Download All faiths and spiritual teachings treasure in their

An Interfaith Ethic of
the Oceans
STAGE ONE STATEMENT
February 2014
The Interfaith Ocean Ethic and Issue Statement is a collaborative effort informed by
different faith traditions, scriptures, and science, drawing heavily on the Bible. Following
the model of the succinct land ethic of Aldo Leopold and ocean ethic of Carl Safina, as well
as the sea ethic statements of Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew, the Green Zionist Alliance, Green Muslims, and Turkish literature, we are
articulating an ethic that encapsulates common religious guidance and longings, and
applies it to current ocean issues. We encourage religious leaders and communities to take
the work done and use it for dissemination, policy-making, action, faith formation and
discussion. We invite religious leaders and organizations to endorse this statement or write
their own, to speak out publicly to the world, and to spread awareness, study, and service
in protection and restoration.
The Interfaith Ocean Ethics Campaign is a joint program of the World Stewardship Institute
and the U.S. National Religious Coalition on Creation Care and the Franciscan Action
Network. We work on some projects in affiliation with Franciscans International. In
prayerful research and discernment, the Interfaith Ocean Ethics Campaign articulated this
ethic and ocean issues statement. We have consulted with scientists and read scientific
literature to ensure the accuracy of information on threats to the oceans.
The Interfaith Ocean Ethics Campaign aims to bridge the gaps between religious
organizations, and between faith and science, to work together to spread awareness of the
dire threats to ocean systems and life, and to catalyze action to preserve and restore
marine systems, species, and cultures. We see religion, science, and art as partners in
seeking spiritual, moral and practical solutions.
The campaign began as a small interfaith expedition of discernment to the Episcopal Camp
Mokule’ia on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawai’i in October 2012, sponsored by the National
Religious Coalition on Creation Care. Because the need has been so great, the campaign
has grown exponentially from there, with the Franciscan Action Network embracing it as
part of its mission. Because of the international nature of oceans, the project quickly moved
from a U.S. national effort to an international one, through the parent organizations of
Franciscan International and the World Stewardship Institute. Our team members,
advisors, and partner organizations represent a spectrum of faith and interfaith groups,
including Roman Catholic, Evangelical Christian, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox Christian,
Jewish, Muslim, Native Hawaiian, and many others.
We will be using this guiding ethic statement and the findings of scientists and ecologists
to make recommendations to the United Nations, World Bank, corporations and commerce,
national and local governments about policies and legislations. We will be urging all
religious leaders, organizations, communities, and believers to lead by being the change we
seek.
This Statement includes

Foreword: Why an Interfaith Religious Ethic of the Oceans?

The Necessity of the Voice of Religion to Speak Out and Act for a Compelling FullLife Vision that Encompasses the Ocean

