Eileen Crist | WITNESS: Tales from the Sargasso Sea

Eileen Crist, “WITNESS: Tales from the Sargasso Sea,” Ecological Citizen, October 24, 2024.

“Even in Carson’s day it was known that the amount of Sargassum seaweed of the eponymous sea was so huge it must have taken “eons of time to accumulate.” Eons of time it must have been, because eons of time is what evolution needs, and evolution has been at work on this ecotone. The lesson of time—of luxury of time to grow ancient—is another Earth tale from the Sargasso. Left free to be what they are and become as they may, ecosystems such as forests, lakes, seamounts, and grasslands, such as the Sargasso Sea, can endure and evolve over long spans of time. Freedom to grow old has oft been a prerogative of beings and places on this planet. But human supremacy has cut nonhuman lifespans short, adding to its cumulative evil one more freedom it’s stolen from the world.”