Two environmental scientists, Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Dr. Urlich Wernery discovered, thanks to an investigation over 30,000 dead camels in the United Arab Emirates, that 1% of camels in this country died due to the ingestion of plastic that amassed over time in their digestive tracts. Camel remains display compressed tangles of plastic items, mainly plastic bags, objects that kill camels slowly by blocking their intestines, tearing at internal organs and creating conditions for bacterial infection. Of 30,00 of these dead camels that the two scientists have examined since 2008, 300 had guts packed with plastic. In a subset of five camels the lastic weighed from three to sixtyfour kilograms. When ingesting this trash, the camels can feel a false sense of satiation and refuse to eat further, which leads to dehydration, malnourishment and death. The indigestible materials also create gut blockages, ulcers and lacerations or deadly sepsis from abundant bacteria caught in the bags’s fold.
Many countries have independently banned single-use plastic items, but it needs to urge world leaders, including the Biden-Harris Administration, which has been silent on this growing crisis to take bold, swift action by joining an international legally binding agreement to tackle plastic pollution under discussion. The world’s top environmental decision-making body, UNEA notes that “the planet is in crisis and nature must be at the heart of global efforts to build back better” after the coronavirus pandemic.
The study of Dr. Marcus and Urlich demonstrates that as a civilisation, we have to stop thinking about plastic pollution as if it were confined to our oceans and start talking about global plastic pollution harming life everywhere.
Alessia Mazzini, Letizia Pellegrini e Giorgia Peroni 3AL
