I have no words...

[ChisolmTrailDem]

Nothing I say about this can sufficiently convey my horror...

Jeff Corwin - The power of plastic! This turtle likely crawled through a discarded plastic ring of a 6-pack of beer or soda when it was a baby, and now is being forever strangled in a plastic hangman's noose! Share this if you are not OK with it. #jeffcorwin #recycle

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=757174207647351&set=a.668411726523600.1073741827.116687691696009&type=1&theater

[Sheepshank]

1. tears!

what have we done?

yes, WE

[liberal N proud]

2. That is why I always cut those things into one long string with no holes

But I try to avoid buying anything with those damn rings in the first place.

[11 Bravo]

4. I do the same, and this picture brings home why.

[Omaha Steve]

12. Marta and I do too

I hope everybody gets the message.

Edit: Marta and I used to have a huge tank with over 20 assorted turtles when the kids were little back in the mid 80's.

K&R!

[City Lights]

17. That's what we do, too. nt

[liberalhistorian]

3. I saw that on Facebook yesterday and

was horrified, dismayed and ashamed. Not just at this poor turtle, but at the fact that this is surely not the only case, that there are many, many more cases like this. I know that marine life has suffered like this for a long time, there are instances of dolphins and others being entangled in this shit and unable to get free. Sad thing is that too many people don't give a damn and don't think about how their "convenience" affects others, both humans and animals and the planet itself.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

14. so true.

I got the message way beck when I was a little kid. Always had pet turtles...some places sold baby turtles with designs painted on their shells. I learned that the paint interfered with the growth of their shells, so I went on a mission to inform.

[Brickbat]

5. Peanut! Here's more to the story:

http://mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/famous-figure-8-turtle-and-no-more-trash-mascot-celebrates-29th-birthday-today

[ChisolmTrailDem]

10. Thank you Brickbat. Had no idea Corwin posted a 20 year old photo. Those platic traps are still

in use by some companies and though this particular incident is decades-removed from the present, the danger is still very real as those plastic rings are still in the environment.

[MoonRiver]

6. Sickening!

Humans are systematically destroying all life on earth, including our own.

[Inkfreak]

7. Wow. That's so weird.

I break them up if we have any. But these days most of our drinks come in boxes or fully wrapped in plastic.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

9. There are still millions of those in the environment. Also, I think they're still in use today by

some companies and in some parts of the world.

[TeeYiYi]

11. Beer 6-packs and 4-packs...

They drive me crazy but I cut every one I get.

TYY

[Inkfreak]

18. Oh, I'm sure you're right.

Hopefully some day they'll be eliminated.

[OnyxCollie]

8. Trillions of Plastic Pieces May Be Trapped in Arctic Ice

Trillions of Plastic Pieces May Be Trapped in Arctic Ice
http://www.democraticunderground.com/122829523

By Eric Hand Thursday, May 22, 2014 - 5:30pm
Humans produced nearly 300 million tons of plastic in 2012, but where does it end up? A new study has found plastic debris in a surprising location: trapped in Arctic sea ice. As the ice melts, it could release a flood of floating plastic onto the world.

Scientists already knew that microplastics—polymer beads, fibers, or fragments less than 5 millimeters long—can wind up in the ocean, near coastlines, or in swirling eddies such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But Rachel Obbard, a materials scientist at Dartmouth College, was shocked to find that currents had carried the stuff to the Arctic.

In a study published online this month in Earth’s Future, Obbard and her colleagues argue that, as Arctic ice freezes, it traps floating microplastics—resulting in abundances of hundreds of particles per cubic meter. That’s three orders of magnitude larger than some counts of plastic particles in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. “It was such a surprise to me to find them in such a remote region,” she says. “These particles have come a long way.”

The potential ecological hazards of microplastics are still unknown. But the ice trap could help solve a mystery: Industrial plastic production has increased markedly in the last half-century, reaching 288 million tonnes in 2012, according to Plastics Europe, an industry association. But ecologists have not been able to account for the final disposition of much of it. The paper shows that sea ice could be an important sink—albeit one that is melting, says Kara Lavender Law, an oceanographer at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, who was not part of the study. “There could be freely floating plastics, in short order.” The authors estimate that, under current melting trends, more than 1 trillion pieces of plastic could be released in the next decade.

more

http://news.sciencemag.org/earth/2014/05/trillions-plastic-pieces-may-be-trapped-arctic-ice

...

So fucked...

[totodeinhere]

13. Apparently the rings were removed and she is OK now.

And of course we have to have asses replying that the photo was photoshopped. But actually it wasn't.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. Had to be a "she" with those curves.

[Helen Borg]

15. And many cultures do something like that routinely to women!

I'm thinking about necks stretched by rings, feet-binding, and so on...