Leave my home alone — Open Letter
Dear selfish humans,
I lived in a wonderful place where every color could be seen. A place where diversity was welcome, where an ecosystem could stay up and healthy and where countless species could live. But you humans don’t know where that is, and why is that, because ever since you started appearing on this earth you looked at our home and just thought it wasn’t worthy of your attention. So you trashed it, for years and years until now you through all your useless junk into marine life’s home. Now if I told you that I lived in a place where plastic floats on the surface and we live in water that isn’t even clear, you would be able to go, “oh, you live in the ocean”. But that is not what I want my home to sound like. I don’t want to have to consider a trash can, my home and the future home of all nest generations. Here are a few reasons why humans should stop disposing their litter into our home. First of all, I’ve watched my whole life, animals around me dying. Before, us as turtles, would fear things like sharks and other big predator lingering through our oceans but now, our biggest predator would be, plastic, a nonliving material that just floats around. Secondly, who said that the ocean wasn’t worth keeping healthy, it’s not because you guys haven’t been living in it for generations that it is then not important. Let me make it clear, YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES LIVING ON EARTH. Lastly, water is something that humans need to survive too, and the more you pollute it the less you have.
In 2000, a Bryde’s whale was found dead on the beach, and no not because a group of orcas attacked it but because he had consumed six meter squares of plastic. And where did that plastic come from? You. In 2003, a platypus was seen strangled in a plastic bag that had slowly cut through his skin. In 1998, Pete the pelican, my dear friend, died after consuming 17 plastic bags. In 2010 a grey whale passed away after having a meal of 20 plastic bags along with other things like a golf ball. The list goes on, and it has been going on for more than 300 years, with a record of 800 species of wildlife being affected by our apex predator, and your most common trash, plastic bags. More than 8 million tons of plastic is thrown into our home every year. Over 90% of seabirds around the world have plastic in their stomachs, that is for the ones that haven’t died yet. I will not let your species keep throwing out their litter into my home, I will not watch another one of my family members mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and choke, or a dolphin drowning because it’s tail is stuck in a fishing net. Please stop, what have we ever done to you it’s like a war that has only one side fighting, just destroying everything in their paths.
Ever since I was born, my parents have told me stories that their parents have told them from past generations of the beautiful place we used to live in. A place of color and happiness. And what has it become now? A rubbish bin, a place where you all have decided it is okay to dump out all your useless junk in. When was the meeting to decide if you could do that or not? Because I don’t recall us ever having a choice or not even any consideration given to what poor creatures you have destroyed. It is not our fault humans were too blind to realize the beauty of our ocean, my home. And then you come to complain and don’t understand why all of us are fighting to survive and taking over your homes. Well i’m sorry but we can’t really go away to Mars and live up there because some other mammal species decided they are more worthy of living on earth. Humans destroyed our home, and then complained because we came into theirs, and then you claim your the smartest species on earth. Well to me it sounds like maybe you should review the meaning of smart.
Lastly, what can humans do without water? Nothing it is one of the most important things when it comes to survival for all of you and yet you destroy it? Where did the logic in that come from. It’s like committing suside as a group. It’s safe to say that every living thing on this planet needs water, from trees and plants to mammals. So why take it all away? Why look at the world we were gifted to live on and think “oh we should just destroy it”. And may I ask, how made your species incharge? The oceans take up 71% of this earth, and they hold an estimate of 50 to 80% of the world’s life. However, humans are just going to come and take that away take away the majority of life on earth. I have heard about everyone from your species being scared because there was a mass shooting or a bombing that killed 100 people, yet all of you kill 100,000 marine creatures a year with your disposing of plastic in the ocean according to “Plastic Statistics” and those are just the ones you find the rest have just sunk to the depths of our oceans. See it this way, everyone is going to talk about what a terrible person he or she was to have killed 100 people when you kill that times 100 marine creatures. You can’t possibly tell me that is acceptable.
I along with all the other living species in our waters, I demand our home back. You had no right to take it from us. And you have no excuse for killing more than one hundred thousand marine animals. I will not swim here and watch one more animal get choked from your waste. This the end of it, so please stop consuming this material, stop using oceans as bins and stop thinking that you are superior to everything else.
Thank you for your understanding,
A very frustrated turtle
