Some experts look at global warming, increased world temperature, as the critical tipping point that is causing a crash in coral reef health around the world.
SYLVIA EARLEAs a child, I was aware of the widely-held attitude that the ocean is so big, so resilient that we could use the sea as the ultimate place to dispose of anything.
More Sylvia Earle Quotes
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When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do.
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Far and away, the greatest threat to the ocean, and thus to ourselves, is ignorance. But we can do something about that.
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No matter where on Earth you live. Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere is generated by the sea.
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For heaven’s sake, when you see the enemy attacking, you pick up the pitchfork, and you enlist everybody you see.
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We did not want, from garbage and nuclear wastes to sludge from sewage to entire ships that had reached the end of their useful life.
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The fragility, and even the degradation of our planet’s blue heart.
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If somebody dumps something noxious in my back yard, the dumper is the last one I would call on to repair the damage.
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My first encounter with the ocean was on the Jersey Shore when I was three years old and I got knocked over by a wave.
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Every time I slip into the ocean, it’s like going home.
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Photosynthetic organisms in the sea yield most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, take up and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide, shape planetary chemistry, and hold the planet steady.
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That, in turn, influences the temperature of the planet. The Arctic is now vulnerable because of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, with a rate of melting that is stunning.
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What we once used as weapons of war, we now use as weapons against fish.
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In terms of personal choices, let’s all think more carefully about where we get our protein from.
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We wouldn’t be able to survive. We would have a hard time surviving if we were transported to the time when dinosaurs were around.
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You should be afraid if you are in the ocean and don’t see sharks.
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Green’ issues at last are attracting serious attention, owing to critically important links between the environment and the economy, health, and our security.
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Ice ages have come and gone. Coral reefs have persisted.
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When I write a scientific treatise, I might reach 100 people. When the ‘National Geographic’ covers a project, it communicates about plants and fish and underwater technology to more than 10 million people.
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My parents moved to Florida when I was 12, and my backyard was the Gulf of Mexico.
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I have come up at the end of a dive, and the boat was not where I left it. I had to take care of a buddy who did panic. But I was confident the boat would come back.
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Since the middle of the 20th century, more has been learnt about the ocean than during all preceding human history; at the same time, more has been lost.
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I have lots of heroes: anyone and everyone who does whatever they can to leave the natural world better than they found it.
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There are some who would like to see the oil rigs removed right down to the ground once their job is done, and there are others, and I count myself among them, who think that once they are in place they begin to be adopted by life in the ocean as a habitat.
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Anything injured, or any unusual creature somebody found, they would always come to our doorstep.
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On a sea floor that looks like a sandy mud bottom, that at first glance might appear to be sand and mud, when you look closely and sit there as I do for a while and just wait, all sorts of creatures show themselves, with little heads popping out of the sand. It is a metropolis.
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Nothing has prepared sharks, squid, krill and other sea creatures for industrial-scale extraction that destroys entire ecosystems while targeting a few species.
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