I was a small crab. That’s me there in the sand, just above the cast-off garbage of humanity…or what’s left of me.

I lived on this beach just like all of my trillions of ancestors before me stretching back into deep time…to a time before we were even crabs.

Our beach, and the entire earth – was clean, beautiful, and healthy.

All we had to worry about was finding food, mates, and not getting eaten by gulls, fish, wales, seals, raccoons, turtles and the occasional Alligator.

We adapted, we evolved, we and all other life on earth, were the successful survivors of all that nature could throw at us. Until recently anyway.

Then, not very long ago really, the self-professed “thinking ape” that calls itself human came on the scene.

At first they were much like their closest cousins the apes, they lived alongside us, in small family groups, fighting for survival, being eaten by predators, scraping by just like the rest of us.

Then, everything changed when they discovered and controlled fire.

They used it to alter their environment, and in time their bodies and minds were modified by the use of this new tool and then – everything changed.

Now this creature is the most destructive, disrespectful, uncaring, unwise, animal ever to walk upon this round earth.

There are so many of them – billions and billions of them with more and more being added each day. They do not seem to have predators any more, predators that in the past would have served to keep their populations numbers from causing destruction to the very environment that gives them all life…well, actually I am wrong, they do have predators – they are their own predators. They insult, harm, poison, and even brutally murder each other over a multitude of petty little differences such as the color of their skins, the look of their faces, their “countries” of origin, lines drawn on maps, their “bloodlines,” which invisible anthropomorphic sky dictator is acceptable to pay homage to, something called money, words and scribblings upon pieces of ink-soaked ancient fabric and paper, and so many more…Not all of them are this way, but many of them are and they just do not seem to care about anything but themselves and their instant gratification. The uncaring selfish ones sometimes seem to vastly outnumber the caring ones and sadly, the greedy ones in no way live up to the name they have given themselves – Homo sapiens or, Wise Man.

They litter, pollute, poach, burn, trash, dump, kill, murder, and devour everything in their path without a single thought for their fellow humans or any of the creatures they share this planet with. In fact, many of my unique animal cousins have forever vanished from this watery space rock since the humans came on the scene only a few hundred thousand years ago.

Some of these species had existed alongside us crabs since as far back as we have lived upon the land at the edge of the seas – and some even longer…but now, because of these human beings – many are forever gone. This is a process they themselves call extinction and it has increased rapidly over the last few hundred years.

This increase is in-part related to that fire-tool humans discovered and tamed so long ago. The humans continually use it to burn things for heat and fuel – ancient things including some of my long dead ancestors and the swamps and forests they lived in, and the ancient sun that is trapped inside these things and warmed them so long ago. They use these “fossil fuels” as they call them to warm their homes, to push their vehicular constructs from place to place on land, on and under the sea, in the air, and most recently – even into the unimaginably vast ocean of space! They even use this ancient fire fuel tool to cook and eat my kind…but all animals do need to eat and I suppose they cannot be faulted for that…until it gets out of control and they eat us animals into extinction…which is happening to some of my animal cousins like the Tuna, turtles, and whales right now.

At first their odd habit of burning ancient dead things for fuel was a non-issue due to their small numbers…but now, now that their population is over 7 billion…now their fuels of choice are harming the very life support system of the planet and the atmosphere is being polluted, the oceans are acidifying, the ice caps are melting and the seas are rising, the climate is getting warmer and wetter in some places and colder and drier in others. I have seen it even here on my beach. I have heard from other travelers such Albatross, Leather-back, and Humpback that these changes are happening everywhere. The even sadder state of affairs is that the humans know it is their fault but they do not change. They do not care about tomorrow – about their species continuing. They seem only to care about today.

I and my friends, the other animals and plants, have tried to tell them there is a better way, a more natural way to make energy – and some do listen…but most do not. They just continue on as billions have done before, acting as if they own the place. They act as if they have some sort of entitled, privileged position in the universe and on this planet. They do not. The dinosaurs felt the same way and where are they now – most of them are fossils and some of them are chickens thanks is to the massive asteroid that ended their reign.

Even more appalling is that some of these humans actually seem to believe as if this planet is theirs to do with as they please. A small number of them for some strange reason believe they have some sort of dominion over it and over all life upon it. They are mistaken. It is not and they do not. Just because you say something is yours and then write it down – does not make it so. Like us crabs the humans are finite, fragile, animals and the sooner they realize this, the better.

Humans are self absorbed, infantile, and they have absolutely no idea how little nature needs them. In fact, nature does not need them at all, but every last one of them would be absolutely nothing without their undeniable and intricate connections to nature. I believe that when they finally realize this fact, it will be too late and they will all be dead and drying in the sun just like my empty shell that now lies poisoned by the toxic garbage so carelessly cast off by members of the human species who visited my sandy seaside home and, instead of thanking me for my most important role in keeping the beach tidy – they carelessly dumped their toxic garbage on my home killing me and my entire family in the process.

Wake up people, the beach is NOT your ashtray or garbage dump and neither is this planet!

– The crab.

It is time we humans evolve beyond our juvenile ways of thinking.

It is time we start treating this fragile oasis of a planet and all of its inhabitants with some love and respect for it is all we will ever have.

Update: After writing this I was so frustrated that I decided to take action and clean up the beach. I decided to see how much garbage I could pick up in 1/2 hour. I left my beach house, walked the short path to the beach, walked the beach to the nearby pier, wandered through dozens of teens and college kids on spring break laid out half naked on towels, playing beach games, drinking and smoking – not one of them asked me what I was doing even though it was clearly obvious that I was picking up their carelessly cast-off garbage. Not a single one of them offered to help me clean up the beach that we were all sharing. I continued, past the pier, past the muscle builders, the oiled, tanned, bikini-clad Barbie doll look a likes. As I walked I passed several conveniently placed trash bins yet still found garbage scattered all over the sand – even directly in front of the garbage bins!

How much and what did I find – see below:

I produced a video of my encounter.

Please people, pick up your garbage.

Be respectable and responsible.

Use some common sense.

We are all in this thing called life together.

Do only good things.