Environmental Fairytale: The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid:

At the age of fifteen, as is customary in mermaid culture, the Little Mermaid swam to the surface to see the human world. She was amazed to see that the humans lived in a beautiful environment, with luscious plants, large homes, and breathable air. The underwater world in which she lived was nothing like that. Oil blackened much of the water and killed off so many sea creatures, mermaids included. Trash seemed to magically appear and pile up everywhere, so that it was becoming difficult to swim in the murky water without bumping into the ever growing towers of trash.

Being so young, however, the Little Mermaid didn’t know the ocean hadn’t always been this way, and so while the conditions were horrible, she just accepted them. But now that she saw that the human world was different, she knew she could never go back to living in her polluted underwater world. Little did she know who had actually caused her world to become polluted in the first place.

Knowing her father would never let her live in the human world, she went to the sea witch, who promised to turn her human in exchange for her voice. The Little Mermaid took the deal in a heartbeat, and, in the blink of an eye, she found herself washed ashore, lying on the sandy beaches she had only seen from afar. She was also aware that her tail had vanished, replaced by two legs.

As she attempted to figure out how to stand, the teenage prince of the nearby land came running down the beach. He saw her struggling, and also her beauty, and came to help her. He then realized she couldn’t speak and offered to take her back to the palace, where she could live for the time being.

On their way to the palace, the Little Mermaid noticed the Prince drop a bottle in the sand, only for it to be washed away by the tide. She then noticed other humans doing the same, leaving their trash to be taken by the tide. In the distance, she noticed huge factories with sludge-filled drains leading into the ocean.

The realization hit her: humans had polluted her world. Her friends and family were dying because of humanity.

She tried to yell at the Prince, to tell him that the humans had to stop polluting the ocean, but she had no voice. Unable to cope with this new realization and her inability to do anything about it, she broke away from the prince and ran down to the pier.

With one last look at the pristine world of humanity, she jumped into the sea, praying that she would turn back into a mermaid so all the other’s could know what humanity had done to their home, and letting herself be submerged in the oil-ridden water. It was then that she realized her legs had turned back into a tail.

It was too late, though. She sunk into the oil-water, ingesting it as she went, and was dead in a matter of minutes.