Capitol Hill Ocean Week 2013: Introduction

What does the ocean mean to you? Perhaps it is a place that holds warm family memories and exciting new adventures. Maybe it's somewhere mystical and mysterious. Maybe it's even a little scary and dark, full of uncertainties and the unknown. However you chose to view the ocean, there are more than plenty reasons you and everyone else should be concerned for its future.

The purpose of this blog is not to try and convince you that oceans are more important than rainforests or space exploration, etc. Instead, it's to make you aware of what the ocean does for you everyday - I bet it's more than you think.

For just a moment, I want you to picture our planet from outer space. What color is it? What do you see first? I hate to be the one to break this to you, but the earth isn't green, it's blue. Oceans are the lifeline of our planet and our human race. They cover nearly 75% of the earth's surface and hold 97% of our planet's water. They provide a sixth of the animal protein people eat and are the most auspicious source of medicines to combat cancer, pain and bacterial infections. Not to mention, those big blue waters produce more than half the oxygen in our atmosphere, and absorb most of the carbon from it as well (that's something we should keep up if we have any hope of preventing climate change). Throughout environmental history, we have always heard that the rainforests are "the lungs of the earth." Turns out, that's not an entirely accurate analogy. Every other breath of air you take comes directly from the ocean. So technically, the rainforests are just one lung and the ocean is the other. Half of your life has been made possible because of a healthy, thriving ocean.

I know this isn't the case for everyone, but I love the ocean for the mystery, the unknown and the undiscovered. The thrill of not knowing what's swimming underneath me makes my imagination go wild. To me, the ocean is the last frontier. It's a place just as mysterious as outer space, but ten times more accessible. Like I've said before, the ocean is what encouraged my love and concern for the environment. It directed me to my studies at FSU, my internship here at Nat Geo, and hopefully my future career. Those sparkling blue waters have given more than just air, water, food and protection. They have inspired me to be the person I am today. I'm not saying you have to love the ocean as much as I do. I'm not even saying that you have to like it, but there's no denying that it is a part of all of us. The ocean is my life, and it's at least half of yours, whether you want it to be or not.

Everyone at Ocean Week understands the point I have just described to you. That is why they left their jobs as scientists, professors, senators, lawyers and business leaders for a week and traveled to DC and came together to discuss an issue that should be at the forefront of every country's agenda: How are we going to save our oceans, and how can we start now?

I want to remind you that I am an educator at heart, not a policy maker. I'll admit policy plays a huge role in my degree and my career, but politics have never been my strongpoint. I understand the fundamentals and you should know that I look at environmental policy from a very broad scope, which you'll see reflected in my next few discussions of Ocean Week. I've discovered that sometimes some of the most complex issues can be resolved with the ideas we believe are too simple to work.