Oceans in Crisis—Human Garbage

The level of consciousness that created a problem in the first place is not the level of consciousness whereby the problem can be fixed. Yet, having learned little or nothing from history, our civilization is currently destroying the very environment from which it sprang and on which it relies for continuance. To change anything, we must, through the choices we make, reach beyond where we are, beyond where we feel safe. We must dare to move ahead, even if we do not fully understand where we are going or the price of getting there because we will never have perfect knowledge. And, we must become students of processes and let go our advocacy of positions and embattlements over winning agreement with narrow points of view. True progress toward an ecologically sound land-sea environment and a socially just culture will be initially expensive in both money and effort, but in the end will be progressively benefit all generations. The longer we wait, however, the more disastrous becomes the social-environmental consequences of the current land-sea nexus and the more expensive and difficult become the necessary social changes. No biological shortcuts, technological quick fixes, or political hype can mend what is broken. Dramatic, fundamental change is necessary if we are really concerned with bettering the quality of life-even that of next year. It is not a question of can we or can't we change, but one of will we or won't we change. Change is a choice, a choice of individuals reflected in the collective of society and mirrored in the biophysical land-sea connection of human garbage.