20/01/2025
Since we've been preaching to go to beaches a lot even in the winter, we thought we'd share a little thing we did the other day.
On the 17th of Jan we went down to Dorset to participate in a beach clean up. Marine Conservation Society organises many of these across the year and since a few of them are local, we decided to take part. As tour guides and historians we spend so much time outside trying to educate the public. And you'd think our role is only to educate about culture but the environment is also history and culture.
This may sound peculiar or perhaps exaggerated, but it was incredibly overwhelming yet rewarding doing this activity. And, in fact, I had for a fraction of a moment, the exact same stomach churning feeling I did when I visited Auschwitz years ago. And perhaps many of you would think there isn't a point of comparison, but, there is.
I went to Auschwitz not just because I think anyone with the emotional capability to do so should, but because my ascendency is Jewish Sephardic. It was personal for me. The machines of devastation, the death around the landscape, the unnumbered souls lost and eradicated in genocide for believes of destruction and superiority...
..and yet what we are doing to our planet, to wildlife local and global, to our very own species, it is a destruction of the same way. We, humanity, are intentionally harming others for the sake of a more comfortable superior way of life that we feel entitled to. The difference in here, is that while many across the globe didn't know what the N***s were up to until it was in full motion, we still have a chance to change our fate, to save marine species, to preserve the ecosystems we all depend on and keep natural resources necessary for life.
I don't know what else you want me to tell you but after picking up endless wrappings of chocolate bars, seeing cliffs growing on sediments of polystyrene, and mistaking dead coral for paper, the situation becomes very clear. And this isn't even a terribly polluted beach, we can have a walk around the Solent any day or the embankment of the river Thames and find a lot worse...
From the bottom of our hearts here at Travelusion as advocates for sustainability and accessibility, we hope 2025 is a year when we all reflect more on the kind of culture and legacy we are leaving behind, and that events like this become obsolete due to our success in tackling such environmental hardships.
Thanks for reading and for your support💜
