One of the biggest ironies about the Internet is that it has made us more connected but also more isolated at the same time.

We are more connected because social media keeps us updated about the daily minutiae of our online “friends” and vice versa. A tremendous amount of information is also available at our fingertips if we just knew what we wanted to research.

But perhaps this information overload has also left us isolated as our brain filters out insignificant information or data that don’t agree with our belief systems. We also end up living in our virtual worlds that may be promoting narratives totally at odds with what’s happening around us.

Watch this jaguar playing with a plastic bottle in the wild.

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Video credit: Rumble

And it seems that the world’s trash problem is one such issue. It’s easy to think that all the trash lining the oceans or choking the world’s ecosystems are “out there” and that there’s really no problem especially if one lives in a country that is meticulous about keeping its environment clean.

However, a series of photographs managed to give us a poignant reminder that even if we’re not aware of it, the trash problem is affecting every corner of the globe.

Paul Goldstein, a wildlife guide and photographer, bore witness to the heartbreaking scene in Pantanal, Brazil, which is the world’s biggest tropical wetland. He managed to capture several pictures of a three-year-old male jaguar playing with a green plastic bottle even if they were in the wild.

The jaguar had noticed the bottle on the banks of the stream and came down to investigate as another jaguar waited much higher up on the bank. The predator then sniffs and then toys with the bottle before finally snatching it with its jaw.

Paul said: “This bottle would have floated downstream during the wet season but it must have had some scent to attract this boy.

“Guiding a dozen people to see jaguars in their own vast wetland back yard is and always will be a thrill, but scenes like this are not.”

While he found the scene “distressing” Paul is hopeful that the photos will serve as a “poster child for plastic abuse and its hideous worldwide proliferation.”

Around 40 nations worldwide have restricted the use of plastic bags and bottles or heavily taxed them, or have outright banned their use, including countries such as Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania.

 

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