Sunday, July 20, 2014

another blue world





My attention was drawn to the image of pelicans taking flight from an old piano stranded on a sandbar. Although the image in itself is beautiful in a decayed, almost haunting way, it troubled me. There are so few areas of the planet where one cannot find evidence (in the form of garbage, ruin, or active habitation) of human action on the environment. The pelicans (and other animals) are innocent bystanders as humans continue to literally trash the planet. Science-fiction solutions to environmental woes like terra forming of other planets to create spaces suitable for human life depress me – it's like saying we should abandon this planet so our species can go and ruin some other place. I think it would be fair and right to send the pelicans out into the cosmos in order to find a pristine ocean planet full of delicious fish.

By Meg

Original Image Citation: 
(no title) by Suzanne Oberheu Beard
published by National Geographic, August 2011 p18