Tracked, and looking a tad military-ish, it’s the kind of contraption that enthusiasts love to restore, and museums proudly display - instead, there it sat on a petite and remote island. Facing seaward and stopped just short of the water’s edge, it looked as if it balked at the invitation – having outlived someone’s need - to gallantly amble into oblivion beneath the ice or waves. Its lowered aft loading ramp suggests that someone just walked away from it, content that it and its surroundings deserved no further thought.
Maybe the person who followed that don’t-worry-who-will-know order should also get a dishonourable mention, or be dispatched with a blunt object – such as the brain of the authorities who condoned such reprehensible disposals. Yes, disposals – as in plural, as in it frequently happened all across our northern treasure – by public and private sectors, alike. No one ilk of northern exploiters holds the monopoly on short-sighted decisions - I’m sure you know who you are.
I’ve heard accounts about far-north site clean-ups, where every moveable thing, vehicle or otherwise, met an ignoble end beneath the waves – either driven or pushed down a beach or off the ice’s edge. Or, things were just left where they stopped. Spare us the song and dance about it not being practical or affordable to retrieve vehicles, equipment and materials after their life-cycle ends. If it was practical and affordable to bring it up here, then you can surely take it home. If only there was the will to enforce a collective conscience – with penalties so severe that bouts of doing the right thing spontaneously erupt.
Do I seem a tad annoyed at finding that one monument to mankind’s stupidity and total disregard for the very planet on which every living thing depends? Yes, I’m rankled. Perhaps the offspring of those morons are now the ones who think it a good idea to leave thousands of junk objects orbiting Earth. Good grief, maybe it’s genetic to wantonly desecrate where we live – makes me curious about where their biffy is located.
But, it’s high time certain unnamed folks dropped the oh-so-clever and worn out mantra, “Arctic - use it or lose it,” because the Inuit have been “using it” for millennia. Besides, the reality is, “Abuse it and we’re all lost.”
Preachy? Yeah, I guess, but then again, I saw a rusting hulk with our collective ramp down.
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