Illustrator Jenny-Jinya has found a successful formula with her sad stories about death visiting animals: you may remember shedding a tear over her “good boy” comic or her multi-part black cat story that sought to raise awareness of abuse. and the negligence of cats. The last time Bored Panda caught up with her, she shared that she makes these sad comics to give victims a voice, creating empathy for the animal victims of the actions of humans.
In her latest cartoon, the artist tackles the far-reaching consequences of a man-made natural disaster, plastic pollution, and how wild animals suffer from it.
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Jenny’s new comic is about the effects of plastic waste on seabirds
One study found that plastic floating in the ocean attracts algae that smell similar to the krill eaten by albatrosses and other seabirds. Mistaking the covered elements of these algae for food, birds unknowingly swallow inorganic material or feed it to their chicks.
Some birds die from swallowing so much indigestible waste that they experience blockages or cannot take in enough food, as dramatic images of plastic-filled bird carcasses show, but the effects of plastic consumption are often more insidious. To find out what happens to the birds before they’re found dead, Australian researchers conducted blood tests on fleshy-footed shearwaters, seabirds that live off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand but whose population has been steadily declining. It turns out that even birds that have only consumed a few pieces of plastic slowly become poisoned as the plastic leaches pollutants absorbed from the environment into their bodies, causing stunted growth, high cholesterol and possible kidney disease.
Advances in ocean cleanup technology have been made in recent years, with a 2,000-foot-long plastic collection device successfully collecting plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch last year, and hundreds of plastic collectors called Seabins installed in busy ports around the world. However, conservationists say that even if cleanup technology continues to improve and more devices like these are installed in the future, they won’t be able to make a dent in the amount of plastic in the ocean without stopping the debris that continues to enter the ocean. Ocean. This is why legislating the use of single-use plastics and educating the public on how to reduce plastic is the only way to make a difference.
