Save the Ocean

David Attenborough states on his Netflix documentary “A Life On Our Planet”, “The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel, yet the way we humans live on earth, is sending it into a decline- human beings have overrun the world”. With a current world population of 7.8 billion people- it’s no secret that humans benefit (and continue to benefit) from destroying entire ecosystems. Our carbon footprint is as high as it’s ever been, sitting at 415ppm; warming our planet at such an alarming rate, that the damage will have unforgivable consequences. With our oceans covering 71% of the planet- one might think that it’s vast enough to endure cruel human treatment; but in 1998, film directors of “Planet Ocean” noticed the bleaching and death of entire coral reefs- and soon realized that the rise in global temperatures is being absorbed by the ocean, and that the ocean is dying.

Attenborough also states that “The release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (in previous events,) would take volcanic activity up to one million years to trigger a mass extinction- but by burning a million years worth of living organisms all at once as coal and oil, humans have managed to cause the same amount of damage in less then 200 years.” Currently, when I open my Google homepage- the top news articles that pop up are “Sam Smith Got A New Tattoo That Represents Their Non Binary Identity”, and “Walmart Blasts Kanye West’s New Logo As A Lookalike”- but if knowledge is power, and global catastrophic changes are happening daily; why aren’t humans making the death of our ocean as big of a deal as Sam Smith’s new tattoo? Why is our carbon footprint not something all humans are made to care about daily; and not based on individual care levels?

In order to help reduce our carbon footprint, and further protect our oceans from destruction- I could tell you about the personal adjustments I’ve been making in my everyday life since 2006- after joining our schools recycling club. Unfortunately, I think the real “hack” to this knowledge is spreading the word to self educate on the impact we’re having on our oceans. Other then being in the recycling club, I hadn’t realized- nor was I taught anything else in school about the affects humans were having on our oceans.

In 2017, on my personal journey to further self educate what my singular impact I was having on our oceans; I had made a vowel to quit using plastic straws after watching a popular circulating YouTube video. In this video, a deep sea diver was attempting to pull a plastic straw out of the nose of a sea turtle, and after a long amount of effort, the turtle was saved. Later on in the year I switched to other plastic free alternatives- in an effort to help the marine life as a whole, and contribute to less plastic waste found in oceans across the globe. In 2020 after learning that most of the fish we eat contain micro-plastics, I started eating less fish- and continue to work my way of cutting fish out of my diet completely. I also did not want to contribute to the gain in profit of any fisheries due to the affects overfishing is having on our fish populations.

I continually support and donate to organizations that focus on improving ocean life; buying countless amounts of bracelets, or t-shirts, to spread the word of what we were doing to our planet. I think for anyone who takes the time to do their own research on multiple ocean issues, will stick with changing their carbon footprint for the long run- so please research what you can do to cut down your carbon footprint, and save our oceans! Every ounce of knowledge and research towards the cause, helps.