I have not written for a long time, starting with COVID. It was so long ago, but remember that even the beaches were closed down. We all had a lot of things going on, even as we couldn't get out of our houses.
For the ocean, there have been gains and losses. One notable setback is the Supreme Court considering reversing the Clean Water Act. What it would do is remove governmental protection of half the nation's wetlands and roughly 60% of streams.
What can one person do, in the face of bad news? Can we make a difference?
I say, yes!
We can:
Keep on top of pending legislation regarding the ocean (I plan on covering these in
my ongoing blog).
Find the organizations giving the most benefit to the oceans and donate to them as much as you can. Charitynavigator.org provides valuable ranking of companies.
If you live near the ocean (and over 1/3 of the world's population live within 60 miles of it) join up with organizations where you can help clean beaches and affect what goes into our water (such as through Coastkeepers in San Diego).
Why start with the ocean?
50-80% of the oxygen we get is from photosynthetic organisms in the ocean, not from trees. ( NOAA. Not all scientists agree on a single number, but it's big!)
A third of the Carbon produced by human activities is sequestered, or stored, in the ocean.
Fish in the ocean feed 3.5 Billion people. This is more than the cattle, sheep, poultry and eggs industry combined.
Bottom line - we do NOT want to be poisoning the phytoplankton (organisms that take up Carbons dioxide plus sun and produce oxygen and carbon in the form of sugars.
If I could, I would whip together all the hundreds of tiny to large ocean advocacy groups in the world to join one single collective group. What power that group would have! Barriers to this happening would be that having to give up a bit of each group's specific focus could turn into a battle of egos.
I have started a list of all the groups I can find that list ocean advocacy as one of their functions. Who know? maybe a big letter writing campaign is the future. Hope you'll be there!
Global
Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition
Bimini Biological Field station 'Shark Lab'
Blue Frontier Campaign
Conservation International
Deep Sea Conservation Coalition
Defenders of Wildlife
EarthWatch Institute
Environmental Defense
European Network on Invasive Alien Species (NOBANIS)
Fauna and Flora International (FFI)
Greenpeace
Global Coral Reef Alliance (GCRA)
Institute for Ocean Conservation Science
inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI)
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
International Maritime Organization (IMO)
IUCN Invasive Specialist Group
Lighthouse Foundation Germany
Marine Fish Conservation Network
Nature Conservancy
Oceania
Ocean Futures Jean Michael Cousteau
Ocean Project
Ocean Care
Ocean Collective Bezos Family Foundation
Project Aware Foundation PADI
Projet Seahorse
Polar Bears International
Reef Check
Reef Relief
Reef Base
The Safina Center
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Shark Stewards
Turtle Island Restoration Network
Seal Conservation Society
Shifting Baselines
Sierra Club
Society for Conservation Biology (SCB)
Species Survival Commission (SSC)
Students Rebuild Bezos Family Foundation
Surfrider Foundation
Traffic
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Wetlands International
Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS)
WildAid
World Resources Institute
World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)
World Wildlife Fund
Regional
Azul California and Mexico
Beyond the Surface International Peru
Billion Oyster Project New York City
Coastkeepers
Deep South Center for Environmental Justice Louisiana Texas, Alabama
EarthEcho International across the US
Fish N'Find Montserrat
GVI gviusa.com
I am Water South Africa
Marine Bio Conservation Society
National Resources Defense Council NRDC
Ocean Conservancy
Oceanswell Sri Lanka
Shidhulai Swanirvan Sangsthe Bangladesh
and more! TBC
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