Dead whales wash up on beaches. Why did they die? Could it be the 48, 67, or 88 pounds of plastic in their stomachs?*
Photo found on the internet.
Whales aren’t the only ones dying. Plastic kills millions of sea turtles, sea lions, seals, fish, and sea birds each year. Either they mistake it for food and eat it or they become helplessly entangled in large pieces of plastic such as nets, bags and fishing line.
Well, heck, who cares about dead whales, anyway? We need our conveniences. Manufacturers must enjoy the profit from low shipping costs of plastic containers. Humans are the most important species and we can’t be expected to look out for other species. They will have to look out for themselves and deal with our plastic waste.
* Whales are also dying because their food cannot thrive in warmer ocean temperatures, so the whales starve. But that issue is for another day.
Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer
1 comment:
I'm back on the Recycling and Sustainability Committee for Brunswick, Maine -- and our main focus is to ban single-use plastic. Thanks for this very important post.
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