3 things YOU can do on World Oceans Day to make a difference

You thought we were going to start with plastic waste, right? Well, as important as plastic pollution is (we’ll get to that in a bit), nothing is harming the oceans and sea life more than global warming.

Our oceans absorb a huge amount of the excess heat from the sun – heat that is trapped from greenhouse gas emissions (such as CO2 and methane); this leads to rising ocean temperatures. Essentially, the more we emit these emissions, the hotter our oceans will get. In fact, the average global sea surface temperature has increased by 1.5^oF since 1901 (an average rate of 0.13 ^oF per decade). That might not sound like a lot, but it makes a BIG difference for sea life. Rising ocean temperatures wreak havoc with marine species and ecosystems. This warming also causes coral bleaching and the loss of breeding grounds for all sorts of marine life and mammals.

So if you want to start somewhere to protect our oceans, start looking at your carbon footprint and the carbon footprint of the businesses you buy from as a consumer. There are some very simple things you can do to significantly reduce your carbon footprint, for example:

• Adopt a plant-based diet (the ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth)
• Switch to a renewable energy supplier (advice on how to switch)
• Make sure your savings are invested in a green bank (many banks invest your savings in fossil fuels such as oil and coal)
• Buy sustainable, ethical clothing (we covered this recently)
• Avoid Bitcoin (Bitcoin uses the same amount of power as Argentina)
• Check what times of day are the best to use energy at home (this free app shows you the time of day when renewable energy is most available to use)

Yes, this is one issue no one can ignore. We’ve all seen the heart-breaking footage and images of sea life drowning in plastic. And as we said earlier, there will soon be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Earth’s oceans currently hold over 150 million tonnes of plastic. If we allow this wasteful approach to continue, our oceans will contain one tonne of plastic for every three tons of fish by 2025. Continuing on that course, plastic will overtake fish by 2050.

So grim to think about.

There are so many ways we can reduce our plastic waste. One of the key recommendations from the controversial documentary Seaspiracy is ‘stop eating fish’ as fishing nets, equipment and industry waste make up over 46% of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Certainly some food for thought there!

But that’s not the only way. There are simple steps you can take to reduce your ‘plastic footprint’ every day. Easy tips include:

• Get a ‘keep cup’ or reusable coffee cup (The UK alone gets through 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year)
• Get a refillable water bottle and avoid single-use plastic bottles
• Say no to plastic straws
• Get your cosmetics, beauty products, shampoo etc. from brands that have refillable/reusable containers (like LUSH and Beauty Kitchen)
• Avoid excessive food packaging (opt for loose veg and fruit if possible)
• Avoid disposable plastic cutlery
• Carry your own shopping back (tote bags are awesome)

One of the best things you can do is use your voice. Whether that’s online, in-person with friends and family, or at work, or with clients/business partners. The more people realise how important our oceans are, the easier it will be to protect them.

It’s often about perspective.

For example, as soon as people realise how little freshwater there is on earth, their opinions start to change. This fantastic illustration shows us how precious our oceans, lakes and rivers are. It’s not an infinite resource we can keep plundering, and as you can see in the image, the accessible fresh water in the world is shockingly low.