Jayna Rohslau, ‘22

May 2019

When I was younger, I loved the ocean.  

Or perhaps I should clarify, I loved learning about the ocean. Whether the coral reefs of exotic-sounding locales like Bali and Indonesia, or the deep and terrifying Mariana Trench, it seemed so wonderful to me that such places existed on the drab and mundane earth as I knew it. The real ocean terrified me, mind you, and at the age of five if you plopped me in among the waves I would have screamed and cried for my mother like, well, a baby. But I treasured trips to the library, and the colorful pages of books that promised so much more under the sea.  

Accordingly, my favorite Disney Princess was the little mermaid. Go figure.

I was recently reminded of this love when I read about the havoc being wrecked on the environment. I had previously written essays for school and walked out with other BHSEC students for climate change, but nothing really drove home how hard the impact was as much as one small headline, tucked in a small corner of Google News. It wasn’t even in all caps, it seemed so small. And if I closed my browser, shut my computer down, it all seemed poised to go away.

If only this was the case.

“UN biodiversity report says 1 million species face extinction,” the Washington Post said, daring my sleep-deprived self to click the lick and read more. To read more, and after thateven more. About the animals at risk, “Alarming implications for human survival,” the article claimed, and yet for once I wasn’t thinking about the people involved. I was thinking about the poor fish, and the world they inhabited. I dreamed of coral reefs, but soon they would be gone and there would be nothing left but the sands.  Sands, sands of time…

Pleased with my poetic nature, I promptly collected myself and fell asleep. I got 7 hours of sleep, not enough for a growing body as I determined the next morning. Climate change no longer seemed such a dire threat as it had before, when there were what seemed to me, more pressing concerns. Such as homework and getting more sleep, for instance, and I couldn’t help but picture Sleeping Beauty as I occupied myself with these matters. She certaintly got enough rest.

But as the week continued, I found myself, oddly enough, continue to be unsatisfied.  Reading more about the UN biodiversity report, I found myself continue to wonder about the impact we had on the environment. The New York Times said in their own (much more sophisticated) op-ed, “we know who is to blame.” And that seemed to apply to my own situation, the more I thought about it. I  was thinking about the effect we had on the environment, sure. I went to the walkout, I screamed at the top of my lungs about how CLIMATE CHANGE HAS GOT TO GO. All without really doing anything, or making real sustainable action.

I might have been the only one just paying lip service to this idea, but I doubt it. If everyone right now stopped using their cars and set down there computers, the world might be a much better and more sustainable place. A girl once announced in my advisory, “I don’t want to live like the Amish.” Perhaps if everyone converted to such a lifestyle, the world would be better. But the reality is not so simple. 

We need to approach it in a multitude of ways, most of which I will not pretend to be an expert on. Maybe not taking huge leaps at first, but small steps such as properly recycling. The rest will be sure to follow, and maybe future generations will have some coral reef left.

Plus, face it: the Little Mermaid is the far superior movie over Sleeping Beauty.