The opening paragraph of this reading caught my attention. Because it’s impossible to cut trees or mine the surface of the ocean, it seems “impervious to the onslaught of the harvesters.” I had never before considered terracentrism.

I’m not sure how relevant this is to the reading, but I can somewhat relate on a personal level to the concept of terracentrism. A few years ago, I watched a documentary called Cowspiracy. As a result of that film and Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I became a pescetarian. For 2 years, I didn’t even consider the ocean or the beings affected by my consumption of fish. It wasn’t until I learned more about overfishing and the exploitation of dolphin populations in places like Japan that I even considered cutting out fish from my diet. Although I don’t believe it is up to the individual to change the environmental destruction on a large scale, I somewhat disregarded the ocean as a productive ecosystem.

The concept of the Ocean being one interconnected system without boundaries fascinates me. By naming different parts of the ocean as their own ocean, we have artificially separated a singular connected ecosystem into different parts. By doing so, we forget that species like birds and whales travel across these permeable “borders” for their migrating patterns. We also forget that there are countries that are disproportionately affected by the overconsumption of goods in wealthy countries. For example, the trash that the US sends to China and subsequently the Philippines affects the populations of people and animals all over the Pacific. A plastic bottle I throw into the Pacific won’t magically stop at the edge of the next ocean over.