That word above. Yeah, that one right there. Who has heard of photodegradation? Basically, photo means light. Degrade means to break down. The “ation” part basically means to do. So photodegradation means The process of breaking down with light. Plastic bags don’t biodegrade. Instead, they crumble into smaller and smaller bits that are still harmful.

You have heard many stories of Sea Turtles choking to death on plastic bags but once they photodegrade, they are small enough that they aren’t interesting to Sea Turtles. Instead, they are interesting to everything else. I have a feeling that I don’t need to explain what happens then. Eventually, if it isn’t swallowed by animals, it will find its way into a current and find itself into a GARBAGE PATCH! (da da da duhn)

No, a garbage patch isn’t a big floating island of trash. That would be too easy to clean up. A garbage patch is a mass of photodegraded trash that absorbs nutrients and warmth. It also looks an awful lot like plankton which is the base of the food chain. The second link in the chain will starve which results in the chain after in it starving. I have already explained ecosystems and food webs/chains. The worst part is when the poison from the plastic is digested. Eventually, the poison makes its way to us and that is, I’m not going to say the end of the Earth, but it is far from good. Do your part. Don’t flip your grocery sacks out the window. Make a difference.

More facts.

Plastic is made from petroleum; petroleum is made from crude oil. The same crude oil that runs our cars.

Manufacturing of the bags can produce chemicals which settle in the ocean causing ocean acidification which destroys coral reefs and other environments

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, (a massive garbage patch in the pacific if you hadn’t guessed) is now three times the size of France and mostly made of plastic

There is 46 times the amount of actual food in plastic in some locations of the ocean

I have a new page! If you are like me you’re going to like this. It is all my favorite things!!! 😀

My favorites

I’ve mentioned the ecosystem once or twice. Here is a page all about it. So you may know about a food chain or food web but that is only part of the big picture.

This is a food web. This shows how the plants and decomposers go to different animals and those animals loop around and around. That is why it is called a food web. Always remember this part. When any of the items die, either a scavenger eats it, or it decomposes into the ground and becomes nutrition for the plants and “The great circle of life is complete”.

Now, let’s pretend that someone killed most of the deer. Soon, the predators would kill all that’s left. Then they would wipe out their own main source of prey. And also, the vegetation would start slowly getting out of hand without deer to trim it down. The vegetation would take over everything and then the vegetation would have nowhere to grow. Then it would wipe itself out. After that, the other animals that were feasting start dying off from starvation. That wipes out the level of animals after that and soon, there is nothing left. All the vegetation left over makes one last splurge, and dies. NOTHING LEFT. So what; Nothing to do with us humans. WRONG! With no plants, there is nothing left to produce oxygen. Then we would suffocate from our own living. And don’t forget. Most of our food comes from the wild. Sure there are farmers markets, human grown poultry, meat, but let’s look at what we don’t have. Seafood, anything from plants besides tiny farmers markets that will NOT provide for the world. Positively negative death. because of some greedy hunters. Those ******** *******! (please excuse my language)

The ecosystem is what keeps everything balanced out. If you are a hunter, you are able to take one or two deer. If you are a fisherman, catch a moderate amount without over fishing. If you are a bystander, speak up. If you are a child, go spread the word. One more small study. What happens if you introduce an ash bore, to the United states? You probably heard the story of introducing the ash bore and entire forests of ash tree’s wiped out. If you look up, you can guess what happened next (if not, comment and we can chat). But today we all are STILL fighting the disease. Well, that was today’s lesson. So, go places, see things, and MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

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