There are actual places on the earth covered in garbage.
One of them? Henderson Island.
Henderson Island sits in the Pacific Ocean, between Chile and Australia. It’s one of the world's last two raised coral atolls whose ecosystems haven’t yet been sullied by human’s gigantic carbon footprint.
Oh, except for the 38 million pieces of plastic ON IT.
Yes, that IS a crab wearing garbage.
Henderson Island is the most densely garbage-populated place ON EARTH. Like on the entire planet.
Way to go humans, you’re wrecking stuff you aren’t even NEAR.
SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS:
ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE THIS:
This is why we can’t have nice things.
I just don’t even know what to say about this, except that I don’t think crabs should be wearing plastic bottles. Pretty sure this isn’t a step in the natural evolution of the species.
We are affluence afflicted.
I don’t know if that’s a phrase; I just made it up. And I bolded it.
Affluence Afflicted.
I did it again.
We want so much shit, we have so much shit, that we just discard it and pretend there isn’t a turtle in the Pacific wearing a plastic soda ring as a waist cincher.
What happened to “use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without?”
My great-grandmother, who legit Grapes of Wrathed it to California during the Depression, used everything until it was essentially biodegrading in her house.
Those plastic bread bags? She used those like 17 times. Every jar was a storage container. Every newspaper cleaned a window, started a fire, wrapped a gift. The styrofoam trays that meat comes on? PLATES, PEOPLE. Plates. (This one is actually probably ill-advised, because salmonella. But I'm still here! So, maybe not?)
We have too much. We use too much.
You throw it away and it’s gone — *poof* out of sight. Except it’s not gone; it’s on a beach on one of the last two raised coral atolls on earth.
Or it’s on a crab’s butt.
Did you know 500 million plastic straws are discarded every day. Every. Day. That’s enough straws to fill 127 school busses.
With straws.
Water bottles? Sixty million a day. But hey, we recycle 1 out of every 6, so that’s good!
No, it’s not.
We (i.e. those who have access to water) are buying water that we can obtain practically FREE from the tap.
Take a look at what is landing on our beaches:
CIGARETTES.
Cigarettes kill you AND pollute beaches. This is a lose-lose situation if there ever was one.
Americans are the literal worst, producing 4.6 pounds of trash a day. Is it really surprising that we've turned an entire island into a greed-covered wasteland?
Let’s take a look out how our abundance adds up, shall we?
Oh nbd, we make enough trash to go to the moon AND BACK 25 times.
(P.S. The moon is 238,900 miles away.)
Stop using so much shit, you guys.
And don’t even try to tell me one person can’t make a difference. I am not here for that malarkey.
Buy a water bottle (you’re probably not drinking enough anyway). Quit using straws for goodness sake (here’s a reusable one). Use cloth bags.
Whatever it is, use it until it is BROKEN.
If you want a new one of the thing (for whatever reason), give the old thing to a person who would like to have it.
The crabs need you.
Remember the crabs.
