June is always a big month for me. Summer is out and vacations, beach weekends, and cook-outs are marked on my calendar. Pride occupies at least a week’s worth of days and there are a slew of ocean events across the globe- especially in Washington DC. Surrounding World Ocean’s day is Capitol Hill Ocean Week which has been grabbing more and more attention with each passing year. Though many in politics choose to ignore blatant signs of climate change, pollution, overfishing, or instability in the ecosystem-human relationship on our planet, much of the rest of the world is beginning to turn its head towards that [blazing dumpster] fire. But are they turning too late? Yes. Did we loose the war? Probably. Are there still battles to win? That’s exactly why we are here.
I will be the first to admit that unless you travel the world (and see something other than the inside of your hotel), unless you get into nature, unless you get on the water, unless you dive to the depths of a reef- and unless you actually study this crap, you probably have no idea. I don’t blame you. It is really hard to understand what a mess we’ve made and what we need to do to clean it up. So I’m not really sure how to motivate you. You just have read real research and learn.
I was just in Hyderabad, India, last week and some open fields have more plastic on them than visible dirt. The air at night becomes a red fog of burning trash. Yes, some places are worse than others but no place can be fixed without one ingredient: Education. Only once we consciously link our health and prosperity to our actions in the environment will we start to learn. No more of, “Oh I’ll be dead by the time that happens” or “Someone else will clean that up.” This is happening now and because of our collective global habits today. Instead of withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement countries need to be fighting from the top down and the bottom up with education, management resources, and regulation. But sometimes governments don’t lead the way…
So what will you do? What will you change today that will help not only your future but the future of this planet? Of humanity? What will you do tomorrow? Every single little step counts. If you can’t think of anything, emissions and meat are two of the really big ticket items. Do some thing this week to reduce both of their production.
Please encourage friends, colleagues, and classmates to like and subscribe to free products and organizations like SEVENSEAS Media. That costs you literally nothing. The larger our network, the stronger our conservation message, and more significant our impact. We are sitting on the only planet we have and life on her is suffering.
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