Remember last time you were on a beach and facing the sea. Like most people, I imagine you were at a place of peace, perhaps even in awe of the vastness and beauty of the horizon. The ocean can be simply an attractive background for summer vacations, or a big swimming pool, dividing two continents.
June 8 is a day that is celebrated around the world every year, recognized by the United Nations, and not simply a day to post aesthetic beach pictures on social media. It is a huge, urgent initiative to shift the paradigm of human-sea relations. It is a day when we must reverse the attitude of using the ocean as an unlimited source of raw materials and as a dumping ground for our waste and garbage, and adopt a new attitude for the ocean as a vital organ.
Let’s examine the real reason why this day is so important, beyond the sound bites, and getting our heads around what it means to survive globally.
The Actual Lungs of the Earth
The term ‘lungs of the Earth’ evokes an image in the minds of nearly everyone of the Amazon rainforest. Trees are wonderful, they’re just getting all the credit. The fact is that the ocean provides 50% of the oxygen we breathe.
Each and every time you breathe, it is from phytoplankton, microscopic drifting marine plants in the air near the ocean surface. They take the carbon dioxide and sunlight and they release the oxygen that you breathe.
The ocean does much more than facilitate breathing though – it is the ultimate climate shock-absorber. The ocean has taken up about 30% of the CO2 emitted by human activities and 90% of the excess heat generated by GHGs in the past decade or so. The land would already be too hot to live on if it weren’t for the steady absorption of all that heat by the ocean. The ocean is literally buying the time for humanity to resolve the climate crisis.
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The Blue Economy and Global Survival
In addition to its regulating role in the climate, the ocean is a huge economic machine. We refer to it as the “Blue Economy.
More than 3 billion people today depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their protein. For many coastal and island countries, the sea is more than food, it is the economy. The fishing industry, marine transportation and coastal tourism are sources of millions of jobs around the world.
The loss of marine ecosystems is more than a loss of a few exotic species of fishes. It translates into instant and crippling poverty for local fishing populations. It is a major food insecurity issue. Ocean health goes hand in hand with stability of the global supply chain and the survival of the marginalized communities around the world.
A System Under Siege
It’s not possible to discuss World Oceans Day without addressing the damage we are inflicting on the oceans. The risk is compound and compound is the danger.
- Industrial overfishing: The sea is being vacuumed. Fish are being harvested out of the water at a faster rate than they can reproduce with the massive factory ships. This not only thins out particular species of fish, but it threatens the entirety of the food web.
- The Plastic Pandemic: There is a garbage truck load of plastic thrown into the ocean every minute. However, the more serious problem is not just the litter that can be seen with the naked eye, but microplastics. The tiny pieces of plastic have spread to the deepest parts of the oceans, the food that we consume as well as human bodies, as recent studies have revealed.
- Acidification and Bleaching: The ocean will take up a lot of our excess carbon, which means that it will become more acidic. This alteration of chemistry is literally dissolving shells of the animals in the water. Add increasing water temperatures, and mass coral bleaching events result. Coral reefs are home to 25% of all marine life and we are witnessing this in real time.
What You Can Actually Do
When you consider a giant like the ocean, it’s easy to feel like you’re totally helpless. World Oceans Day is a call to action for all of us, for systems change. This is how to physically move the needle:
- Demand Sustainable Seafood: If you consume fish, you need to know where it is coming from – Demand Sustainable Seafood. Avoid purchasing seafood from cheap sources that have been caught by industrial fishing or “blindly.” Make sure that your dinner wasn’t fished using unethical practices by using applications such as Seafood Watch.
- Audit Your Plastic: Yes, putting away plastic straws helps, but look bigger – Audit Your Plastic. Refuse companies that package their products in superfluous single-use plastics. Make use of reusable packaging, purchase items wholesale, and responsibly handle local trash.
- Watch Your Chemicals: All pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and other chemicals that are applied to the lawn or down the sink end up in the ocean. Do not use toxic fertilisers that lead to the formation of dead zones in the oceans, and do use reef-safe, mineral-based sunscreens that do not kill coral reefs.
- Vote for the Water: Individual action is important, policy is what saves the planet: Vote for the Water. Elect candidates who commit to taking action on climate change, hold polluting firms accountable, and advocate for more MPAs.
