastic island - not quite thick enough to walk on, but thick enough to serve as a raft of sorts - is made up of our plastic garbage. Gallon milk jugs, plastic wrappers, plastic shells that surround virtually every product we buy - millions of tons of plastic, held in place for the ever moving ocean currents.
For us, it's out of sight, out of mind. But not for the wild life.
Enter Chris Jordan. Jordan is a nature photographer "best known for his large-scale images of excess, rendering unimaginable statistics like the millions of pieces of plastic dumped into the ocean each hour". Pictured above is one image from Jordan's photo essay on the effects of the plastic dump on the birds of the Midway Atoll - an island located in the center of the Pacific garbage patch. I suggest you double click on the image to get a really good look at it.
The birds on the island eat the plastic, perhaps mistaking the fragments for the floating bells of ocean jellies ("Jellyfish"). Inevitably, the plastic clogs their esophagus, their gut, and digestive tract resulting in the birds' deaths.
Jordan's photo essay documents the decaying bodies of the birds, without moving a single feather - recording their final image just as he finds them on the island. Decaying flesh amidst a whorl of feather and hollow bone, and a body full of plastic.
To put this in some kind of perspective, you should know that this island is located in the middle of a remote marine sanctuary, dedicated to the preservation of marine life. It is located about halfway across the ocean. The closest continental land is approximately 2,000 miles away.
You can't get much further from human presence than this spot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Yet there we are. The Human Stain. Our signature, found in the middle of a dead baby bird, on a remote island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Koyaanisqatsi.
14 comments:
While we were having the discussion in class on this topic, I didn't really grasp just how bad it was; I didn't understand just how devastating our impact on the oceans and creatures in them is. The picture pretty much exemplifies what our wastefulness is doing to the earth. I barely saw any flesh on that bird corpse--just a mass of feathers and plastic. I suppose the following paragraphs explain the topic in more detail, but as people say, seeing is believing. We are, as evidenced by pictures like this, quite a destructive force on earth. What will it take for people to stop dumping in the oceans? I don't know. I don't have the answers; I'm a high school student, not an environmentalist. But I do know that if we want this world to survive, then this is going to have to stop.
--Tyler
Do we dump our trash in the ocean because we can't put it on land? Or even if we were to continue to dump it on land, wouldn't it be harming land animals? Either way, we need to get rid of our garbage, but we just can't do it safely. The only way to fix the problem, is to return to our good old hunter-gatherer days where we didn't even settle down. It's a sad thing, but I don't think we can really do anything about it at this point. No matter what we do with our trash, it's gonna hurt something.
Maggie H
Wow it certainly is different seeing a picture rather than hearing it described. When I was in Pensacola, Florida a few years ago we used to watch the barges going out to sea filled with the brim with garbage. They came back empty. I like to think of myself as an environmentally thoughtful person, but the reality is that I contribute to this mess just as much as anyone, until the everyday things I need come In biodegradable packaging what can I do? Should we dump in the seas? On land? Space? The savage reality is that nothing will happen in the near future with this recession on. The “environment” is hard for people to think about when you’re thinking about the next paycheck.
cac
Yeah so the western world produces a lot of waste. But like you said, out of sight out of mind. As much as I think something needs to be done, I don't believe that anything will be done. These problems have been known for years and years and rather than make a tremendous effort to save them, we only make them worse. People are too wrapped up in their personal lives to want to make a difference. As long as the trash isn't floating around and landing on our streets and in our food, most people don't think of it as a problem. I think, really, that until this happens most people will be too concerned with other things to want to make a change, and by that time it will be too late. We've completely screwed ourselves over. It's only a matter of time.
-Laura
What a stong and powerful image of the bird. The fact that the eye hole is there makes it seem so alive. It looks as it no wind has blown, no land has shifted and it has just rotted. People do know about these things. There are commercials on TV showing the contents of birds stomachs. People know but are not doing anything.
Yes, there is a giant garbage island. The world knows about thtis but what are we supposed to do now? All of these things keep piling up, soon it is all going to fall. At that momnet we probably still will not have a solution. to be continued...
-And I don't think that by saying "I'm just as much of a problem as everyone else" can be used as an excuse and from there that you can just forget about all of the damage that you as an individual are causing. I think that every person needs to REALIZE how much of a part of the problem they really are, and then maybe probably try to make an effort to change.
-Laura
This is just one of the many additional factors that lead to the question of "When will it ever be enough for the human race?" It seems like no matter how many times a day people see these awful things happening to the enviroment, it's just never enough. And I am as guilty as any one. Everyone my say that they are informed and the only reason they haven't been credited for making a difference in the world is because, one person is not enough, and that it takes many, many people to make a difference. For a problem this huge that is probally true, but that is not why people haven't made changes to the way the environment is being treated. This kind of picture is definatly enough to get people thinking. They would say "look at the cute little bird. how awful that there is a plastic water bottle in his stomach." or "Look at the baby polar bear drowning because he can't find even one ice burg." The problem with our society is that though people will say these things, no one is willing to take those thoughts to the next level (and like I said, I include myself with those people.) so my question is, when will it be enough for the human race? When will we have seen enough destruction and death to the environment to actually take a stand, stop talking about how bad we feel and how much we care, and actually do something. When will I have seen enough? I can't even answer that.
