🐢 February 5th: "Imperishable Durability" vs. "Unremovable Disaster"

    🐢 The Agony of a Sea Turtle (2015) In August 2015, off the coast of Costa Rica, a marine research team discovered a male Olive Ridley sea turtle with a foreign object tightly lodged in his left nostril. The turtle, hissing in pain, struggled to breathe. The team attempted to remove the object using tools, but the stuck object wouldn't budge. The turtle writhed in agony, bleeding profusely from its nose. When they finally extracted the object, it turned out to be a crushed, discolored plastic straw, over 10cm long.

The Birth of the Miracle Material (February 5, 1909)On this day, February 5, 1909, Belgian-born chemist Leo Baekeland unveiled a solid mass created by combining phenol and formaldehyde. He named it "Bakelite," effectively meaning "Baekeland's Stone." It was the moment the world's first fully synthetic plastic was born.

Plastic, once boasted for its "imperishable durability," has now become an "unremovable disaster."

Back to the Ocean The Olive Ridley sea turtle was immediately released back into the ocean. The research team stated, "Fortunately, the straw did not pierce the brain, so the turtle's chances of survival are considered very high."

(Source: National Geographic, "How Did Sea Turtle Get a Straw Up Its Nose?" 2015.08.17)

 Olive Ridley Sea Turtle

 Wikimedia Commons /Author Bernard Gagnon CC BY-SA 3.0