Celebrate World Oceans Day!
Today, June 8, is World Oceans Day. Although it has been celebrated unofficially since 1993, this year marks the first official celebration as declared by the United Nations. Sylvia Earle, in her 2009 TED Prize talk, eloquently expressed why all people need to take notice of the importance of the oceans and how their destruction affects all of us:
Fifty years ago, when I began exploring the ocean, no one … imagined that we could do anything to harm the ocean by what we put into it or by what we took out of it. It seemed, at that time, to be a sea of Eden, but now we know, and now we are facing paradise lost.
I want to … consider why it matters that in 50 years we’ve lost – actually, we’ve taken, we’ve eaten – more than 90 percent of the big fish in the sea, why you should care that nearly half of the coral reefs have disappeared, why a mysterious depletion of oxygen in large areas of the Pacific should concern not only the creatures that are dying but it really should concern you. It does concern you, as well.
[...] The poet Auden said, “Thousands have lived without love. None without water.” Ninety-seven percent of Earth’s water is ocean. No blue, no green. If you think the ocean isn’t important, imagine Earth without it. Mars comes to mind. No ocean. No life support system.
[...] Tim Worth says the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment. With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live. Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere is generated by the sea. Over time, most of the planet’s organic carbon has been absorbed and stored there, mostly by microbes. The ocean drives climate and weather, stabilizes temperature, shapes Earth’s chemistry. Water from the sea forms clouds that return to the land and the seas as rain, sleet and snow, and provides home for about 97 percent of life in the world, maybe in the universe. No water, no life. No blue, no green.
There are many ways to mark this occasion. Here are just a few:
1. Share Sylvia Earle’s TEDTalk and TED Prize with someone who has not seen it yet. And if you want to help fulfill Sylvia’s wish, send in an offer of support.
2. Fill out this survey to support Sylvia’s wish.
3. Participate in one of the many events happening globally to mark World Oceans Day.
4. If you are in NYC, stop and look at the Empire State Building this evening when it is bathed in blue.
5. Learn more about Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) through the recently redeveloped World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA).
6. Follow tweets from around the world chronicling the celebration of #WorldOceansDay.
Go to The Oceans Project website for more celebration ideas.