~erika
This may be a whole slew of contradicting responses, but with a post like this, I believe this is expected.
To begin: wow.
Jordon's photographic essay is compelling and motivational, striking us with a guilt. Our contribution of filth has contributed to a global impact larger than we can imagine. That floating mass in the middle of the ocean is bigger than the physical evidence. It may take up a huge amount of space, delluting and polluting our waters and oceans but that does not amount to the larger biological consequences. As it pollutes the water, filter feeders are effects. Those that eat filter feeders lack nutrition and perhaps have a depleted amount of food. Fish lose a habitat block from sunlight. Lack of sunlight depletes essential nutrients produced by the sun. The animals that rely on these nutrients are deprived of them.
But what can we do? The best we can do or least is to limit our waste, recycle and find ways to eliminate or make better use of our waste than unuseable islands.
This post was very thought provoking but I must critique one aspect. The bird photographed is a bird that once lived on an island near if not in this mass of trash. Well of course you will find evidence of the rubbish in its corpse. A better and more relevant photo would be the effects of this rubbish floating mass on animals on other and further away land. Though I am sure and know there is plenty of evidence that this rubbish effects animals everywhere, I just think this would have been a better photo essay or more moving had it been of other animals that are further located than on a nearby island.
~Becca
Responding to Erika's,
It is so true. People ARE aware of everything. Our earth is not rotting in one place. It is everywhere. Everywhere there is garbage and pollution, so everyone knows about it. People just choose not to do anything about it. They chose to walk by and ignore the facts that our world is collapsing. I don't know what to do to help the world but I do know that action needs to happen.
Responding to Erika's,
It is so true. People ARE aware of everything. Our earth is not rotting in one place. It is everywhere. Everywhere there is garbage and pollution, so everyone knows about it. People just choose not to do anything about it. They chose to walk by and ignore the facts that our world is collapsing. I don't know what to do to help the world but I do know that action needs to happen.
its more then just garbage. we are killing more and more life. ever day as we throw away our trash. We're talking about a garbage bump the size of Texas people.
1. there is no way we can move something this big without taking years to do it.
2. even if we did move the trash, there would be no way of doing so without hurting the coral reefs.
3. there is no change. people are doing very little to help the animals in the sea. we are just helping give them more poison to eat and there has been no action .
this is very sad and unless we want to go to the zoo and keep seeing our favorite fish and birds then we need to do something about our garbage. because these animals wont be here for long at the rate we are going.
i'm glad this was brought up in class and on the blog. its true we dont think about our effects on nature until its too late. i, personally, hadnt ever heard of this. until, that is, we talked about it in class. we dont think about our impact at all. we dump our trash in the ocean, rivers, etc. and forget about it. i remember in 5th grade we went on the trip to the CT River. there was a toilet right above the river. that the waste would just fall into. this is somewhat similar, accept the waste will desolve over time. the trash will not. i wonder how we are going to fix this, or even if we are going to try and fix this. what will it take?
it took barges and barges, over the years to create this enormous floating garbage island. it will take atleast the same amount of time to fix it, if not longer. and even then, what will we do with all that trash? we have filled the land as much as we can, and even that is not right.
i wonder if people are still dumping their garbage he same way. i know i recycle as much as i can, but is that enough? everyone needs to be aware of this.
--keely
At first glance it looks like modern art, a wake up call to the destruction of our planet. Maybe destruction is not the word of choice I am looking for. it is not complete and intentional destruction but one the image of the bird is clear, it is not a replica, or a contrast created for awareness purposes, but a real dear bird.
The plastic is bright and colorful, eye catching and alarming. It shows an entire consumer nation's waste in a bird. Of course it is not ALL the waste we create, it is more a representation of what we do throw away. It is a cry for help that is not being answered readily enough. Birds are not the only ones being effected. In other parts of the country, other realms of the sea and places we may not even be aware, things are happening, our waste is filling up the oceans and far reaches of the earth. At some point it must come to an end. It may be "only birds" we see but is it really that simple??? What other effects has the human race hard on the earth. What other horrors lie within waiting to be discovered. What new problems need tending to? Is it too late to reverse it all?
This may be just the beginning, it may be the end of the age of consuming or we may be just out of balance.
For every shark fished out of the sea there are more. There is regulation and sustainability. For all the illegal poaching there is not enough to maintain the established life that was once there. Those who do not respect the delicate balance between nature and their actions need to become aware.
Anyways we should save this planet not only for the obvious but, it’s the only one with chocolate.
-Caileigh Bryant
Sad... but what makes it even worst is that people still do not see, of do not want to see that they to have an effect on this. Well, really on anything that effects (good and bad) the planet.
How can we open their eyes?
Well talking at them does no good?
I know lets make the spot (of even better a lot of different spots) a new touist trap. Set up a program in witch people have to stay at the different effected areas and live.
Then maybe they will begin to see.
In the mean time we just have to keep talking and telling people that they can choose to help or hinder.
Gabriella
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