Illustrator Jenny-Jinya has found a successful formula with her sad stories about Death visiting animals—you may remember shedding a tear over her “good boy” comic or her multi-part black cat story that sought to draw awareness to cat abuse and neglect. The last time Bored Panda caught up with her, she shared that she makes these sad comics to give a voice to victims, creating empathy for the animal casualties of humans’ actions.

In her latest cartoon drawings, the artist addresses the far-reaching consequences of one human-made natural disaster, plastic pollution, and how wild animals suffer from it.

More info: jenny-jinya.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Jenny’s new comic is about the effects of plastic waste on seabirds

Image credits: Jenny-Jinya

Image credits: Jenny-Jinya

Image credits: Jenny-Jinya

Image credits: Jenny-Jinya

Image credits: Jenny-Jinya

Image credits: Jenny-Jinya

Image credits: Jenny-Jinya

A study found that plastic floating in the ocean attracts algae that smells similar to the krill eaten by albatrosses and other seabirds. By mistaking items covered in this algae for food, the birds then unknowingly swallow inorganic material or feed it to their chicks.

Some birds die by swallowing so much indigestible waste that they experience blockages or are unable to take in enough food, as dramatic pictures of bird carcasses filled with plastic have shown, but the effects of plastic consumption are usually more insidious. To find out what is happening to the birds before they are found dead, Australian researchers performed blood tests on flesh-footed shearwaters, seabirds that live off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, but have been steadily dwindling in population. It turns out that even birds that have only consumed a few pieces of plastic are slowly poisoned as plastic leaks pollutants absorbed from the environment into their bodies, causing stunted growth, high cholesterol and potential kidney disease.

Advances have been made in ocean-cleaning technology in recent years, with a 2,000-foot-long plastic-collecting device successfully picking up plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch last year, and hundreds of plastic-collecting fixtures called Seabins installed in busy harbors all over the world. However, conservationists say that even if cleaning technology continues to improve and more devices like these are installed in the future, they will be unable to make a dent in the amount of plastic in the ocean without putting a stop to the waste continuing to enter the ocean. For that, legislating the use of single-use plastics and educating the public on how to cut down on plastic is the only way to make a difference.

Commenters agree that they’ve had enough of people’s irresponsibility with trash

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