Freshwater contamination with micro- and macroplastics

The oceans are full of our dumped plastic. Now it is found that freshwater lakes in subalpine locations are also contaminated with potentially hazardous plastics.

"The numbers of microplastic particles in sediment samples from Lake Garda were similar to those found in studies of marine beach sediments... From there they find their way into the food web...Next to mechanical impairments of swallowed plastics mistaken as food, many plastic-associated chemicals have been shown to be carcinogenic, endocrine-disrupting, or acutely toxic...Moreover, the polymers can adsorb toxic hydrophobic organic pollutants and transport these compounds to otherwise less polluted habitats. Along this line, plastic debris can act as vector for alien species and diseases."

Source:
 "Current Biolog (abstr.): Contamination of beach sediments of a subalpine lake with microplastic particles (pdf)

Images:
Lesser, Ury, Lake Garda with Monte Baldo

Giraffe as Garbage Bin in a Zoo

Kliwon, the giraffe was held captive in his pen for 13 years. Zoo visitors tossed plastic wrappers into its pen. The garbage accumulated and clogged the ruminating animal's digestive system. The living garbage bin collapsed in his stall and died. The plant eater had "a plastic lump weighing around 20 kilograms and 60 centimetres in diameter in his stomach".

The home ranges of the tallest living terrestrial animal are usually open woodlands and savannas where it eats plant-based food. Humans have long exploited body parts of the animal and encroached on its habitat. Human settlements and their livestock are pushing the creature out of existence.

The Romans first imported and exhibited the animal as a spectacle as part of their 'Bread and Circuses' for the people. White big game hunters enjoyed the 'sport" of competitive killing in colonial Africa. Even today, recreational killing of the few giraffes left in hunting safaris is enjoyed by families.

Showcasing and selling wild animals in overpopulated zoos is profitable. In Kliwon's Surabaya Zoo "500 animals had died between 2010 and 2011." The zoo workers’ cooperative runs the stalls that cater to the customers food plus plastic wrapper needs.

A zoo visit is supposed to be 'taking the kids out and fun for the family'. A getting away from a lackluster everyday life and being animated by a menagerie of exotic animals that are held captive all at once at one's command. It offers "amusement without demanding exertion." Parents welcome outsourcing the service of interaction to other creatures. Distraction gives them a break.

Kids gape in wonder at the captive creatures. Junk food offering, rattling cages or banging on glass walls often enhances the 'performance' of the caged being that has no means of escaping. Safe and in control one can learn to initiate a one sided 'interaction'.
In this asymmetrical relationship the wildlife spectators learn the animal/human dichotomy and experience themselves as free "Peeping Toms". The powerlessness of the powerful mega fauna instills strength in the 'king of beasts', the Homo sapiens. One can stroll through the zoos or aquariums, theme parks, marine mammal parks, oceanarium, etc and eat some plastic wrapped fish/meat, engage in petting or just stare at the homeless curiosities.The hunger for sensations and distractions is good business. The peep industry in all of its forms profits. For many animals it is the last and only habitat on planet Earth allocated by humanity.
Soon there will be no remaining 'wildlife' untagged not on a 24/7 web cam and all shall only exist as part of our panopticon.

Images:
Head of a giraffe, Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon
Weigel, Hans: Giraffe, Wonder animal
Macke, August: Großer Zoologischer Garten, Triptychon 1913
Giraffe, bending for food. Brehm, Alfred/Brehms Thierleben

Updates
Conservationists warn of giraffe extinction, Human encroachment on giraffe habitat is seen as the biggest threat. 10.13

Zoo kills healthy giraffe in front of minors and feeds meat to lions, Guardian 02.2014

Disposable captives, Lori Gruen, 10.04.2014

There are about 80,000 giraffes left in the wild. The land is used for agriculture: habitat loss and fragmentation abc 04122014

Peppered Seal or Peppered Tasmanian Salmon? - The Habitat Grab

When one thinks of Tasmania, the extinct animals such as the Thylacine/ Tasmanian Tiger (image) or the battling Tasmanian Devil might come to mind. If one endulged in some Tasmanian farmed salmon, one might keep in mind what one is chewing on...

