Hello Earth
Here I am, watching a documentary about the water world on the east coast of Australia. I am looking at fish, I am hearing a man talk about his lifelong infatuation with the ocean, and I am travelling back in my mind to my Tasmanian childhood, some of it spent on boats — small boats, close to the water. I am remembering my stepfather and my little brother, and Mum under a big, floppy sun hat.
Earth, the narrator of the program is making a point about how, if we care about our marine life, we need to stop using fossil fuels and change to renewables. Now I am watching a turtle. Before that, whales. Now sea birds dance on Lord Howe Island. Now a wave soars in a rush of fine white spray.
Leaning in, I share a sunrise with the photographer. But then the beauty is replaced by sad evidence of how we are killing the wild things — pieces of plastic in dead birds’ stomachs, filling the baby birds’ bellies so full that they are malnourished. An aerial view shows huge garbage conglomerations in every ocean — so we know the plastic is also affecting the whales, the turtles, the fish.
Listing gratitudes, I give first place to the work being done to restore Lord Howe to its environmental purity — one place on earth that is actually improving; the only one.
Offering my gratitude, I think I should also be offering prayers.
Sharing (8 Nov 2020) with Writers' Pantry #45 at Poets and Storytellers United