It’s a constant message: save the ocean, protect marine wildlife, stop water pollution. Though it may seem like a tedious onslaught of the same information, it remains extremely important and impactful to continually remind people about the dangers facing our oceans and the ways in which we can prevent their degradation. We are at a crossroads in terms of the way that we interact with our environment, and the negative consequences could be devastating.
The threat of global climate change on the ocean is as extreme of an environmental problem as exists today. The sea level is rising at an alarming rate, over 3mm per year, which degrades the amount of usable land every year as well as affecting the sustained salinity and chemical make-up of the ocean. Such drastic changes to the ecosystems in which many varieties of species live, including humans, can cause irreparable damage to the ways that these organisms live and thrive.
We are at a crisis point, a point where a decision about how to proceed must be taken. We will soon, if we have not already, reach a point where a critical mass of environmentally-ruinous behavior will tip, causing a global environmental crisis that may not be avoidable or reversible. With each passing day, we must decide how we are going to stop our oceans and our planet from succumbing to environmental collapse.