Breaking Waters

According to dominant scientific theories, all of life on this planet originates from the oceans. The official history of aquatic evolution is so much richer than that which has developed on solid ground.

That head start of billions of years in the evolutionary process means that almost every single branch of the tree of life is represented. Some branches even exist exclusively underwater.

With so much of the planet covered in water, it isn’t surprising that scientists make new discoveries every day. At times in shapes, types and forms we couldn’t even fathom existing on our planet.

Yet only 1.4% of the ocean is protected officially by national parks with varying regulations and surveillance in place, compared to 13% on land. The rest of our oceans are pretty much a free for all (well actually more like ‘free for a select few’ because I’m pretty sure you and I will continue to pay dearly for it). That means a whopping great big part of the oceans (and our natural land spaces) are completely out of any form of protection from greedy corporate interests.

That’s a gigantic zone out of sight and rife for abuse and exploitation. According to the United Nations agreement, the current jurisdictions provide liberty and freedom of navigation, but also the right to fly over, run cables, construct artificial islands and conduct scientific research amongst other things.

The reality is that the oceans do not belong to anyone, they are all of ours to enjoy and marvel at. We are currently accepting their decimation by those who care only about profit. They couldn’t care less about life, our health, or what we leave behind for our children. It appears that nobody else is going to do it for us, this falls upon us all to protect our oceans much more than we have been.

We all have different interests, but if we can’t find some kind of common desire to protect something so important to our actual capacity to be alive on this planet there’s probably a limited number of days humans will remain.

We can’t go on ignoring and accepting things that are so blatantly ridiculous, especially when our lives depend on it.

Find that love inside of you, claim back your power and make a stand because we all need you to.

💙
_{Source: l’Homme et la Mer (@fondationgoodplanet )}

^{Updated 13th January 2022}