What I read
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My response
This article gave us a clear explanation why “marine animals” ate plastic trash they found even though those plastic showed no signal of life, different from other plankton or small creatures they normally eat. It is pretty interesting that giving the reader explanation is not the only purpose that the writer, Josh Gabbatiss, started his writing, but he also wanted to “defend” for marine animals who were mistaken as “dumb” creatures by humans – a smarter creature. Those animals have no chances to speak for themselves, or a second chance to taste their real food. They lose a chance once they swallowed a piece of junk. They themselves are NOT dumb, but they are harmed by those who dumped trash improperly. Of course, those I previously mentioned is us, human beings, who have positioned ourselves a smarter species on earth. If true, why don’t we know where to drop trash properly? Is it a common thing that a creature with a common sense can figure out?I think the best solution for this problem is we, humans, have to be aware of our actions and their effect first. We should realize that everything we have done on earth affects towards both living and nonliving things surrounding us. Imagine that you forgot to drop a single piece of trash in a bin here, in a city, the trash might be taken to the outskirts somewhere. If it is lucky enough, that piece of trash might be disposed in time, or before an innocent animal mistakes it. However, as we have known, there are millions of animals who have no lucks. They eat the trash that some of us threw away without caring. What if that animal is one of going-to-be-extinct species? I know, it sounds too dramatic but we never know what will happen. A small thing we did may cause a big loss we have never imagined.
Even though we have tried very hard to run a campaign for proper trash disposal, we all know it seems to see no light for this problem, for now. I think I can say like this as long as I see some people dumped a plastic glass or bottle in public places. Some of you may experience the flooding after heavy rains in Bangkok that is primarily caused by trash stuck in drains or sewers. You see? A pile of small things brought us a big problem. Personally, the best and sustainable solution begins at ourselves. Please be careful of your actions.
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My question
Do you have any solution or suggestion for improper disposal of trash, both on land and in water? OR Any ideas for raising awareness of the problem?
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Reference
- Gabbatiss, J. (2018, March 1). Why marine animals can't stop eating plastic. Retrieved from BBC Earth: http://ourblueplanet.bbcearth.com/blog/?article=why-do-marine-animals-eat-plastic
Even where I disagreed with the ideas, I enjoyed reading Prim's response. I think that other animals are "dumber" than humans are: the original meaning of the word dumb is "unable to speak" (Oxford Dictionaries, adjective, def. 2), but as the Oxford Dictionaries entry usefully tells us in its Usage note, this "has been overwhelmed by the newer sense (meaning ‘stupid’)."
ReplyDeleteI think that animals are dumb in both senses of the word: they can't normally speak, and they are not nearly as intelligent as most human adults. They are, however, as intelligent as any new born human baby, so if we think intelligence gives our species some special rights that other animals don't have, that can't apply to babies. If intelligence is the decisive criterion for deciding what a living thing is worth and how we should treat it, then human babies would be worth no more than the pigs we eat or the sea animals we recklessly kill.
I agree more completely with the later points that Prim raises about the human tendency to be careless of the environment.
As I was reading, a solution did occur to me, but I'm curious to know other people's ideas before I share mine. And my late morning coffee is finished.
I totally agreed with Prim that human ourselves should be aware of our actions. We ruined a lot of pristine wilderness in recent year. Even myself sometimes accidentally dispose trash in public area.
ReplyDeleteI think many advocacy groups try to promote environmental responsibility. One way is to reduce using plastic materials that take time to degrade. Another way is to build social awareness including trash separation.
In addition to boost awareness, technology also play a role in this situation. Researchers have developed biodegradable material that far more easily to destroy without harming environment. I think that if we can replace plastic with other harmless material, not only the marine life that can be saved but also solving the trash overload problem in many big cities.
Collectively, I think implementation of both strategies, boosting awareness and alternative materials, will surely tackle this problems.
Thank you for your opinions, especially the trash separation. I completely forgot this solution. I agree with you that we should adopt the wast sorting into our society. I once tried sorting household trash, but I later found that the dustmen at my place put them together before getting rid of them. It failed. It was useless if I did it alone.
DeleteAnyway, I really appreciate your suggestions that we should solve the problem at its root: materials and people's awareness. It sounds like a sustainable solution.
Environment and extinction of animal become very serious problem. Many tourist throw their garbage in the sea or river, they will end up by eating it and die as your article state. For example, in Thailand many tourist come to pataya which is one of the most famous in Thailand. Even tough it is good for Thailand economy but it destroy the environment. As you can see the sea became black with full of garbage.
ReplyDeleteTo tackle this problem, personally I have no idea much about disposal but may be we should try to select type of garbage like recycle or hazardous waste. However, I think it would be better to solve this problem from the root cause rather than the consequence. A good example is trying to instruct new generation to concern more about this issue. I might not easy and take very long time but I think it is effective. For short term solution, I think may have to regulate or stick more about the law to punish the persons who break the rule.
I agreed with Prim and Pom that we should be aware of our actions and consequences we've done. Now we're facing plastic pollution crisis and there're many groups of people have launched campaigned to raise awareness of the crisis. When I realized that lifespans of plastic bags from convenience stores are very short, one minute or shorter for some users, I felt hurtful.
ReplyDeleteI stopped using plastic straws and unnecessary plastic bags and carried my own containers to everywhere I can. Don't feel hard to change your lifestyles. It's not that difficult.
Your response is so intense and touching. I totally agree with you that we are too careless of what we're doing. I read another blog post of someone about drawbacks after we drop the garbage in the wrong place - it makes tourist attraction less admirable. But after reading yours, it reminded me another thing that it also do harm to many lives, and it's true.
ReplyDeleteMy solutions that I can think of are, first, to change the manufacturing process of most of product, in this case I mean the bag, the basket, and many things you use to carry stuff, and second, to teach people to be discipline and be aware of their bad behavior to the nature. I have no idea how to perfectly do that but it's the best way if we can do it. Actually, I have another solution in my mind that is to put more punishment or seriously regulate the law about their behavior, but I think that as long as people're not discipline themselves, they still try to break the law, so that's not a good solution
I'm sorry, it's not so clear in my first solution. I mean we can change the material that is used to manufacture the product. For example, we can change from plastic bag to cloth bag or anything that is friendly to the nature. That's not so harmful if someone still drop it anywhere.
DeleteHowever, I still think our discipine is the most important factor.
I got stunned a little bit after reading your blog. I want to say that marine animals are not too dumb to eat plastic Sometimes it is so difficult for them to distinguish plastic from food because they are human like us. People should be aware of dumping trashes into water like seas and rivers because there are a lot of creatures under water and they need to get food to survive. We should have some responsibility to dump trash into trashcans. Is it really hard to do this ? I would say No, it is not. But just people are selfish and lazy to do. That's it. Animals under water have lives like us so we had better care about them. It is not their fault to eat plastic because they think it is their food.
ReplyDelete