While browsing the web, I came across these devastating photographs which show the effects of pollution on seabirds. The pictures were taken by Chris Jordan on Midway Atoll, an island in the North Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian archipelago.

These disturbing images show what adult birds are feeding to their young: lighters, bottle caps, perfume bottles. Seabirds (esp. albatross) are dying by the thousands, killed by chunks of plastic they mistake for food.

At first glance, I really believed the pictures were tampered with because the amount of junk in the birds’ decomposing bodies seems incomprehensibly large. But according to the photographer, “not a single piece of plastic in any of these photos was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way.”

See more graphic images of where our trash ends up.