Have You Seen The Damage We're Inflicting On Our Oceans?

About 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

Oceans do impact on people - on our food, jobs and weather. People populate less than 30% of the Earth's surface, but we affect the entire planet by leaching toxins into the soil and dumping our waste, oil and gasoline into the oceans.

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?

Getting the word out about the need for ocean conservation is good. If talking about the challenges facing our environment would fix them, our politicians and lobbyists would have taken care of the problem years ago. Action, not words, is what's going to make a difference in the future of our oceans. It's up to us to make that difference into a reality.

Greenpeace and organizations like them are taking great steps to promote ocean conservation, but they can't do this alone. Ordinary people like you and me also need to take responsibility for preserving our oceans. Here are some steps we can take:

1 Protest against waste and trash being dumped into the oceans. Oceans are self-managing ecosystems, but they can't do this with all the rubbish being poured into them each day.

2 Support marine conservation areas and steer clear of 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 damages our oceans. So reduce the pollutants that end up in the air by car-pooling or riding a bike as much as possible.

5 Avoid plastic products and go for paper ones where possible.

6 Recycle.

We all need to do as much as we can to keep the Earth's oceans healthy. The next generation is counting on us.