/>
DCI
READ MORE ABOUT:
The following blog was written by Philippe Cousteau, thick in Gulf Oil Spill coverage and clean-up from New Orleans:
They named him Burke after the sound he made calling for his mother, unaware that he would never see her again. From now on, his would be a life of artificial milk and strangers, a baby walrus who would be raised in an alien land far away from the one into which he was born.
The year was 1972 and my father Philippe Cousteau Sr. was filming another episode of the famed series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. This particular installment, A Smile of the Walrus, chronicled the story of a changing Arctic ecosystem and the struggle of the various creatures such as the walrus to adapt. Thirty-seven years ago it was the influx of modern technology like the rifle that was threatening the balance of the ecosystem.
When I visited the Arctic a year ago to film for my series Oceans Blue, premiering on Planet Green this month as part of Blue August, rifles and snowmobiles are no longer as much of a concern. A new, more insidious enemy has descended…carbon.
This great, frigid region affects every living thing on Earth. As a vital regulator of our climate the Arctic acts as a virtual air conditioner for the world, reflecting sunlight and helping cool the planet. But it is disappearing and the world is changing. Unfortunately, the Arctic is not alone. Oceans Blue is a fantastic journey that explores wonders in all five oceans from Tasmania, to Central America, from Africa to the Arctic, but it is also a precautionary warning that the oceans, the life support system of this planet, are changing.
I am writing this from New Orleans where I have spent much of the summer as a staging ground for my work in the Gulf during the terrible oil spill catastrophe that has dominated the last three months. The well was finally capped three weeks ago and no more oil is spilling into the Gulf. While this is a welcome development we have suddenly shifted back into the familiar mode of willful ignorance. The idea that somehow the problem is solved dominates the headlines yet responsible science and common sense tell us that oil persists in the environment and that we will be fighting this for a long time to come.
Twenty years after the Exxon Valdez spill, none of the ecosystems in that region have recovered fully and oil is still present. New reports in the Gulf are finding crab larvae with oil in their tissue suggesting that the oil is beginning to infiltrate the food chain with dire long-term consequences.
The problem is, we just don’t know and our eagerness to declare “mission accomplished” is premature at best. What we should be doing is employing the precautionary principle which states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is NOT harmful falls on those taking the action. In other words, if you can’t prove it is safe…don’t do it and always plan for the worst so that we will be pleasantly surprised and not bitterly disappointed. We must continue to invest in restoration, reform, and research/education, claiming victory runs the risk of sapping the will to do so and giving industry and government an opportunity to quietly neglect their responsibilities.
My grandfather opened the first chapter of his film, A Smile of the Walrus, with an old nursery rhyme, “Did you ever see a walrus smile all these many years? Why yes I’ve seen a walrus smile, but it was hidden by his tears.” History will judge us not only by our mistakes, but by what we learn from them. The events of this summer are a warning that we ignore at the expense of our children whose smiles, like those of the walrus, will be hidden by tears as they pay the price of our inaction and our unwillingness to change.
Don't miss video coverage of the Gulf Oil Spill from Philippe.
More On Water Issues From Planet Green
Don’t miss other favorites like Blue Planet, Operation Wild and more.
And here on Planet Green, you'll find daily articles that explore, educate, and excite. Navigate through Making A Difference to learn about impactful actions, Explore the Oceans to check out the cutest critters and strangest features of the deep, Sustainable Seafood to find out about fishing techniques and how you can eat eco-smart, videos that educate and introduce you to amazing eco-activists, and interactives where you can take quizzes to test your water smarts, see slideshows of stunning photography.
