Imagine. You are walking along the coast and encounter a stranded dolphin. Every instinct is to try to alleviate this stress, to get the animal back out to sea.
But imagine this scene is replicated all along the beach, in fact over thousands of kilometres of coastline: countless dolphins in distress. And imagine you know exactly why this is happening: let’s say it’s directly attributable to the activities of some colossal multinational offshore industry interfering with their sonar.
So maybe getting the dolphins back to sea is not a great idea. Maybe they need to be temporarily taken into captivity.
A major effort to build a dolphinarium ensues. Maybe it’s part-funded by the multinational company. Maybe it’s widely publicised in the global media. A new home providing temporary respite for three, four, even five dolphins.
Perhaps everyone agrees that the only way the dolphins have a long-term future is for the multinational to transition to less damaging activities - the technology already exists, all that’s needed is some political will.
Those behind the dolphinarium argue powerfully that it is a necessary short-term emergency response, keeping some dolphins healthy while the larger issues are addressed. Others argue equally powerfully that it is at best a drop in the ocean, at worst ineffective greenwashing, that can never match the scale of the disaster.
This thought experiment was prompted by an atypically enlightening twitterx discussion I encountered yesterday about our response to the ongoing coral bleaching crisis, and in particular whether small-scale efforts such as reef restoration have any positive role to play. Is anything other than rapid decarbonisation of the global economy mere dolphinarium building? (You can jump into the discussion here and work forwards and back).
Honestly, I don’t know. But it’s hard to stand by and watch local catastrophes unfold, even if their causes are global. I mean, most of us would still try to save the dolphin, wouldn’t we?
Header image © Danny Copeland https://www.dannyunderwater.com/: bleached coral in New Caledonia in 2016