Gum dominates the checkout lanes of groceries stores across America.
Checkout lanes filled with the brim with eggplants, bread, crayons, and underpants are joined by the gentle plumpet of Juicy Juice on the ride to the red scanner. Gum is placed intentionally by the checkout lane to encourage impulsive purchases, after all, what's an extra three bucks if I get a tropical vacation in my mouth.
Marketers know how to attract every-day shoppers into buying packs of gum for their families of five. Although I will never personally enjoy or endure the consummation of gum, I do recognize the joy it brings to many people on planet earth. Despite all the joy humans get from gum, it is important to remind the world that we are not the only living creatures on earth: we also have birds.
A baby hummingbird was found with its left wing and miniature leg intertwined with a thick wad of gum in the grass. Struggling to be free, this baby birdy could not escape the deadly imprisonment caused by chewing gum. What was intentionally a careless drop of a wad, ended in the dead to an innocent bird. I constantly ask myself and others, what gives humans the right to endanger the livelihoods and safety of our flying friends?
Unfortunately, this was not the only terribly tragic encounter a bird has had with gum. Dotting around a parking lot, two baby robins were found stuck to wads of gum on the cement. The gum looked like an innocent crumb of bread, and it turned out to be a death trap. The bird was at risk of both getting run over by a car with no means of escape and dying from starvation. It was trapped within the thickness of the gum.
Many times birds don't become intertwined physically with the gum they encounter, but they become internally intertwined with gum which poses a significant, if not more troublesome, issue for the birds of America and beyond. When people throw gum out their window, many birds will mistake it for bread and eat it.
The gum gets stuck in their stomach and wrapped within their intestines choking the bird from the inside out and resulting in an ultimate death for the birdy.
Teenagers wad their gum and toss it into the grass. Fathers, mothers, and three-year-olds are all guilty of taking their gum and letting it fly, but an attitude of "out of sight, out of mind" will only lead our world into deeper environmental dilemmas. There simply isn't enough marketing or commercialization of the endangerment bird species are experiencing from chewing gum.
The reality of restabilizing lively ecosystems of early years is not an easy task, however, if humans can come together to acknowledge and fund this revolutionary realization that gum is harming our planet, then solutions can be created and encouraged. In today's society, movies like Jurassic World are being released with a plot about how dinosaurs are dying and the world needs to pitch in and help, when there are robins in our backyard, dead deer on our highways, and tiny legs stick in washout mint gum that call our attention to a dying world of animals that are still alive and that need our help.
The consummation of gum within America poses a great threat to the lifestyle and safety of our birds. This is why I have started a campaign to raise money for the research of marking biodegradable gums, recently created, that are bird safe.
The goal is to use this money to take the gum we love to consume and make it better for our planet' environment and little critters. Exposing the world to new sustainable and environmentally friendly ways of life is both difficult and costly. The reason why we see big brands like Juicy Juice and Spearmint dominating our soap opera commercials is that those companies have massive budgets for marketing their product as well as the support of other unhealthy brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
These mega franchises are taking over our minds, intentionally, through mass advertisement, and additionally they are taking over our health and animals. I have a dream to change the way that humans live, to empower a world that cares about the lives of birds and the growth of real flowers.
A world that can use the beauty of technology to create advanced machines for the growth and betterment of human minds, bodies, and ecosystems. I believe that America could be on the verge of a revolution, but all revolutions start small and specific and this one is fighting for funding to decrease gum litter in our world.
Visit my brain blog at www.braininspiredbeauty.com and head over to the "nature + sustainability" section to read more articles on important environmental issues our world faces today.
