POINT: Save the whales
Whales are majestic creatures and it is our duty to do everything in our power to save them. Aggressive hunting, harmful pollution, and deadly shipping routes are only some of the threats that face whales today, and if we don’t act soon we may have to imagine a world without them. Without whales, what will we watch on whale watching tours? Dumb regular fish? No way! It’s called “whale watching,” not “dumb regular fish watching,” for a reason. Our actions have let a fellow mammal fall into danger of extinction and we can’t sit idly by as these graceful giants disappear.
COUNTERPOINT: I’m a whale, and I’m not worth saving
Please stop any movements to save my species. I have killed countless others, and yet I am denied the punishment I deserve. Every time I try to make friends with the krill, I swallow them all. I once ingested two tropical fish, hoping to teach them both a valuable lesson about the meaning of friendship, but unlike in Finding Nemo, neither survived. I desperately wish someone would hunt me and make me into something useful like a candle, or an oil lamp. Maybe then I could at least bring light into one person’s life. The other day I tried to beach myself, but they saved me again. The word “whale” is derogatory for a reason. Please kill me.
—S. Baer