Some things we need to think about as the oceans rise
Content warning: this post discusses natural disasters, including hurricanes and flooding. Some images may be disturbing. Please take care of yourself and click away if these subjects might hurt your heart.
June 1st marks the “official” start of hurricane season in the North Atlantic. World Oceans Day is marked on June 8th. So it seems June is a good time to think about our relationship with the oceans.
Over the past 15 years, we’ve seen too many headlines with those single-monikered swirling images – any one of which should have been the “oh shit” to provoke some major micro and macro changes.
Those of us in suburbs and cities are so disconnected from natural cycles in our everyday lives, we tend to think that we’re also protected from natural disasters and the most extreme forces of nature.
Hundred-year-storms have become perennial. We can’t afford to maintain the delusion that this only happens in the global south.
And that’s not even addressing the actual trashing of the oceans , which is entirely our fault, as a species.
Ancient seafaring people knew enough to fear and respect the sea. We also need to love and tend to her.
Ah how shameless – the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone they say come all their miseries, yes, but they themselves with their own reckless ways compound their pains beyond their proper share.
― Homer, The Odyssey
We are also a fragile species that depends on the oceans to survive – when we think of wildlife we should think of ourselves as an endangered species.
Tamara Dean, Photographer
What do we do, then?
Prepare for disasters.
Prevent worse environmental degradation, and stop doing the human activities that contribute to extreme weather.
Enjoy the beauty and power and magic of being a two-legged animal in relation with the ocean.
Prepare
I recently discovered Preparation Concierge, the disaster-prepper review site for the urban “coastal elites”. Here are 3 things you can do today to start building your household’s disaster preparedness and resilience.
And here is their advice for what to do right now if a hurricane is tracking to your area.
Prevent
Start doing everything you can to drastically reduce your carbon footprint – and then keep pushing yourself past your comfort zone of eco-self-righteousness.
Look, we’re all guilty of this. We’ve bought into the responsibilization of this catastrophe, where we buy the products, so we’re responsible for disposing of the packaging and the toxins and the waste. But it’s not enough. And it’s not the consumer’s sole responsibility.
Your carefully sorted and rinsed recycling is being incinerated in a trash-to-energy plant as we speak – and that’s the best-case scenario. Let’s stop fooling ourselves.
We need to inconvenience ourselves a bit more, seeking out products that don’t require excessive packaging – and learning how to make or grow our own. Using old fashioned methods that require a little more elbow grease, instead of just a stronger chemical.
And we need to dedicate time to pressure corporations to get dead serious on waste solutions and safe ingredients – and engaging with our legislatures to regulate it, and accelerate the rate of change.
Enjoy
And what is the point of all this effort and angst?
We need to lean hard into loving on our oceans and other bodies of water.
Paint them, sing songs about them, swim and sail through them.
Pay homage. Make (non-toxic, biodegradable) offerings. Pray to the water cycle.
Drink deeply and give thanks.