National Geographic magazine has recently launched an informative and disturbingly revealing campaign named Planet or Plastic? and it's something we all need to see and learn from.
Most of us know that there's far too much plastic in our environment. We often feel a little guilty when we throw yet one more single-use plastic wrapping in the trash, knowing we are contributing to an issue which is too vast for us to comprehend. However, what if we had to face the horrifying consequences of plastic addiction?
That is among the aims of the iconic magazine’s campaign which seeks to change the ways people use plastic. If consumers and other organizations can work together to bring a change in our mindset at a fundamental level, then corporations will hopefully respond to public opinion and lower the amount of plastic that they use in their products. National Geographic itself is leading by example, starting to send out their editions in paper instead of plastic. This is to remind us that every change, no matter how futile it might seem, helps at some level and is worth trying. The campaign has identified plastic bags, bottles, and straws as problematic products, and it urges consumers to take a pledge to lower their use of them by making conscious choices dramatically.
The following powerful and heartbreaking pictures vividly illustrate the damage that nine million tonnes of plastic waste every year bring about on our environment and wildlife. This is the beginning of what will be a multi-year initiative to reduce it drastically. Scientists and researchers from National Geographic hope to fill knowledge gaps concerning the long-term impacts of plastic since it dissolves into microscopic particles which eventually enter our food chain. Their purpose is to also gain a better understanding of the plastic's journey from the source here on land all the way down to the deepest ocean floors.
“For 130 years, National Geographic has documented the stories of our planet, providing audiences around the world with a window into the earth’s breathtaking beauty as well as to the threats it faces,” Gary E. Knell, CEO of National Geographic Partners, explained to the Daily Mail.
“Each and every day, our explorers, researchers and photographers in the field witness firsthand the devastating impact of single-use plastic on our oceans, and the situation is becoming increasingly dire.”
“Through the 'Planet or Plastic? Initiative', we will share the stories of this growing crisis, work to address it through the latest science and research, and educate audiences around the world about how to eliminate single-use plastics and prevent them from making their way into our oceans.”
Peruse below to see the powerful photos for yourself, and check out National Geographic’s campaign here.
“The photographer freed this stork from a plastic bag at a landfill in Spain. One bag can kill more than once: Carcasses decay, but plastic lasts and can choke or trap again”. Image credits: John Cancalosi/ National Geographic
“Under a bridge on a branch of the Buriganga River in Bangladesh, a family removes labels from plastic bottles, sorting green from clear ones to sell to a scrap dealer. Waste pickers here average around $100 a month”. Image credits: Randy Olson / National Geographic
“The largest market for plastics today is packaging materials. That trash now accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste generated globally—most of it never gets recycled or incinerated”. Image credits: Jayed Hasen/ National Geographic
“Plastic bottles choke the Cibeles fountain, outside city hall in central Madrid. An art collective called Luzinterruptus filled this and two other Madrid fountains with 60,000 discarded bottles last fall as a way of calling attention to the environmental impact of disposable plastics”. Image credits: Randy Olson/ National Geographic
“An old plastic fishing net snares a loggerhead turtle in the Mediterranean off Spain. The turtle could stretch its neck above water to breathe but would have died had the photographer not freed it. “Ghost fishing” by derelict gear is a big threat to sea turtles”. Image credits: Jordi Chias / National Geographic
“On Okinawa, Japan, a hermit crab resorts to a plastic bottle cap to protect its soft abdomen. Beachgoers collect the shells the crabs normally use, and they leave trash behind”. Image credits: Shawn Miller
“To ride currents, seahorses clutch drifting seagrass or other natural debris. In the polluted waters off the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, this seahorse latched onto a plastic cotton swab—“a photo I wish didn’t exist,” says photographer Justin Hofman”. Image credits: Justin Hofman / National Geographic
“Around the world, nearly a million plastic beverage bottles are sold every minute”. Image credits: David Higgins / National Geographic
“Some animals now live in a world of plastics—like these hyenas scavenging at a landfill in Harar, Ethiopia. They listen for garbage trucks and find much of their food in trash”. Image credits: Brian Lehmann / National Geographic
“Some 700 species of marine animals have been reported so far to have eaten or become entangled in plastic”. Image credits: David Jones / National Geographic
“By 2050, virtually every seabird species on the planet will be eating plastic”. Image credits: PRAVEEN BALASUBRAMANIAN / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
“As of 2015, more than 6.9 billion tons of plastic waste had been generated. Around 9 percent of that was recycled, 12 percent was incinerated, and 79 percent accumulated in landfills or environment”. Image credits: ABDUL HAKIM/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
“Just after dawn in Kalyan, on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, trash pickers looking for plastics begin their daily rounds at the dump, joined by a flock of birds. In the distance, garbage trucks rolling in from the megacity traverse a garbage valley. The woman carrying the red cloth lives at the landfill”. Image credits: Randy Olson / National Geographic
“After sheets of clear plastic trash have been washed in the Buriganga River, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Noorjahan spreads them out to dry, turning them regularly— while also tending to her son, Momo. The plastic will eventually be sold to a recycler. Less than a fifth of all plastic gets recycled globally”. Image credits: Randy Olson/ National Geographic
“Colored chips of plastic—collected, washed, and sorted by hand—dry on the banks of the Buriganga. About 120,000 people work in the informal recycling industry in and around Dhaka, where 18 million inhabitants generate some 11,000 tons of waste a day”. Image credits: Randy Olson/ National Geographic
“Recology’s largest San Francisco recycling plant handles 500 to 600 tons daily. One of the few plants in the U.S. that accept shopping bags, it has more than doubled the tonnage it recycles in the past 20 years”. Image credits: RANDY OLSON
“Trucks full of plastic bottles pull into a recycling facility in Valenzuela, Philippines. The bottles were plucked from the streets of metropolitan Manila by waste pickers, who sell them to scrap dealers, who bring them here. The plastic bottles and caps will be shredded, sold up the recycling chain, and exported”. Image credits: Randy Olson/ National Geographic
Randy Olson/ National Geographic
Watch the video below to learn more about the science of plastic
This chart illustrates the growth of plastic use throughout the years
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