Trouble afloat: Ocean plastics
On one of the world’s most remote islands, the carcasses of dead albatrosses show how completely humanity has fouled the oceans. Photos of decomposing birds show bones, a ring of feathers, and a pile of plastics — bottle caps, lighters, and other debris — that the birds had ingested, little changed and waiting for the next birds to consume. The island is Midway, near one of World War II’s most important naval battles and now a quiet backwater where seabirds far outnumber the tiny human population. But Midway’s location near the center of the Pacific Ocean makes the nearby Great Pacific Garbage Patch accessible to the island’s seabirds scouring the ocean surface for food. The plight of Midway’s birds took center stage Thursday night during a “Trash Talk” in the Geological Lecture Hall, sponsored by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and co-sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Presented...