Photo credit: Heather BensonFor most of my life, I've lived within an hour of the Atlantic Ocean. I visit often (the picture is from my favorite beach in Ocean City, NJ) and consider myself pretty knowledgeable about tides, erosion, currents, and marine life. But it's going to take a lot more than the view from the shore to ever fully understand the world's oceans.
According to the Ocean Project the world ocean:
- Generates most of the oxygen we breathe
- Helps feed us (eat sustainably using one of these regional guides)
- Regulates our global climate as well as local weather
- Cleans the water we drink
- Offers us a pharmacopoeia of potential medicines
- Provides limitless inspiration!
The water beyond our shores has been getting media attention lately as a result of the BP oil spill (read: ecological disaster). So much of what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico right now is the result of not appreciating the intricacies of the marine environment, especially depth and corresponding pressure.There are many things you can do to help clean-up in the Gulf and protect our oceans - many without ever leaving your house, including donating directly to saving wildlife:
Donors can send a text message with the code "WILDLIFE" to 20222 to automatically give a $10 donation to help wildlife affected by the oil spill.Disasters aren't the only time to pay attention to 97% of the earth's water though, and research scientists are constantly at work trying to map and learn about the ocean. So far, we're familiar with about 5% of the world's ocean. That leaves another 95% to go, in case any of you are looking for promising careers of the future.
Most of us will only ever experience the ocean from the beach. Rolling waves, sweet salt air, sand between our toes. But if we don't protect the ocean, conserve and champion our shores and marine life, our children may not be able to enjoy the 71% of Earth covered by water as we have.
Photo credit: Heather Benson
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