June 21, 2017
by Lisa DiCaprio, NYC Group Conservation Chair
Sylvia Earle is a world-renowned oceanographer, president of the environmental organization Mission Blue and author of several books, including The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Oceans’ Are One (National Geographic, 2009). For more biographical information, see here.
In this February 19, 2009, TED Talk, “My wish: Protect our oceans,” Sylvia Earle describes why and how we can protect our oceans.
For Earth Day 2017, Sylvia Earle contributed to “The Planet Can’t Stand This Presidency,” an Earth Day weekend feature in the April 23, 2017 New York Times, Sunday Review, which includes reflections by several scientists. Dr. Earle wrote about species extinction, with particular reference to horseshoe crabs. See here
These recent scientific studies highlight how human activities are imperiling our oceans:
- Damien Cave and Justin Gillis, “Large Sections of Australia’s Great Reef Are Now Dead, Scientists Find,” The New York Times, March 15, 2017
- Tatiana Schlossberg, “Trillions of Plastic Bits, Swept Up by Current, Are Littering Arctic Waters,” The New York Times, April 19, 2017
Resources for Protecting Our Oceans
- Mission Blue: Sylvia Earle Alliance: https://www.mission-blue.org
- Ocean Conservancy: http://www.oceanconservancy.org
- Coral Reef Alliance: http://www.coral.org
- NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program: http://coral.reef.noaa.gov
- Google Earth on the oceans: http://earth.google.com/ocean
- National Marine Sanctuaries: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov
- Nature Conservancy on the oceans: https://global.nature.org/our-global-solutions/oceans
- Oceana: http://oceana.org
- United Nations Atlas of the Oceans: http://www.oceansatlas.org