How A Bag Of Cheetos Unleashed Chaos In A Fragile US Cave Ecosystem

We generally overlook the negative impact human beings create by the trash that we leave behind after outdoor events and activities. No matter if it is a plain, a riverside, a desert, or a hilltop, it seems travellers have left behind plastic waste in all natural locations. Littering is emerging as a huge problem that is threatening these locations for their fragile ecology and aesthetic value.

Last week at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, one visitor tossed away an open bag of Cheetos. It served as a snack for the mould of the cave. One of the most visited places in New Mexico, the park welcomed almost 400,000 visitors last year.

In response, park rangers painstakingly removed mould and microbial growth along the path leading to the Big Room-the biggest cave chamber by volume in North America-for 20 minutes. And all this was because of the bag of Cheetos dropped by the careless visitor.

The National Park's social media account now shared a statement regarding the incident, explaining that we affect the world around us in subtle ways, whether it be purposeful or not.

The post reads, "To the owner of the snack bag, the impact is likely incidental. But to the ecosystem of the cave, it had a huge impact."

"The processed corn, softened by the humidity of the cave, formed the perfect environment to host microbial life and fungi. Cave crickets, mites, spiders, and flies soon organise into a temporary food web, dispersing the nutrients to the surrounding caves and formations. Moulds spread higher up the nearby surfaces, fruit, die, and stink. And the cycle continues."

"Rangers spent twenty minutes carefully removing the foreign debris and moulds from the cave surfaces. Some members of this fleeting ecosystem are cave dwellers, but many of the microbial life and moulds are not. At the scale of human perspective, a spilt snack bag may seem trivial, but to the life of the cave, it can be world-changing. Great or small, we all leave an impact wherever we go. Let us all leave the world a better place than we found it."

This eye-opening incident is a reminder that our reliance on convenience comes at a significant cost to the planet, and mindful travel is more important than ever.