Day 4 at the United Nations Ocean Conference

I just finished my fourth day at the UN conference. Over the past four days there has been a lot of talk of the problems that currently persist yet little to no discussion on what should be done. Most of the time there is rhetoric concerning the dire situation we are all in and while this is an important to know I would hope those attending this conference would know many of these facts already. I mean this in the sense that most if not all of the people at this conference are already aware of these problems and are looking for ways to now reverse them. That being said there are many projects around the world that are already working towards a solution. Yet, while at the conference there was only dialogue about what is being done rather than what should be done. Often it was governmental actors simply patting themselves on the back for their work. However, I would argue that the work that any one government is doing is not enough. In fact, I would like to applaud the government of Ghana because while addressing the general assembly they had acknowledged what their systems were lacking and by doing so proved that they, themselves, wanted to improve and grow.

The problem is that we sit in these meetings and talk about cooperation and think we are actually accomplishing something. However, we are not. People keep talking as if all that can be done is being done but that just is not true. There needs to be more action by every human on this planet. That is the only way anything will actually be accomplished. So, while governments continue to have meetings on how to more cooperative the people of the world, you, can use a reusable water bottle, can go to the beach and pick up some plastic, can turn off your lights for a longer time and the list goes on and on. If every person on earth were to do those small actions there would be more accomplished than what any government has done or could do. The earth and oceans is in our hands and is our responsibility.