Charles Darwin got the ultimate study abroad experience. Originally a minister from England, Darwin’s insatiable love of the natural world and desire for adventure led him on the most exotic tour of the tropics ever. His collections, notes and academic treatise are the standard every naturalist dreams of achieving.Darwin recorded in intricate detail the flora and fauna of the archipelago, and he found that they were unique species. The Galapagos are so unique that they have never been part of a larger landmass, so anything that lives there arrived by swimming or flying. Darwin spent five years on the Beagle, and while he was exploring South America, some of the nations had been newly liberated from Spain. In fact, he had to take the long way around South America to the Galapagos as the Panama Canal was 70 years away.Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” catapulted a creationist world into the nebulous waters of evolution, natural selection and survival of the fittest. The wild place that inspired Darwin to re-examine ancient doctrine and replace it with a theory buttressed by his observations of species was the Galapagos. The entire globe shares an environmental and intellectual heritage in the Galapagos.Last Tuesday an Ecuadorian fuel tanker, the Jessica, ran aground near the Galapagos’ easternmost port. The tanker carried diesel fuel and bunk fuel — the kind of fuel used by tourist boats in the Galapagos — and dumped 144,000 gallons into the sea. The injured vessel still holds about 96,000 gallons and unless efforts by the Ecuadorian government and the U.S. Coast Guard are successful, the remainder of the fuel could be dumped into the ocean.Aside from the obvious waste of fuel in times where fossil fuel is becoming more expensive and scarce, the spill is threatening the wildlife that only inhabit this small chain of islands in the Pacific. If something happens to species endemic to the Galapagos, it is all over. They don’t have other populations in different places, and if they die off in their native habitats, the extinction list grows even longer.Two ironies emerge from the story of fuel spilled in the Galapagos. Part of the fuel spilled was being shipped to meet requirements for tourist transport around the Galapagos. The go juice for the “get away from it all” eco-tourism, bond-with-nature fleet was the source of the fuel now threatening the biological balance of the Galapagos. All the tour packages I’ve ever seen for the Galapagos entice voyagers with the enchanting idea they’ll be the first to lay eyes on magnificent tropical wildlife untouched by humans. While you can’t fly from Des Moines to the Galapagos, the islands have seen an influx of researchers and adventure tourists. While the islands are pristine compared to New Jersey, for example, they are not the unspoiled virgin turf tour companies paint them to be. Now the evidence is undeniable; human demands for energy in such a nature sanctuary have threatened the survival of the nature itself.The other irony in the Galapagos echoes what we witness in our national parks; there is a degree to which accommodating people begins to destroy the essence of the wild place we set out to protect. As soon as we make natural areas accessible enough for people to appreciate them, tourists throng like a thundering herd. Armed to the hilt with fuming SUVs, cellophane wrappers and beverage containers, the human assault on natural splendor eventually degrades our beautiful preserves.Most of us will never travel to the Galapagos. As citizens of the world, however, the Galapagos has given us a heritage of rich ecology and the genesis of one of the most potent ideas in modern science. To appreciate the study of biology, we appreciate the natural beauty of the Galapagos.We will visit national parks in the United States. And we can resist the urge to throw our trash out the window at Old Faithful or whip out donuts on fragile forest terrain. Maybe in the Galapagos, history will repeat itself. The animals that survive the oil spill could adapt as Darwin wrote in “The Origin of Species,” “… there is a frequently occurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary in a manner profitable to oneself…will have a better chance of survival and thus be naturally selected.”

Rachel Faber is a senior in agronomy from Emmetsburg.