Our Mission: To preserve and protect the animals, plants, and natural communities in Indian River County through advocacy, education, and public awareness. |
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Airborne Seals - Galapagos Islands. Photos by Richard Baker. |
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The World Is Blue |
The President's Hoot by Richard H. Baker, Ph.D. November 2009 |
This weekend, we attended the Audubon Assembly, our annual state meeting. This meeting and the annual Florida Folk Festival on the Suwannee River in White Springs, inspire me to enthusiastically support conservation via our chapter and other community efforts. The Assembly keynote speaker, Dr. Sylvia Earle, is a National Geographic Explorer-in Residence who pilots her own submarines, deep into the ocean. She, of course, showed us the beauty of our vast oceans, but like Rachel Carson in 1962 telling us about ruining our Earth with pesticides, Dr. Earle described how humans have damaged our oceans and that our future fate and the oceans are one. While “Going Green” makes the headlines, Dr. Earle pointed out that it is the water or “The Blue” of our planet that sustains our life. Some have claimed we should have called our planet “Ocean” instead of “Earth” as we would be more likely reminded that like Mars, we would not exist without our water. Although water is common in the universe, it is from our oceans 4 billion years ago that the plants, animals, and many of our rocks and landscapes were formed, but they are now being destroyed in less than 100 years. Our oceans with the sun provide the energy for our continued stay here. Our oceans hold 97 percent of our water and embrace 97 percent of our planet, which determines our climate and weather, our temperature, and absorbs much of our atmosphere’s CO2. The oceans cover about 75% of the globe, but that does not include freshwater, ice, or clouds. The water we drink and the food we eat all depend ultimately upon the existence of our seas, as every spoonful is full of life and there would not be enough rain without the ocean. Sometimes we forget over half of our body weight is water as are most plants and animals. Every other breath we take is a result of half of our atmosphere oxygen coming from ocean photosynthesis as aquatic blue-green bacteria and other ocean organisms produce 50% of our oxygen! Dr. Earle pointed out that during the last 50 years our planet’s human population has doubled, our ocean life has dramatically decline during this period:
Fortunately, Dr. Earle says we have not reached the point of no return. We have the knowledge, and scientists to have a chance to recover and shape and clean our water circulation system. We should not eat the songbirds of the sea, as we do not on land. While not all of us can work at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution or the Smithsonian Marine Station, we in Indian River County can do our part by actively participating in local and state government decisions regarding:
I recommend reading Earle’s book, The World is Blue- How our Fate and the Ocean’s are one (2009). She also wrote Sea Change. Her talk and book, give me second thoughts about eating tuna sushi and other wild caught seafood. She complimented Audubon on having chicken for the evening meal! I can assure you that reading Earle’s book about tuna, sharks, and lobsters is more fun than eating them. |
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