i remember as a child, waking up on early mornings and hopping on a bus to the Chesapeake Bay (right off the Atlantic in Maryland), just a short drive away from my home. there, i would join friends and classmates in learning about the fragility of estuaries, picking up litter on beaches, and planting trees. at that time, the Chesapeake Bay was 80% contaminated with toxic waste which inevitably spilled into the Atlantic Ocean.
while it may have seemed impossible to save the Chesapeake Bay given its condition in 2011, drastic measures on the part of the government and local people dramatically reduced the levels of harmful compounds in the bay.
changing our lifestyles, actively going out to clean up the bay, and remaining hopeful for the bay’s future all contributed to clearing the bay’s dirty waters.
this is a lesson on the importance of hope. remaining passive is to give up. to give up is to lose the fight against climate change.
move the slider all the way to the right. this is the reality we love so much. nature—a spectrum of glorious, beautiful colors. now move the slider all the way to the left.
we are leaching the life and the color out of our oceans. can you imagine our new reality?
if you give up, if you remain passive, this image will become the norm—pristine, beautiful, calming seas will become just another artifact of the past. if you personally believe you cannot make a difference, you have already lost.
if you remain hopeful of the future, that the oceans can be saved, and actively change your lifestyle to benefit environmental health and stop climate change, then vibrant, healthy oceans will survive for ages to come. tackling climate change requires the hope and action of everyone, including you.
“Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.”
—Martin Luther
an ocean in crisis 