Perhaps it was Aesop (620-564 BCE), a Greek master of fables, who authored the “Source unknown” story of a little sparrow lying on its back with tiny feet pointed upward because of fear that the sky was falling.
A rider on his horse spotted the prone bird and asked why it was in that awkward position. “Because I heard the sky would be falling this evening,” responded the sparrow. To which the rider asked: “And you think you will stop the sky from falling with your spindly legs?” The confident little bird replied: “One does what one can!”
Oceanographers issued a 2013 State of the Ocean for all to consider. Rising acidification, steady decline in fish stocks make the two-year old document difficult to swallow, leaving readers in sadness.
Jacques Costeau warned decades ago we humans now have the capacity to ruin our entire ocean. Are we helpless as the sparrow trying to prevent the sky from falling?
The biggest ongoing oil spill in history comes through a petroleum byproduct known as plastic. We fail to fathom such a massive dimension of decline in ocean health as millions of tons of plastic debris are accumulating throughout the world.
Dr. Sylvia Earle, now approaching eighty years of age, and youthful Dr. Marcus Eriksen, PhD spoke at a Tulane University environmental law conference February 22nd, 2014. Both researchers showed shocking pictures and spoke of finding plastic permeating our ocean. Marcus Eriksen is director of www.5gyres.org which reveals five major ocean plasticized areas. Each year we dump over eight million metric tons of plastic in our ocean. Who can find a beach without plastic debris?
Sylvia Earle (1938) and Marcus Eriksen, PhD (US Marine veteran) could have assumed the passive state of a sparrow on its back as our huge sacred ocean is subjected to an amount of plastic much larger than the sky falling upon Earth. However, these two scientists have chosen to be proactive by waking us to the fact our ocean is suffering greatly. Frankly speaking, our ocean is dying. Our future is linked to it.
Earle was given the title “Her Deepness” for having spent so many hours below the ocean surface. Thousands of feet down on the ocean floor Dr. Earle found – PLASTIC.
Eriksen obtained his degree in science education then went out to reveal five gyres of plastic inundating an ocean upon which we depend for half of Earth’s decreasing oxygen supply, our food and life itself.
Rather than follow a passive manner seen in the sparrow, Earle and Eriksen personify Thomas Edison who said: “Touch the match of enthusiasm to the fuse of energy and allow yourselves to explode.”
Our ocean pleads daily with us to be saved from acidity and plastification. We cannot survive without a healthy ocean. Please read Our Sacred Ocean Is Suffering Now for more details. (Vesuvius Press)
We must do what we can – while we can. Do we follow the passive sparrow or exploding Edison?
