World Oceans Day: Coming June 8th, 2009

Just a little over two weeks away, World Oceans Day is an internationally recognized, public relations opportunity, sponsored by The Ocean Project, to recognize the importance of our oceans and consider their fate and what we can do about it. These often are not earth-shattering events but good opportunities to increase public awareness. With the readers of this blog? Not likely as you are all pretty aware of the many issues threatening the health of our oceans. Once again, it's the unenlightened we need to reach - your friends and neighbors who are unaware or don't believe that they can make a difference. Those are the ones we need to reach.

The theme this year is "one ocean, one climate, one future." Here's some basic talking points from World Oceans Day's web site that you can email or discuss with others:

Why Should I Celebrate World Oceans Day?

The world's ocean:

Generates most of the oxygen we breathe

Helps feed us

Regulates our climate

Cleans the water we drink

Offers us a pharmacopoeia of potential medicines

Provides limitless inspiration!

Yet for too long, human society has taken the world's ocean for granted.

Now we can give back! Take part in World Oceans Day events and activities this year and help protect our ocean for the future!

It's up to each one of us to help ensure that our ocean is protected and conserved for future generations. World Oceans Day allows us to:

Change perspective - encourage individuals to think about what the ocean means to them and what it has to offer all of us with hopes of conserving it for present and the future generations.

Learn - discover the wealth of diverse and beautiful ocean creatures and habitats, how our daily actions affect them, and how we are all interconnected.

Change our ways - we are all connected to the ocean! By taking care of your backyard, you are acting as a caretaker of our ocean. Making small modifications to your everyday habits will greatly benefit our blue planet.

Celebrate - whether you live inland or on the coast we are all connected to the ocean; take the time to think about how the ocean affects you, and how you affect the ocean, and then organize or participate in activities that celebrate our world ocean.

You can get more ideas, information, and a listing of activities and events at the World Ocean Day web site. Remember, it's Monday, June 8th.