Things can soon go downhill. One minute the town was a pleasant seaside resort, then it turned rapidly into an environmental catastrophe. There were rats of course, and seagulls ready to exploit the new chaos – much better organized than the people, as it turned out.
It needs to be said that this was never a local matter. Far from it, it was a global problem, but that penny took a while to drop. Meanwhile the locals took a critical view of the situation, allocating blame with a distinct lack of evidence for causes or remedies.
The refuse services did excellent work trying to keep up with clearing the constantly replenished rubbish amassing on the beaches and spilling onto roads. It wasn’t their fault the landfill sites were overwhelmed and foul smelling garbage had to be disgorged on available green spaces and parks. But blame was allotted and curses duly exchanged.
The sea as an agent of revenge was considered.
‘I saw the sea spitting plastic beads all over the beach. It used to be friendly but it’s become hateful.’
‘Yes, I’ve always loved the sea but now it’s turned traitor. It’s trying to kill us. with all this rubbish.’
‘You can’t talk about the sea as though it had intentions and motives, it’s always been a source of harm. Think about tsunamis, shipwrecks and storm surges. But this is something different’. Aha. But how is it different?
We heard of shoals of people dying across the world, many more were becoming sick. Crops and greenery were badly affected by salinity. Streets became overwhelmed with debris, some of which appeared to contain effluent and streaks of crude oil amidst nappies and plastic bottles.
It was from a series of small islands, some under threat of being submerged by rising sea levels, that the greatest and earliest insights began. Many of the islands had escaped the great rubbish deposit, islanders often had close, respectful relationships with the sea and relied on it for food and livelihoods. The suggestion was straightforward, and reached some international news outlets by email and WhatsApp. This was a scoop. Everyone in the world was desperate for some explanation of the refuse problem. No one accredited the wisdom to the islander, but many made their names famous elucidating and expanding on the theory.
The message read:
‘The sea is cleaning itself. If someone puts bad things outside your home, you have to move them. If they keep on doing it, you have to make certain all the bad things are returned to the person they came from. This is what the sea is trying to do – give you back the bad things you have put in it.’
Of course, the sea was simply defending itself and sending the bad things back where they came from.
Understanding this didn’t necessarily solve the problem of what to do with all the refuse. In spite of many ‘lessons learned’ exercises it remains to be seen how well those lessons have been learned.
