87 Million Cases and the Despairing Mermaid

As of today at 00:00 GMT, the world has reported more than 87 million Covid-19 cases and approaching 2 million deaths. 

A picture of a mermaid being surrounded by trash in Bali's Kuta Beach in Indonesia has gone viral.

The woman in a mermaid costume is actually Laura (left), whose Instagram name is Laura in Water Land. She's a 35-year-old ocean advocate based in Belgium and has been utilizing the power of social media to raise awareness about environmental and sustainability issues. 

In an interview with Coconuts, Laura said that the idea behind the visual was to get people’s attention to the issue of plastic waste and consumption using her mermaid stunt. 

Describing her feeling as paralyzed upon seeing the plastic waste strewn all over Kuta Beach two days ago – she said she was overwhelmed with despair over an issue that couldn’t be solved by an individual. 

Still, there are people who cared, whether local officials, residents and/or volunteers and they came out in force to clean up the beach. Truly, the community has risen up to the challenge to protect our much-abused planet. 

She had taken to Instagram to pen down her feelings saying that the plastic tide will keep on happening until polluters STOP MANUFACTURING and selling things we use for minutes that pollute the ocean and environment for centuries. 

It shouldn’t be up to communities to clean up this trash… and she identified the corporations responsible: @cocacola, @lifeatdanone, @lemineraleid, @nestle, @pepsico, @unilever, @minumvit, @mondelez_international. And others too, for sure. 

Therefore, corporations must STEP UP! Indeed, the world wants them to put the environment before greed. As she says, clean ups and recycling are not the long term solution. 

Stop making thrash and there won’t be thrash.