"Eat Your Jellyfish" : A Primer on the Severely Degraded State of Oceans

In 2006 I read a book that changed how I saw the oceans. Carl Safina's book, "Voyage of the Sea Turtle" drove home to me just how much we've lost. For the first time, I really felt robbed and bitter that generations before me had left a greatly impoverished world.

The more time passes, the more it becomes obvious that planet Earth really is a closed system. To create more of anything else (people, more luxurious lifestyles) you have to take from somewhere else. Anything you buy, eat, consume, you're taking from someone or something else. It probably is from poorer people elsewhere, but it's most definitely from other species. The more there are of us, and the more materialistic our lifestyles, the less there is of everything else. When simple living advocates remind us to "Live simply so that others may simply live," remember that it's not just people that this applies to, it's other types of life as well. When you watch this video, keep in mind that over a billion people worldwide depend on the oceans for their primary source of protein.

I highly recommend Safina's book, but if you're not the reading type, this video is a good primer. At the end Dr. Jeremy Jackson talks about how science and scientists are being told to keep quiet, or how science and data gathering are being actively avoided. If you don't have data, you can't possibly know how bad things really are. That's something to think about when considering why people aren't more concerned about climate change as well.

Thanks to Revolving Doors once again.

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