Tag: Hapatoni

“In the lagoon, before when I was young, we went to swim and it was full of coral, full, full, full of pretty ones. Now, there aren’t any more. Now, there aren’t any more…. Before we had many urchins, now you find much, much less…. When you dive now, you see out there that the corals are no longer there. They are dead. We don’t understand. The only analysis that we have had is maybe that this comes from global warming. This is what we think, ours is not the opinion of a scientist, because we do not understand why.” – Louise Tehina Teikipupuni of Hapatoni

In the Marquesas, as in many other places around the world, the corals are bleaching. I talked to many divers on the island of Tahuata who reported the same, that the colors on the bottom of the ocean were dimmer than before. The Marquesas Islands are fortunate to not be low-lying atolls like their neighbors the Tuamotus, so their whole existence isn’t threatened by rising sea levels, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t affected by the changes a warming world has brought. Bleaching coral, disappearing species, and the mysterious toxin known as ciguatera are all changes Marquesans have been facing.

In these times of environmental unpredictability, with large groups of youth protesting worldwide, I join them in asking everybody out there to do what they can to fight against irreversible environmental damage. Not all of us can dedicate our lives to the movement like Greta Thunberg, but even the smallest acts can lead us on the right path. Our world can often seem disconnected from natural resources and cycles, but this isn’t so. Everything we use comes, in some way, from nature. For indigenous scholar Robin Wall Kimmerer, the Earth has endowed us with many beautiful and useful gifts, and these gifts put us into an important relationship of reciprocity with nature that we aren’t currently honoring. Kimmerer writes, “Cities are like the mitochondria in our animal cells–they are consumers, fed by the autotrophs, the photosynthesis of a distant green landscape. We could lament that urban dwellers have little means of exercising direct reciprocity with the land. Yet while city folks may be separated from the sources of what they consume, they can exercise reciprocity through how they spend their money. While the digging of the leeks and the digging of coal may be too far removed to see, we consumers have a potent tool of reciprocity right in our pockets. We can use our dollars as the indirect currency of reciprocity” (Kimmerer 2013: 195). Kimmerer reminds us that even if all we can do is buy one ‘green’ item off of our shopping list, this action still counts.

Although far removed from the tropical islands of the Marquesas as I sit and write this in my Minnesota home, maybe the thoughtful use of my dollars can help the remaining corals stay alive just a bit longer. And so I will buy the vegan shampoo, local vegetables and recycled clothing with thoughts of my friends on Tahuata.

For more information about how to be more environmentally conscience with your consumption patterns, visit Environmental Consumer or simply take Kimmerer’s advice and by trying to imagine the origin of each item you purchase and all the processes it had to take to get to you.

References:

Kimmerer, R.W. 2013. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Canada: Milkweed Editions.