Video game creatures in the real world?: The Story of the Plastic shelled crab

I saw something incredible on the web that i wanted to share with you guys today. The incredibly cute "Toothpaste Cap Hermit Crab" equipping his plastic shell in an almost video-game like manner.

(photo 1: A hermit crab using a toothpaste crab as a shell)

While it is a bit of a departure from my usual content, i felt that the significance and implications of this picture is too great to ignore.

We have always viewed plastics as rubbish, something of a hindrance to animals around us. Its negative effects on the ecosystem especially in coastal bird populations have been extensively documented and with no uncertainty, we know that plastics is bad for ecosystem and the earth.

(Fig 2: plastic pollution in the gut of birds)

However, i have never stopped to think about how much plastic can affect animal behavior. Will animals in the future be able to adapt to the amount of pollution we humans produce everyday? I doubt so but i truly think that this is a question we should ponder on. Even if the answer to that is yes, it doesn't mean that we should continue plastic pollution.

Animals living within anthropogenic structures is not a phenomena of course. We see animals of all kinds from bird, bats adapt to urban environment as well as sea creatures using shipwrecks as a structure in which they grow in (the effects of which in the ecosystem is still being debated).

(fig 3: Bats in anthropogenic structures)

(Fig 4: Fish living in shipwrecks)

This particular photo grabbed my attention in a different way. I felt both sad and happy at the issue. Happy because it seems that the hermit crab is alive and is able to use the plastic as a self-defence mechanism. At the sad time, this photo is depressing because it shows us just how much of an impact that we have on the environment. It also suggest to us how polluted the beach must be such that the hermit crab would resort to using the toothpaste cap as a shell rather than using natural shells from its predecessor. To add to that, if this hermit crab were to be eaten by prey, it would be certainly the case that the plastic might be consumed by its predator thus leading to more damage to the ecosystem.

I hope that this photo provides us ample reason to act upon reducing plastic pollution in our environment

Minecraft: Wonders at the expense of gaia?

(image taken from http://wallpapergal.com/2015/08/13/minecraft-wallpaper-56a/minecraft-wallpaper-56a/)

Minecraft, a game touted as one of the best sandbox to create and share your creations to the world. At its most basic, this game involves mining for various resources from the world, using these resources to make tools to make things of increasing complexity, rinse and repeat.

Does the game remind you of something? 

In the real world, we humans extract various minerals from the earth, similar to the game albeit, i would argue, in a far more destructive manner.

For instance, we mine the earth for rare earth metals in order to make most of our modern structures. Rare earth metals are even an important component in some clean technologies such as in the creation of solar panels.

(Taken from http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/a-visit-to-the-only-american-mine-for-rare-earth-metals/253372/ which provide us an insight in America's only rare earth metal mine)

Mining can be extremely toxic to the environment. Pollution comes from 3 processes in rare earth metal mining, extraction of ore (which cause destruction of the land), refining of ore (which often produces toxic air pollutants) and the disposal of waste (if done improperly can result in toxins seeping into soil and water )

In the chinese Xinguang No.1 Village, it has been noted that the water is extremely polluted due to leakages as a result of improper waste management of the ore. A byproduct of Rare Earth Metal mining is also thorium, which is radioactive. As a result, the incidences of cancer within the population working and living near the mines are much higher than the average population.

Unlike mining in the real world, there is always the option for a player to restart in the case that one dislike the state the world is in. Pollution also does not occur in the game byond the misplaced player creation.

We have only one earth, resources are not limitless like that of mine craft and the way we obtain and extract resources can pose severe long term risk on to our environment.

Perhaps for the sake of future generations, we should pay more heed to the pollution cause by our modern consumerist culture. We can still build magnificent structure for ourselves like those built within the world of minecraft, but we need to make sure that they way we do it does not come at the price of our future.