Earth Day 2024

The images are disarming, even cute, until you consider what you’re seeing. Small crabs with legs and pincers and tiny black eyes peek out from beneath shells that, upon review, reveal themselves to be deeply, disturbingly wrong. These are hermit crabs, who, unlike their armored relatives, are born with soft and vulnerable bodies that they protect by searching out vacant seashells to use as temporary homes. When they outgrow one shell they have no choice but to scuttle out in search of a larger one.

Now, a recent study out of Poland has confirmed that a majority of the hermit crab species who live on land have been documented living in human garbage instead of shells. At best, we might treat this as a savvy adaptation. Maybe, suggest the scientists, the plastic bottle caps and bits of PVC piping help the crabs to pass undetected on beaches where such waste is constantly washing up from the sea. Even still, the truth of the matter is dire: the anthropocene has created a new hybrid reality where organic life has no choice but to navigate our endless stream of plastic waste.