Ocean and Time-travel
“Why is the ocean blue?” you ask.
Well, it all depends on who’s answering.
If you ask a writer, you’ll probably get an answer about how sad the ocean is because its corals are dying from heat, and because it has a plastic island is bigger than France (i.e. three times bigger), and because its sea animals suffocate from oil spills (i.e. whales, dolphins, sea otters), and how the ocean became too tired to try anymore when it lost its best friend forever (i.e. the Caribbean monk seal).
If you ask a poet, you’ll likely get an even more confusing and way more devastating version of that answer.
But if you have a time machine, you’ll get a different answer every time.
One answer, for example, can come from a caveman. You’ll probably get a series of grunts and huffs, maybe even a cave painting that translates into, “ees da blu rawks een da watar, mke watar blu whn da lait shin.” Or anything else, I wouldn’t know.
Another answer can come from an evolved fish of the future: splash, splash, gurgle, blop, splash. Again, how would I know what this means; but it could translate into, “Those foolish things called humans made end of themselves ages ago and our good planet has finally recovered its golden age.”
But maybe, just maybe, if you pick up your water bottle on your way to Starbucks, the future fish might give you a better answer.
It might tell you that there had been many casualties. Hundreds and thousands were killed from unnatural ‘natural’ disasters, millions killed from new waves of pandemic every year. It took billions (or just one beloved pop star) before your foolish specimen started doing what it was supposed to do decades ago.
Some resorted to false belief, wasting life savings on mysterious concoctions made by some ambitious homeless man claiming to be The Savior. Others stayed skeptical. They said the storms were a coincidence, pandemics were bad luck, and the extinction of whales, a natural cycle. But others yet, started a movement. A movement that changed themselves and changed others and changed the Earth in the end.
There were small and big actions taken. Trash was cleared, some companies went bankrupt, new companies had grown, eco friendly infrastructure were built. There were sacrifices and crying families, memorials and flowers, heroes and prizes. There were campaigns spread from the college students of Malaysia to the children of China to the workers from America and the parents from Africa. Until one day, skeptics changed their views and pseudos gave up their belief and governments’ first priority became the environment.
One by one, streams showed their bottoms again, rivers flowed with freshwater fishes, land will regrew its forests, and new animals were born. In the end, the storms settled and diseases passed, humans flourished amongst life again and the Ocean regained its transparent blue shine.
Of course, it wasn’t easy. In some futures it had taken only decades but in others it took centuries. Some barely salvaged their planet at the last second, and in every case masses of tears and blood were shed. But the wet soil always birthed more in time’s presence. No matter how much Earth was stained, humans could always stand back up again. What matters is that Earth still exists as it always has, as the home of infinite possibilities.
Now you may wonder what would happen if you actually rode a time machine and saw the future. Would you start to eat a vegetarian meal once every day? Would you build appropriate recycling bins for your school and your town? If that happens, would it start to snow in New York again? Or if you tell your friends and family about your travels, would they volunteer to pick up the ocean trash with you? If that happened, would people be able to jump into any ocean they want without fearing diseases? And if that happened, would your grandchildren ever believe that the Ocean had once been filled with trash?
Or could you make all of this happen, with or without a time machine?
Written by Seoho Park
