Chris Jordan has previously created art pieces utilizing garbage and junk to emphasize the role of consumerism in modern society. For his most recent project he has photographed the carcasses of albatrosses on Midway Island to document the deleterious effects of plastic on wildlife in the Pacific Ocean.
There are several dozen additional photos at the artist's website.
To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.
There are several dozen additional photos at the artist's website.
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How dumb is Kaz?
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This is just a suggestion from a non-scientist. Consider that many birds swallow rocks to help in grinding up food and helping digestion. Since we are talking about the seas where there are not many rocks, even on the islands, perhaps these birds are deliberately using the plastics as replacement for rocks. I doubt that the birds are stupid enough to mistake colored plastic for food...but they might see them as a substitute for rocks...which means that there really is nothing strange about this. The plastic caps often have ridged edges and could actually be good substitutes for rocks given the environment at sea. The assumption that this plastic kills them may actually be a result of our prejudice against ourselves that we are evil for creating plastic. Pictures don't always tell the full story and environmental scientists often jump to conclusions about the effect of technology upon the world. I'm just saying this may not be as bad as the alarmists are making it out to be. Besides, since Teddy Roosevelt, the US government was supposed to be there to protect these birds. Why aren't they doing it if this is such a bad problem?
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Stomachs are stretchy. Baby birds are eating machines. Combine the volume of an expandable-and-already-large stomach with the crop (which is like a stretchy pre-stomach) and it's believable that so much garbage could wind up in a chick. After you feed a baby parrot, it will seriously look like it has a giant tumor growing out of its neck. It's disgusting. And they still scream for more.
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I don't care about those stupid birds. Extinction is part of evolution. If you can't get with the program then you die out. There are more important things to worry about than some insignificant species disappearing. I just threw my plastic bottle in the garbage (not recycling bin), i guess I'm evil now. Oh well.
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so called artist or environmentalist's have lied to get their point across. which cheapens the whole movement. sorry but looks like B.S. to me.
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