The Modern Rime of the Ancient Mariner: Plastics, the Ocean, and the Albatross

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a cautionary tale, reminding us to respect the natural world. For humans, there is an actual albatross hung about our metaphysical necks, and we should pay heed.

A baby albatross, which are fed the plastic by their parents. A chick can have an ounce of plastic in its belly and remain healthy; the dead chicks have twice as much. From the Smithsonian Laysan Albatrosses’ Plastic Problem, photo by Chris Jordan.

"He prayeth best, who loveth best, all things both great and small;" ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

When I was a b…