The oceans around the world need our help more than they ever have in history. As a whole, we have polluted our oceans, created an unsustainable living environment for countless numbers of species and put ourselves at risk in the process. According to National Geographic, more than forty percent of the ocean has been “severely affected” and no part has been left “untouched.” They also make it known that less than two percent of the ocean is protected by any means. This world we live in depends heavily on the ocean and all of the job opportunities it brings, the life it gives to sea creatures and every drop of water we drink. It takes up seventy-two percent of the earth’s surface, yet we keep ignoring the blatant problems that it is facing.
The Great Barrier Reef: it has been around for twenty-five million years, stretches miles and miles through Australia and has finally succumbed to rising seawater temperatures. As of 2016, many parts of the Great Barrier Reef were declared dead due to global warming. Global warming is NOT a myth, a hoax or a conspiracy. We must know though that the use of greenhouse gases is not the only things killing our oceans. Throwing trash into the ocean kills marine life as they get trapped and tangled which limits them to reach food or even keep moving forward like the shark needs to constantly do.
Killing our oceans is not the only problem when it comes to global warming, sea levels are also rising at an alarming rate. Of course with the rise of sea levels, we will see more floods devastating areas and misplacing millions of people. When storms hit these areas, the floods will be bigger and more devastating to certain areas or even leaving some areas completely underwater.
Global warming is not something one person can fix, it is a team effort to try and return our oceans back to a healthy state before more habitats are lost, more animals die, and more people are displaced or out of work. There are many organizations dedicated to cleaning up the ocean and saving marine life that anyone can be a part of. I urge you to be the change and go out and protect our oceans.