Originally published September 10, 2010
This summer my family took a trip to Massachusetts. It was nothing far from the usual Gregory family vacation.
We got lost several times, my Mom compared the Boston “T” to numerous Disney rides and we switched tables after being seated at every restaurant we ate at.
We spent one of the last days of the trip at a small beach on the tip of Cape Cod. A few lifeguards told us of a place where seals rest during the evening and directed us a half mile up the beach. So we all trekked, barefooted and exhausted, down the beach to explore.
In order to see the seals, we had to climb a huge sand dune. All I can say was that grueling half mile walk was completely worth what I saw that evening.
On the other side of the dune we found around a hundred seals resting in the sand bank below. It was by far the coolest thing I have ever experienced.
Never before have I seen so many animals in their natural habitat, completely undisturbed. They were totally relaxed, playing and communicating with each other in the waters below.
It was a rare and amazing experience, and there is a chance that I will never witness something like that ever again. At the rate humanity is destroying the natural habitats all around us, there is a chance no one will every experience something like this again.
Four months ago, what Time Magazine calls “The biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history” occurred in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil was gushing for many weeks from one of BP’s oilrigs, bleeding out anywhere from 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of oil per day into the home of thousands of animals as a result employees cutting corners and not monitoring the rig closely enough.
Those employees are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of animals.
Oil companies know that by conducting business and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico they are at high risk of contaminating the ocean waters. So why weren’t they more careful? How could they let a tragedy such as this happen? How could they be so selfish?
The world is materialistically driven and it is evident by the way we are polluting and destroying natural habitats left and right. From the miles of forests that are being torn down to landfills of toxic waste, Mother Nature never seems to get a break. With every selfish move we make, we are jeopardizing the lives of thousands of species we share this earth with.
Our priorities need to change. We need to be to begin taking responsibility for the damage we’ve done and make more of an effort to ensure that situations such this recent oil spill will never happen again.
Those seals playing on the sand bank were one of the realest things I have ever witnessed. They were so peaceful and undisturbed, and it kills me to think maybe five to 10 years from now their habitat may be polluted too.
