Blog Action Day: Living on the Edge of the Ocean

Have you ever stopped to think that we are in fact on the edge of the ocean - and the ocean is not on the edge of the land?

Given that the earth’s surface is about 70% water and that the oceans contain roughly 97% of the Earth’s water supply, this change in perspective is required.

The oceans of Earth are unique in that no other planet in our Solar System has liquid water.

In fact, life on Earth originated in the seas, and the oceans continue to be home to an incredibly diverse web of life.

So why do we continue to treat our oceans as if they are they little kid on the block, someone we can push around and mistreat and still demand all that we want from them without ever having to pay our dues?

Here are some important ocean facts to consider next time you are lying on a beach:

• 90% of sea creatures live in the sunlight zone, which is the zone that is most affected by global warming and oil pollution.
• Most of the waste that has been dumped into the ocean in the early 1990’s is still there today.
• More than 60 million gallons of oil enter the oceans every year.
• Most of the world’s commercially important fish species are fished to capacity or depleted.

The Power of Water

Despite having a great incentive like Blog Action Day, this post would eventually have surfaced, given my love of the water.

I have a fascination with water. Maybe it is because I grew up with it in my ears, living on the other side of a sandy dune from the Indian Ocean. Or maybe it is because I live on the largest island in the world.

Whatever the reason, water is my element and I’ll have it in any of its forms - rain, sea, bath or with a squeeze of lime…

So when I recently came across an article at Forbes.com called “America’s Most Polluted Beaches” the problem became very personal.

Here’s a disturbing snippet from the article:

“Closures and health advisory days at nationwide ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches topped 20,000 in 2005, the highest number since the Natural Resources Defense Council started tracking the problem 16 years ago. At fault? Sewage and storm water runoff reaching our beaches are a big part of the problem, along with people crowding the nation’s shores without paying enough attention to their impact.”

Clean Up Australia

Closer to home, the spotlight needs to stay firmly focused on Clean Up Australia, a not-for-profit Australian environmental conservation organisation that works to address the critical environmental issues of waste, water and climate change.

As the world’s largest island, Australia has a vested interest in keeping our oceans and beaches pure.

Clean Up Australia is the organisation responsible for the hugely successful Clean Up Australia Day, Australia’s largest community based environmental event, as well as numerous other environmental projects and campaigns.

The organisation was founded by Australian Ian Kiernan in 1989 after he participated in a round the world yacht race. Shocked and disgusted by the amount of pollution he came across in the world’s oceans he decided to take steps to rectify the problem.

The next Clean Up Australia Day is Sunday 2 March 2008.

It’s fun, easy and everyone can take part. Individuals and local groups can either organise a Clean Up site or volunteer to join an existing site.

The steps required to conduct a Clean Up site are:

1. Select a site in your local area. It could be a park, waterway, bushland etc.
2. Register your site with Clean Up Australia.
3. Organise rubbish collection.
4. Promote your Clean Up site to attract volunteers.
5. Organise any additional equipment required in addition to the kit material received from Clean Up Australia.
6. Conduct a site inspection and ensure you have implemented any risk controls.
7. Hold your Clean Up event.
8. Report back to Clean Up Australia on your site activities.

And for those of us more inclined to do our bit from the comfort of our laptop… might there be an opportunity to support this cause in a way similar to this post? Blog Action Day becomes Blog Clean Up Day, with no implications for my own cluttered and junk-filled desktop?

As the Ocean Speaks…

As I spend my holiday on the pristine sands of Bunker Bay, in the south-west of Western Australia, I feel far removed from the oceans’ problems.

But like all good things the earth’s water is inter-connected. Both its strength and the pollutants that threaten it are built upon this connection.

So as I stare out at the beautiful waters of the Indian Ocean, I have to pause and think of the darkness that lives on the turn of the tide and add my voice to the friends of the ocean - isn’t it time we cleaned up our act?

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