Letters to the Editor: First TP, now tide pools: Why must humans raid everything?

To the editor: We are officially in hell. The pandemic has triggered an overwhelming panic to hoard everything in sight — toilet paper, food, hand sanitzer, you name it.

Now people are swarming the tide pools of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and risking permanent destruction of the fragile ecosystem there. Most of what is being harvested can’t even be safely eaten.

This is the “gatherer” part of our DNA run amok.

I wanted to go down there recently to confront these people and get them to stop. But then I remembered that some folks are getting violent over being asked to wear a mask. I started to question whether this need to rescue was a response by an entitled white Baby Boomer, thinking that I might actually be able to help save some part of the planet as I did in my youth.

I felt old, helpless and disconnected from society. How can people be so stupid, so greedy?

I keep calling the mother ship to get me out of here, but it isn’t answering.

Jeanne Jackson, Rancho Palos Verdes

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To the editor: We in California love the idea that our beaches belong to everyone. To appreciate this gift, visit places on the East Coast where you must belong to a club (Rhode Island) or have a village sticker on your car (Long Island) to go to the beach.

But people can ruin beaches. Tide pools were once alive; now they’re just rocks with anemones if you’re lucky.

Californians needs to fight for their right to access beaches, but the beaches need protection too.

Louise Nussbaum, Los Angeles