Have you Seen the Damage We’re Inflicting On Our Oceans?
Posted by Bruce Tulio in Uncategorized, tags: bruce tulio, clean oceans, eco-friendly, environment, environmental, oceans, UncategorizedAbout 71% of our planet is covered by saltwater oceans. An invaluable resource. Because it doesn’t provide us with a viable water resource, we too often dismiss oceans as inconsequential when we’re talking about conservation efforts. We talk about the trees. We talk about the air. We talk about the Amazon and the desert and the glaciers. But what’s going to happen if we manage to destroy our oceans?
“The rolling of the sea across the planet creates over half our oxygen, drives weather systems and natural flows of energy and nutrients around the world, transports water masses many times greater than all the rivers on land combined, and keeps the Earth habitable. Without the global ocean there would be no life on Earth.” ~Greenpeace
“Coral reefs are made predominately of stony corals and supported by the limestone skeleton they excrete. These rainforests of the sea are home to a quarter of all marine fish species. In addition to the variety of marine life they support, coral reefs are also immensely beneficial to humans, buffeting coastal regions from strong waves and storms, providing millions of people with food and jobs and promoting advances in modern medicine.” ~Jennifer Horton, HowStuffWorks.com
So oceans provide jobs and food, as well as influencing the planet’s weather. But people, who populate less than 30% of the Earth’s surface, negligently dispose of waste, gasoline and oil into the oceans and toxins inevitably leach into the soil.
Let’s pause for a moment to reflect on this. We live on less than 30% of the planet and we’re outnumbered by pretty much every other living thing on Earth-plants, fish, marine mammals, land animals, birds, insects, reptiles. Yet, we humans are doing a thorough job in destroying the natural homes and habitat of all these other creatures. It seems that the human race has a misguided conviction that we have some kind of divine and superior right to encompass the Earth’s surface and use up resources that can never be replaced.
“[It is] immoral to damage needlessly a remote and largely unknown assemblage of organisms-even if they are out-of-sight, out-of-mind, and apparently of little importance to the general ecological processes in the ocean-through negligent and ignorant abuse of the oceans.” ~Martin Angel, “Ocean Trench Conservation”, 1982
By Destroying the Oceans, We’re Not Just Destroying Ourselves. We’re Destroying Innocent Lives Too. The Question Is, What Are We Going to Do About It?
It’s essential to publicize the need to conserve our oceans. It’s also necessary to take action rather than just talking about it - if talking worked politicians and lobbyists would have fixed the problem a long time ago. We need to take action now and make a real difference to the future of our oceans.
Organizations like Greenpeace are making great strides in the conservation of our ocean, but they can’t do it alone. They need people like you to step up, take responsibility for preserving our oceans and help them make it happen through:
1) The ocean ecosystem is self-managing, but the ocean’s ability to clean itself is badly affected by people dumping waste and rubbish into the water. So protest against the dumping of waste into ocean water. 2) Support areas that have been delegated for marine conservation. Make sure you keep away from protected nesting areas. 3) Household cleaning products leach into the soil and eventually end up in the water supply. So reduce the number of household pollutants that you use and use natural products as much as you can. 4) Air pollution also affects the marine environment. So ride a bike or car share as much as possible to get around. 5) Avoid plastic products and go for paper ones where possible. 6) Recycle as much as you possibly can.
Take responsibility to keep the oceans healthy. The next generation is counting on you.
If you enjoyed the above piece, it is easy to go look at additional related posts at Bruce Tulio or this Bruce Tulio Blog.
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