by frog
These photos of albatross chicks were taken on Midway Atoll, a tidy island slap bang in the middle of the pacific, about as far from large numbers of humans as it’s possible to get, without going to Antarctica. No plastic was moved or altered before taking these photographs.
These birds are fed plastic by their parents, who bring it to them thinking that it’s food.
The photographer, Chris Jordan, has many more photographs from the same location on his web site. CNN ran a story on it also. There is also an interesting blog of the journey on which these photos were taken.
Although a little visually disturbing, none of this is really that surprising. The reason I post it is because for me it raises the question: if the above isn’t enough to make all of us question our relationship with the Earth, what would be? How stark does it need to become?
Published in Environment & Resource Management | Featured by frog on Sun, November 15th, 2009
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
We as a species are so screwed, for doing that to the oceans.
I had heard about the ‘random plastic’ raft circulating in the Pacific, along with the Atlantic one, but those images, and the associated articles, are extremely disturbing and sobering.
The corollory to these images is, of course, that fish stocks are so diminished that the plastic is more plentiful for the parent albatrosses to find.
I have heard that more albatross carcasses are turning up on beaches in NZ through the winter; I had not considered the possibility of plastic-consumption induced starvation.
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gone vegan yet katie..?
you seem to respond to visual stimulus..
..d’ya need to see some vid of the killing floors to ‘enlighten’ you..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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pass..!
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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And do you know where a large part of the blame for this sort of thing lyes? Right at the feet of a lot of environmentalists. Ban fur, ban leather, ban all the natural replenishable products.
Then the product manufactures chime in and get rid of glass bottles etc, the things that could be reused easily are gone. Now we have plastic milk bottles when we used to have glass, all the glass needed was to be cleaned then it could be reused straight away. Much more fun to send the plastic back overseas to be processed yet again….
No not us, that would be to environmentally friendly that, best we use plastic so we can really do the damage.
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It may be worse than starvation as plastics are oil-based product that would destroy immune systems in these Birds (or any living thing).
Plastic is active poison when ingested.
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Have environmentalists banned ” all the natural replenishable products” as you say? Called for a ban on the use of unsustainable natural products perhaps, and rightly so, but sustainably managed natural products? Are you sure you know what you are talking about?
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Phil,
I looked through your the links you sent, last time I asked about recipes, and discovered paprika but, having tried it, I feel that it isn’t for me. To get from semi-veg to vegan, I would need self-care information, as well as enlightenment. Do you have a link to specific but not-too-technical information that applies in New Zealand to replace the ‘1st-class protein’ story that I’m currently carrying, which causes me to garnish my otherwise-vegan meals with pastrami and cheese?
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jc2..this should answer all your questions..
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=vegan
the first three links/articles specifically answer your questions..
and then you can delve deeper..
there are 900+ links in this category..
and i know i compiled it..
but i can’t think of a more comprehensive grab-bag on this subject..
(if anyone knows of one..cd they plse link it here..
and i will do a story on it/promote it..)
and..more power to you..for giving it a go..
eh..?
the benifits will be multi-fold..
that i can promise you..
(the author of the first two links is a kiwi..
..and she is one of the best writers on this subject..
bar none..)
kee-wee..kee-wee..!
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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You’re talking about something you have no idea about. Local Greens led a movement to stop the local milk bottling plant closing here in 2005. Graeme Hart, the owner of MF, paid no heed and went on with his plans to gut the local plant and replace it with plastic. And somehow we are responsible ?
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Hi Phil,
No, if your search result contains the information that I imagine that I need (about which I might be mistaken), then I have not found it. It can best be summarised as:
– assume that I have a rabid prejudice against soy, and will not loose it soon
– the 22 amino acids mentioned at the bottom of here:
http://www.vegetarian.org.nz/content/being-vegetarian/nutrition-essent ials/
– where is the information about which ones I’m most likely to be short of, and what to eat, because it sure isn’t here:
http://www.vegetarian.org.nz/content/being-vegetarian/protein/
If you have a specific answer, please link a specific answer, and not a search result with a few dozen pages under it. Yes, I know I’m demanding
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yeah you are..
as i said..i think that is the best resource..
have you tried using the search-engine..?
and hey..!..goodonya..!
but i’m not yr secretary..
eh..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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There is actually a book called
“Diet for a small planet”
which goes into detail about how to balance the amino acids in a vegetarian diet.
Dates back to the 70’s
respectfully
BJ
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Of course, leather isn’t banned, neither is fur (environmentalists have been at the forefront of the promotion of possum fur), I can’t think of any “natural replenishable products” that are banned and environmentalists campaigned to keep reusable bottles. So what on earth are you on about?
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multi tasking on the daily dog walks, by picking up rubbish i find in the environment especially ‘nature’ where it looks so WRONG, that everyone else seems to just leave there (tidy kiwis an endangered species?). stop it going through the drains. anyway it is very effective an on a local or metropolitian level can reverse the culture of bad behaviour.
save the albatrosses, think global act local – walk the talk – and all good Karma.
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That’s stark, no question.
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