Why Is An Aquarium Important To Greensboro?

“Zoos and aquariums worldwide receive more than 700-million visitors annually … This corresponds to 11% of the global human population, indicating that about one in 10 people experience human–animal interactions at zoos and aquariums each year.” -via World Association of Zoos and Aquariums and Two Oceans Aquarium,

Now I guess ol' Fish Man could wear out my gills gurgling on about tourism and economic development and the advantages of an aquarium over a GPAC but I think most of you get it already, even a downtown NASCAR track or NFL football team will probably not bring as many visitors to Greensboro or spur as much economic development and jobs, jobs, jobs as a world class aquarium will bring. It's a given.

But there also the connection to nature that most kids in Greensboro aren't getting. You see, with the exception of Greensboro's better off families, most Greensboro families cannot afford to visit aquariums 200 to 300 miles away. Most of Greensboro's children will never see a world class aquarium if it's not built right here in Greensboro. Most of North Carolina's children will never see a world class aquarium if it's not built right here in Greensboro. While the cost of admission is high, the biggest hurdle for Greensboro's working class poor is the cost of travel. One night in one hotel room is often more than a week's pay for these people and often families have to rent multiple rooms. And have we forgotten what it costs to transport people from point A to point B.

Children who grow up without being directly exposed to nature, without interacting with nature, become disconnected from nature. They are more likely to become litter bugs, be wasteful, waste energy and less concerned about the environment because the environment is not something they can relate to. Sure, you show them nature in books and in your school buildings but is that really nature? Does that inspire like seeing a shark swim overhead or a thousand jellyfish put on an ever-changing light show right before your very eyes? Will your schools teach them the joys of nature in the same way as watching our brightly colored schools swim past? Your schools can fill their heads with facts, figures and numbers but can they inspire like our schools?

Let me see a show of fins if you think your schools inspire as well as our schools? That's what I thought, not a single fin in sight.

As I swim up and down Buffalo Creek and sometimes make my way into the Haw River I look out at what you have done to the land. I talk with the Deer, and other animals who come to drink and we wonder what a difference it might have made if there had been an aquarium here already when people first came to Greensboro. Would generations have come to look at us differently if you could have gotten a closer look? Would you have done a better job as stewards of the planet with dominion over all you see?

I don't know all the answers but I'm praying nobody finds Fish Man's Time Warner Internet Cable laying in the creek and pulls it out before I can get your attention.