There are recent cases of Earth fighting back against pollution and the human habit of creating too much trash. Well now bald eagles are seemingly taking up the cause too, at least in one city.
People living in the Seattle suburbs are having to deal with a unique nuisance that no one is quite sure how to handle. The problem arises from an open-air landfill in King County. The Cedar Hills Regional Landfill was supposed to have been closed years ago, but due to a proposed expansion it has been kept open and will continue it's operations until 2040, sources say.
An average of over two tons of trash are brought to the location every day, and has attracted hundreds of bald eagles amongst other large birds. The staffs at the landfill have estimated nearly 200 eagles have made the area their home, taking what they want from the trash and unintentionally dropping it in the suburbs. At a recent meeting, one resident held up a biohazard container filled with human blood. This is just one example of the kind of waste carried by eagles into residential neighborhoods.
Many of the Seattle residents are urging the county to cancel the proposed expansion and close the site for good. In the meantime, the residents are hoping to implement some sort of anti-eagle measures at the landfill, although it's not entirely clear what those would entail or if such measures are even possible.
Some say this is Poetic Justice, where the American national bird is reminding people that the trash they throw in a landfill doesn't simply disappear. These birds are unknowingly emphasizing the reality that humans create too much trash which leads to devastating consequences. Excessive dumping of trash has a variety of repercussions; from as small as eagles dropping biohazard containers in your front lawn, to nearly 20 tons of plastic washing up on one of the most remote beaches in the world. Not to mention the gruesome fact that marine life and marine dependent animals such as pelicans and seagulls are dying daily because of our actions, or dare we say, lack thereof.
Solutions, like closing a landfill or pulling trash out of the ocean, are great, but in truth, those are only short-term solutions to a long-term problem. The only way to really live in a world where our trash doesn't come back to haunt us is to be smarter about how much of it we create.
