Don't Drain the Swamp

When many people think about swamps, many of the initial adjectives that come to mind are not pleasant––infested, smelly, and uncomfortably humid. For example, a passage about Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia notes that all the organisms that live there "exist only to compound the misery of life."  In fact, the most prominent representation of a swamp in popular culture is Shrek's Swamp from all three of the Shrek movies.  I don't know about you, but the following portrayals don't provide the best connotation of swamps:

While I'd say that Shrek doing the Fortnite default dance in front of a Papa John's is very powerful and indicative of our society as a whole, having an ogre and a donkey as the face of swamps in popular media isn't helping. In reality, swamps and their still water sources provide the perfect location for millions of organisms, big and small, to thrive. The mildly warm weather encourages plant and animal growth, and wildlife is drawn towards it as a result.

I believe that every single one of us could learn from Shrek, both the movie and the ogre. Shrek manages to take a location that many would find inhabitable, and turns it into a thriving location to raise his family over the course of the movies, demonstrating an unmistakable, undeniable drive for environmental conservation. Another pressing question that this discussion raises is, "Does Shrek believe in climate change?"

I would say so because he makes an effort to turn an abandoned swampland into a thriving area with his plant repopulation efforts, because he enjoys planting and growing weeds throughout his abode, which is "populated with diverse and abundant wildlife." Undoubtedly, he has recognized that swamps are extremely efficient at pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and converting it into living plants and carbon-rich soil.

Don't drain our swamps.