Visit to castle was soured thanks to ignorant litterers
I had the pleasure this week of visiting Whittington Castle. What a joy the attached cafe is and well done to all the staff there.
However, the experience was severely soured by a walk around the castle to be met with litter. Sweet wrappers, plastic bottles, lolly sticks, cans etc. Every single piece of that litter was a potential killer of wildlife. Marine debris, every piece of which started in someone’s hand, is a major contributor to the 50 per cent loss of plankton in the last few decades.
Far from being insignificant, phytoplankton (plant plankton) is the main source of oxygen on Earth and one of the biggest carbon sinks and regulators of climate change we have.
If the parents and teachers of children wish to educate them or simply allow them to breathe in future, a stronger focus is required for the real damage litter causes. The Welsh coastline is the second largest landfall for marine debris in the UK and home to one of the world’s rarest sharks, the Angel Shark.
The single crisp packet, not withstanding the rest of the rubbish left, would have been enough to kill a shark or one of our regular more enigmatic species such as dolphins, turtles or seals.
Our group runs monthly public beach cleans, lectures on marine litter and takes individual groups out on shoreline safaris. In short, we are doing everything we can to future proof our coastline and environment for the following generations. It is a great sadness that that very generation in a landlocked area shows such contempt for their own stunning landmark, locality and future oxygen.
For the record, the rubbish was removed and disposed of appropriately in the bin just a few short steps away that these children were too poorly educated and physically weak to carry their litter to.
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