Informative Piece by Rhys Rowbotham
8th of June marks the celebration of World Ocean Day. Many people enjoy the breaking waves on a shore and a relaxing holiday on the beach while others tread carefully upon them, earning money as fishermen or cargo ship crew. We all enjoy our time on the sea but what is World Ocean Day and how can we be involved?
Dubbed the Blue Planet, Earth consists of 5 Oceans across the globe, full of creatures and nature. Humans use the oceans for leisure, trade, tourism and travel but this has taken a toll on this beautiful environment in a range of ways including pollution due to combustion of fossil fuels and the decrease in population of species due to overfishing. This year, on World Ocean Day, the conservation project focus is The Ocean Project, it hopes to grow the global movement that works to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030. This is known as the 30x30 movement. 30x30 are trying to specifically protect the ocean, biodiversity and climate as a whole by raising awareness and raising money to put towards action. Thankfully, 90 countries such as The United States and Sweden have already come together to commit to protect the 30% alongside the organisation leaders in over 140 countries to promote this to their country leaders. Currently, 8% of the ocean is protected and 17% of the climate meaning they have a long way to go.
How can you contribute to this enormous task?:
A petition has been put on the CampaignForNature website to show to country leaders that we care about the fate of the planet and its future for generations to come. You could perform a beach, river, wetland or lake cleanup with friends and family or join an organised event, this will prevent rubbish from entering our ocean and in turn, benefit our planet. Making easy, sustainable switches such as changing your normal sunscreen to an eco-friendly one, using reusable drinks bottles and makeup containers and of course metal straws are all simple ways of making a difference to our environment. Furthermore, any attempt in raising awareness will benefit this great cause and allow action to be taken. You can do this by sharing what you are doing to help across social media and even by word of mouth. For example, I have signed the petition and also asked family and friends to do the same. We could all help as a school community by lessening our ecological footprint; we can all make a better effort to clear up litter to stop it from entering the river on site and make choices to protect our Blue Planet.