But governments and large organizations move slowly, and change direction even more slowly. In the meantime the oceans are deteriorating day by day.
Individuals and small organizations can respond much more quickly – taking immediate action by voting through our everyday actions, like saying No to plastic bags and disposable items, and making sure that we eat only fish from non-threatened species.
Grassroots actions can also create pressure upwards to show governments that we care what kind of a world we live in.
So although governments DO need to act, let’s not sit on our hands and wait while the oceans die…
Here is an example of what people are doing to take action: when I was in Hawaii I met the staff of BEACH – Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii. There are only two of them, but look what they are doing!
Now, even if you don’t have time, or live too far away, to help clean a beach – who can honestly say that they don’t have time to pick up a piece of litter when they see it in the street, and put it in the nearest bin? That piece of litter could otherwise end up in the drains, washing into a river, flowing to the sea… and choking an albatross. You never know the good you might do. I like to think of it as the Ripple Effect…
[photo: not what we imagine a Hawaii beach to look like]