A viral video making the rung seem to show a group of penguin subsist on an island of plastic . But while it ’s now been revealed as a hoax , it has a broader aim of try on to   make a meaningful point .

The video was earlier post by the World Wildlife Fund ( WWF ) on April 1 this year which , hint tip , is April Fools ’ solar day . The original post onFacebook , however , purported it as genuine . Because , you acknowledge , that ’s how April Fools ’ daylight kit and boodle .

“ These shooting are shocking ! ” the WWF wrote . “ Researchers recorded these disturbing images in the South Pacific : dozens of Gentoo penguin have settled on an island of fictile thriftlessness . ”

Well , surprisal surprise , an article fromSnopesthis workweek has affirm this was a digitally manipulated picture . The finish was to bestow attending to the issue of plastic contamination in the sea , with an estimated 135 million tonnes   ( 150 million tons ) of plastic presently polluting the world ’s oceans .

“ as luck would have it , our discovery of penguin on the island made of plastic barren is not true , ” the WWF said on itswebsite . “ But we know in a public where such hazards from shaping contamination could very quickly become real , so there ’s no merry April punchline , but a serious background . ”

They noted that 7.2 million tonnes ( 8 million oodles ) of plastic are thrown into the sea every year , and by 2050 it ’s estimated that there will bemore credit card in our seas than Pisces . “ moldable stifles our seas and we take to act desperately before account that voice unsufferable become possible , ” they say .

And we can readily see the impingement of this . originally this year , a stranded pilot light whale in Thailand died , and was find to have more than80 plastic bagsin its stomach . The mass of plastic was so large that it prevented the whale from consume anything , and it starved to death .

campaign have been made in late time to try and minify the impact of charge card , with places like the UK introducing limitation on individual - use plastic bags . There is still more oeuvre to be done though , which this video compactly highlights , even if it did so through a slenderly odd computing machine - generated video recording .

[ H / T : ScienceAlert ]