Tens of thousands of albatross chicks are killed each year when they are mistakenly fed trash. The albatross is only one of the many species that is highly vulnerable to human trash, and the outlook is not good when our oceans are swimming with detritus: see the previous article on the Plastic Killing Fields

Dead Albatross Chick

See more photos at http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11

The humble honeybee pollenates approximately one third of our food supply. Since 2006, reports of vanishing honeybee colonies began pouring in, and so far there have been no verified explanations that account for the bees disappearance. Other pollenators have also been declining in numbers 75% of all plants on the planet rely on animal pollenation. A mass extinction of pollenators would trigger many others: the pollenating plants would soon die out, and in turn, their death would trigger the collapse of other ecosystems.

The laboratory analysis of the bees shows not a single source, but an array of bacteria, fungus, pesticides, and pathogens in their gut, and some of it indicates that the bees’ immune system may have failed, similar to how the AIDS virus affects humans. The results suggest that the death of bees might be a complex one.

In China, some areas have already resorted to human pollenation (armed with chicken feathers), after industrial and agricultural pollution killed off all the insect pollenators.

PBS has a full length video available on-line:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/silence-of-the-bees/video-full-episode/251/