Various seals (Pinnipeds) along with other endemic fauna have inhabited the coastline of Tasmania for aeons. It is in the nature of these marine mammals to annually aggregate on solid ground, like beaches or rocky islands to rest and reproduce.

Human factory farming encroaches on the animals' only habitat - the ocean. A grid of commercial infrastructure clutters the coastal waters. Fish are in sea cages that are "more like the battery hen of the sea".

The aqua-'culture' encroachment of human industry entails the elimination of 'wild' habitat for the other species. The Wildland/Urban Interface (WUI), or better the ocean industrial interface (OII) is the battle ground where our species conquers bio-diversity by replacing it with a simple mono-culture. Monetizing the ocean does mean an extra $350 million!

The Battle
The remaining inhabitants can be framed as pests, in need of culling, a popular Australian strategy for endemic wildlife. Their eradication as a competitor could boost profits, as the seals might mistake a fish for their own. Members of the fishing community set to work shooting at the beasts for hours. Many get away with firearm wounds. Others resort to shallow graves for the seals. But the 'unintentional' by-kill, also known as by-catch is via fishing industry gear. Feral plastic debris causes a slow and painful death for 2% of Tasmania's seals.

In desperation seals fight for their homes and resources. Agents of the fishing industry will now be equipped with a chemical club reserved for riot control of human beings. Pepper spray (Oleoresin capsicum) is designed to disable the terrestial mammal. Aquatic marine mammals might just drown instead of dying from lead or plastic. The grab for their habitat, deeper and deeper into the ocean, will probably spell the end of many species.

When making consumer choices enquire if your fish came from an overcrowded sea cage in a seal habitat.


Links:
Seals, Parks & Wildlife, Tasmania
How green and clean is Tasmanian salmon? The 7.30 Report, abc 09/12/2009
Peppered seal the new fish farm defence abc 27/08/2010
Ocean clutter delicious tag

Image:
Albert Bierstadt, Seal Rock, California 1872 via Zeno

You might also like to read
Strangling and Piercing Fur Seals 'Unintentionally' with Fishing Gear
Tasmanian Salmon marinated in...

Skinning the Earth for Food

Mining the soil, the interface between the atmosphere and the lithosphere is unsustainable.
David Montgomery, professor of Earth and space sciences claims that skinning the Earth for food also constitutes an 'erosion of civilisations' in his book 'Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations'. "Soil loss through conventional agriculture is in a range of 10 to 100 times greater than the rate at which soil is created...We are skinning our agricultural fields"
Previously human populations could just move on to some one's elses land and continue their 'agri-culture' there. With 6.6 billion people today unable to embrace a paradigm shift with respect to food security, there would have to be another planet to 'harvest' elsewhere.

Hack, mix, distribute and eat – your plastics

Since the beginning of time human beings have utilised the 71 % of the Earth's watery surface to dump their rubbish. What has changed, is the massive population and the nature of the artificial anti-products that are now disposed in the world oceans by individuals and industry. Apart from the cost-effective discarding of 'millions of tonnes of sewage and toxic waste' gigantic amounts of plastic is added. ”80% of marine debris originates from land based sources.” Just the plastic alone floats for hundereds of years on the surface and is distributed/ 'flushed' with the ocean currents to all corners of the globe (map). With time the pellets of domestic and industrial waste develop into ever smaller particles. They are given the cute term: 'Tears of the Mermaid'. These toxic, microscopic particles then enter living organisms in the ocean at all levels. They remain and accumulate in the aquatic and terrestial living beings.The degradation of the entire food-chain is the inheritance left behind.
The issue is unfortuntely not sufficiently important to act on, there have been various reports over the years – all in wane. Some attention is generated now as there is a financial impact on large boats having trouble getting thorough the plastic debris.
More on causes and effects
Disposable Oceans, Greenpeace
Mother Jones defending oceans

Strawberries costing the Earth

Huge strawberries were on offer at the market yesterday. The WWF is calling to boycott this Spanish produce, because their cultivation is leading to an "environmental catastrophe". The majority are grown around the national park Coto Donana. Germany and France are the largest importers of this water intensive and polluting crop. WWF claims that ”that strawberry cultivation is highly polluting, resulting in 4,500 metric tons of plastic waste each year and pesticide pollution.“ If you buy them before April, they are most likely destroying the Iberian natural milieu.
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