Life is an exploration
You have this deep desire to take care of the environment by exploring it and by understanding it. The marine environment is particularly important: it covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, hosts one of the highest biodiversity on the planet, provides us with food, oxygen and jobs. You are in the right place if like me, you are convinced that in order to protect marine life and to use marine resources sustainably, we need to first understand how marine ecosystems are functionning.
During years studying marine ecology, I have also been able to realize the importance of taking care of yourself in order to be able to take care of the environment. In my opinion, it is essential not to exclude ourselves from nature but to realize that we are actually part of it. This allows us to act for the best in our ecological approach. Feeling guilty and thinking that we are bad for the planet will not provide us the positive feelings that we would need to act in the long term. It is rather our love for nature, for ourselves and for others that will lead to actions beneficial for all. In order to preserve our oceans and their marine life, it is a matter of being aware of the problems, of identifying solutions and of taking action.
#1
Taking care of the ocean in order to take care of yourself
The marine environment is an essential component of the global life-support system.
Covering 71% of the Earth’s surface, our oceans hold some of the highest biodiversity on the planet. It provides a source of food and habitat for more than 80% of Earth’s inhabitants. Just alone, our oceans provide us humans with food, oxygen and jobs. The oceans cultivate and house an abundance of life which make up intricate and vital ecosystems. It is both sad and ironic that our oceans, the most important of environments here on Earth, is the least understood and the most undervalued.
“We are part of nature, if it disappears we disappear with it”
#2
The ocean is our planet’s life support system. It is the provider of food, recreation, transport and even the oxygen we breathe – and to lose this is too big a cost. Protecting the oceans, and us with them, requires understanding the problems, identifying the solutions and taking action.
Protecting the environment requires large-scale actions but also simple everyday actions. So it’s about learning to develop new habits and taking care of ourselves so we can act.
First, we need to identify what actions could help us reduce our ecological footprints. Once we know what to do, it is time to take action. Unfortunately, it can be challenging for most of us to get to act and change our habits.
The key component to be able to take any actions is YOU: it is your thoughts and emotions. To be able to take any action, it requires before hand a thought and an emotion. If you think that it is complicated to set up a compost at home, you may feel discouraged and this will prevent you from taking action and having the life that you really want.
Here, you will therefore learn what you can do to make things happen and how to hack your brain and take all the important actions for you, for others, and for the world.
Manage to take action
Self-development to get to know ourselves, to improve our self-confidence, to define priorities, values, to set up new habits. Understanding how our brain works is an essential component to change our habits and to take action in order to take care of ourselves and thus be able to take care of the oceans.
I am PhD student at Åbo Akademi University in Finland. My main research interests are biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. I am particularly interested in understanding how environmental stressors can impact invertebrate communities living in marine sediments.