I recently visited my beloved brother in Valencia, where he is spending six months doing the student equivalent of sun, sea and soaking up booze. This wonderful Spanish city is home of Europe’s largest aquarium: L’Oceanogràfic. My brother and I thought it would be worth a visit.
After seeing all the clownfish, jellyfish, and sea horses, we went to the park’s main attraction: the dolphin show. That is an opportunity one cannot pass up. After all, who doesn’t go all warm and fuzzy seeing mentally broken sea mammals jumping through hoops?
After the somewhat impressive jumps and aquatic twittering, the event took an unexpected turn towards the end of the show. The caretakers screened a video showing what the current state of the oceans is. And what transpired? The dolphin and many of their cheerful finned friends are under threat from plastic pollution and the heating up of the oceans. How will that end…
Fortunately, not all hope is lost, according to the dolphin show. ‘Because YOU have the power to change the course of history. By recycling and walking instead of driving, we can save the dolphins together’. You don’t say, I thought.
As long as we remain captive in a system based on production and consumption, we can recycle all we want, and the amount of material we must recycle will not shrink
I am probably an overly critical Wageningen student. Still, I would like to explain to the dolphin show that this is not how it works. As long as we remain captive in a system based on the production and consumption of items we don’t need and an ever-growing economy, we can recycle all we want, and the amount of material we must recycle will not shrink. The machine will churn on despite our adorable little stabs at circularity.
A call on all the guests at the show to take to the streets to take a stand against the status quo seems unrealistic. Moreover, having all the guests march on Madrid with banners and signs is probably not very good for the aquarium’s turnover.
So, why not try the following: rather than have the dolphins leap through stupid hoops, teach them to tell a tale about our relationship with the earth, anti-capitalism, or the degrowth economy? That would benefit them too and would enable me to finally visit an interesting dolphin show.
Resource-student editor Felix Landsman (22) is a likely future graduate of Environmental Sciences and an aspiring adventurer. He is often looking for something.
