One fish, two fish, dead fish, no fish?
Today is the second annual celebration of World Ocean Day! The only thing that is unclear to me is what and how we should be celebrating. From the World Oceans’ Day website:
“In 2009 The Ocean Project started an annual tradition associated with World Oceans Day. We launched “Wear Blue and Tell Two” as a new way of celebrating our world’s ocean on June 8th.
The main idea behind “Wear Blue and Tell Two” is to have people associate the color blue with World Oceans Day each year. We also are interested in helping each person multiply their positive reach by telling friends or colleagues two interesting facts about the ocean or ways one can take take personal action to help.”
The United States is in the middle of what is sure to be the worst offshore environmental disaster in our history. Somehow the official slogan, “Wear Blue and Tell Two” and readings of Dr. Suez’s classic “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” seem at best a bit silly. (2010 is the 50th anniversary of a favorite children’s book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss.) I guess cute slogans and rhyming kids’ books can’t do any harm. The observance of “Earth Day” on April 22nd was inspired by the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969. Perhaps, one day,we will look back at the Deepwater Horizon disaster as the event that triggered real change in our attitude toward energy and the oceans. I am not feeling optimistic, but I hope I am wrong.
Everyday is Earth Day, everyday is Ocean Day.
With every dollar you spend, every action you make, if you keep in mind: “No planet, no people. No clean water, no people.” it might behoove us.
April 22 is “Exploitative Commercialism Day.” This year’s event at Times Square was the most dismal travesty. The “official” tshirts were wrapped individually in plastic bags. The tshirts were then put onto molded thin cheap plastic body forms and hung them up for display. Despite claims the tshirts were made of recycled plastic bottles, the tag read “100% cotton.” Fashion idiots ran around with their sponors’ name 2010 on vinyl banners that will expand some landfill.
Thankfully, some sanity was to be found in the company of the EDF Environmental Defense Fund), Riverkeeper, Tranportation Alternatives…sorry if i missed anyone else, i did look. I helped at one table, and asked visitors out of curiousity if they knew of the Garbage Patch. No one, carrying their plastic water bottles, knew of it. “No. What’s for free here?”
Only one man the whole morning did. He seemed like a homeless guy, shuffling along with dusty garbage bags, looking dishevelled. “Oh yes! It’s awful! once you see one photo, you never forget! you should really have some of those photos up!”
There. I did miss something. More sanity in him. Bless him.
“celebrate” is most definitely THE wrong word. being mindful may work . . . a day to be especially mindful of the fragility of what gets taken WAAAAAAY too much for granted. having a day to be especially mindful is an ok idea; we should actually be mindful all the time.
i’m always ready to celebrate something.
i’m going to be mindful that its ok to celebrate every day!
Thank you Christina. You are right. Every day is worth a celebration of some sort.
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