Silvia García
Senior Marine Scientist
Oceana Staff
Wasting and squandering natural resources form part of our way of life. As if these resources were inexhaustible. Evidently, this is not so, but we continue to live like this even though we know millions of people are suffering the serious consequences caused by our actions.
The earth, seas and oceans are being destroyed by our wasteful actions, selfish and unlimited, and we squander away much more than we really need. Climate change, contamination of rivers and seas, threatened species… these are only a few of the sad consequences of our attack on the planet.
Amazingly enough, we continue to treat the oceans as if they were inexhaustible –large fish species are practically extinct, seagrass meadows disappear at an alarming rate, even faster than tropical forests – as if the waters could assimilate all the garbage we make it “swallow.” You need only take a walk on the beach or ride in a boat to see that the garbage does not disappear, it is there and we are all suffering the consequences. The situation is very real and very serious; we cannot and we should not let it continue.
Oceana is focused on working to stop the loss of biodiversity in the oceans and seas, which has serious consequences for our health and the environment. Being a part of this organisation is allowing me to become aware of the wide variety of threats that cause this accelerated loss of biodiversity and to be more conscious of what we can do to avoid it.
