In 2018 wrote my first (optimistic) post about World Ocean day , it ended like this "now people (us) can play an even bigger part. Consumer choice is so important, and although companies can manipulate it I believe we can also manipulate companies. Buy loose rather than packaged, leave packages at the tills (you can join organised plastic actions, such as those that recently happened in the Netherlands), chose brands with sustainable and recyclable packaging (check recycling info on the back of packages) even if it takes a little extra time and maybe costs a few extra cents. I believe that by making some small adjustments and consumed more consciously we have the power to create a shift in the market and encourage companies to continue on their ethical tracks.." As I said.. optimistic 5 years of "ocean days" later, and we are still surrounded by plastic, choosing "quick and easy" rather than "environmentally friendly,"
This year theme is "Planet Ocean: Tides are Changing", and I am really (still optimistic) hoping this means that also human behaviour is. Little actions are necessary alongside bigger ventures, and little actions accompanied by protests speak even louder. Collective little actions can sum up to be more than little. And stopping to "close an eye" or being indifferent in front of disrespectful people may eventually lead to some collective education. some deleterious emerging trends that are arising concern the vision of the oceans as something to preserve because of the things it gives us in return, And this great article says a lot of the things that I have been thinking about for a while : I will copy here the essential paragraph (but go read it all): "You can’t “just” fertilise the ocean, or change its alkalinity, or park huge new farms there, or dump billions of tonnes of biomass into the deep sea without affecting the existing ocean physics, chemistry and biology. I have frequently heard engineers and businesspeople state that they have two aims – to restore a pristine ocean and to make the ocean do the clearing up for us by taking up carbon, producing vast quantities of seaweed as a material resource, or whatever this week’s scheme is. That betrays an ignorance of just how intricately woven together the ocean’s systems are, and how interlinked the whole thing is. It is also the language of control dressed up as concern for everyone else’s welfare. Of course, restoring ocean ecosystems is beneficial for lots of reasons, and it will have climate benefits, but we need to focus on the restoration, not manipulating the ocean environment to do stuff for us before we fully understand how it works now." and yes, oceans can do great things, supporting much of life processes. And absorbing a lot of the terrestrial heat (with dire consequences for the ocean itself) , but should we protect them for more than simply their "services to us"? Can we be in awe of the marvels it can produce, of the evolutions of strategies of living to cope in the different and heterogeneous habitats it contains? And can we imagine just for a moment that we could do something to ensure it thrives and returns to even more marvellous states?
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