A Succinct Interfaith Ocean Ethic

The State of the Oceans and Our Seven Deadly Sins of the Seas

The Benefits and Call to Religious and International Action

Preliminary Policy Recommendation on the Seven Deadly Ocean Issues

Stories of Hope and Restoration

Addendum: A Litany for a Religious/Spiritual Ocean Ethic

A Preliminary List of Resources
To sign on as an endorsing this IOEC statement or adding supportive
comments or feedback, please contact IOEC director,
Marybeth Lorbiecki by January 20, 2014.
Interfaith Ocean Ethics Campaign
Director Marybeth Lorbiecki,
[email protected] 715-386-9633
Franciscan Action Network (FAN) Executive Director Patrick Carolan,
[email protected] 202 527 7565 (administrative organization)
Coordinating Partners
National Religious Coalition on Creation Care: http://nrccc.org/
(which includes members such as the Green Zionist Alliance, etc.)
World Stewardship Institute: http://www.ecostewards.org/
Franciscan Action Network: http://franciscanaction.org/
Franciscans International: http://www.franciscansinternational.org/
2
Foreword:
Why an Interfaith Religious Ethic of the Oceans?
Water cradles us from our birth, sustains us in life, and heals us in sickness.
It delights us in play, enlivens our spirit, purifies our body, and refreshes our mind.
We share the miracle of water with the entire community of life.
Indeed each one of us is a microcosm of the oceans that sustain life…
Every person in the world is in essence a miniature ocean…
So what we do to the oceans, God’s vast blue Creation,
We do to God’s other creations, including ourselves…
Ecumenical Patriarch Barthlomew, “Declaration on the World’s Oceans”
Stockholm, Sweden, June 7, 2003
§0.1 "The ocean is broken" writes an experienced Newcastle sailor who took a 2013 trip
from Melbourne to Osaka. Where he used to hear birds and see dolphins, sea turtles,
whales, and other life, he heard and saw nothing except the debris hitting their craft. They
could only use their motor in the day for fear of getting it tangled in debris. Oil slicks, plastic
garbage, fishing nets were what they saw. The fish too were gone that they normally
caught to eat along the way. Instead, they ran into fishing boats that had been trawling the
bottom, catching the fish left in those depths, and they were treating all the many fish they
caught other than tuna as rubbish.
§0.2 At the same time, sardine fisherman from British Columbia caught not a single
sardine in their fishing season -- not a single one for an industry formerly worth $32 million
dollars annually. South African sardine fisherman had similar results. The ocean is broken.
It is in such a state of threat that the World Bank has issued its own warning, calling
fishermen and other businesses dependent on the oceans to step up to the plate to do
their job. Religion must do its job as well.
But where is the voice of religion?
§0.3 According to a global study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, more than
8 out of 10 people in the world consider themselves religious, or 84% of the international
population. And though they share many common religious principles, particularly in the
area of care of creation, their voice has been largely missing in national and global
ecological and environmental discussions. --- Major exceptions have been Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople’s sponsoring of interfaith symposiums on the
world’s major bodies of water with the Halki Institute in Turkey and the Religion, Science,
and Environment organization in Greece, the Roman Catholic document on the Law of the
Seas called the “Universal Purpose of Created Things” and Pope John Paul II’s trip down
the Rhine to encourage its restoration which benefited the North Sea, and the Green
3
Zionist Alliance’s work on the Seas of Israel and Mideast, and their ethical statement “Brit
HaYam: A Covenant with the Sea” and supportive prayers.
§0.4 At the very core of all religious stirrings and traditions is the acknowledgement that
we did not create this universe, and that we are beholden and duty-bound to the
Mysterious Creator (unexplainable forces of power and spirit, emanating Light) who did –
and who continues to be at work in all. Therefore we cannot harm the life that has been
created without great moral, physical, social, economic, and spiritual consequences.
Other deep truths woven like threads of grace throughout religious traditions include:

All of life is connected, having been created through the same forces of spirit and
matter (which science confirms in its study of the shared water, minerals, and
genetic components of life).

Life is both a physical and spiritual reality, continuously being renewed with the
force of the spirit(s) of life pulsing throughout all of nature, including us.

We do not own this planet or its resources but are offered them on loan for use
while we are living to care for and then pass them on to future generations in good
shape.

Each species is made for God’s own purposes through the forces of creation and
has a necessary place, and all are linked by virtue of being made of the same
matter and in the same systems of life.

All the creation’s resources are for the good of all and are to be shared – this is the
“universal purpose of all things” (Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace).

The poor, widowed orphans, children, and strangers are particularly to be cared for.

Kindness, care, generosity, humility, compassion, courage, self-restraint, love, and
action to protect the good and the vulnerable are virtues honored as right; cruelty,
waste, selfishness, greed, pride, cynicism, indifference, and inaction in the face of
threats to the vulnerable are abhorred as wrong.

We are called to heal others, bind up their wounds, and restore that which has been
destroyed.

Fasting, prayers, and meditation, and acts of generosity, repentance, forgiveness,
atonement, and restoration are honored and necessary.

Land, oceans, and the sky have been linked from the beginning and continue to be
so.

We are required to raise our youth up in the ways of the goodness, responsibility,
and hope.

We are also called to pass on to the next generations of our heritage of a world that
is naturally abundant, fertile, hospitable for them to call home.
4
§0.5 Our lives as humans are dependent upon the oceans – and they are a source
of unending blessings, as they provide rain, enable trading and transportation, provide
nourishment, facilitate cleanliness and purity, and are the root of our existence. One third
of earth’s human population lives within fifty miles of an ocean coast, and well over half the
planet’s species live in or near the oceans, directly dependent upon them. Averaged out,
each person in the world consumes about thirty-five pounds of ocean food each year.
§0.6 Of the 925 million people who go hungry each night, almost half (400 million)
live in countries highly dependent on fish for their staple food source. Oceans
provide over 15-20% of our animal protein, and subsistence fishermen and coastal hunters
are hurt the hardest in terms of hunger as marine populations drop. People of faith are
called to feed the hungry.
§0.6 Half of the planet’s breath, or oxygen, is produced by the oceans, so one can
imagine that oxygen is in every other breath we take, or half of each breath. Breath is
sacred in most every religion and spirituality, as offering life and flowing from the Creator.
Native Hawaiians acknowledge the loving connection of all life in their traditional greeting
and good-bye: “aloha.” “Alo,” means heart of the universe, and “ha,” the breath of God. In
a traditional exchange of breath, one also exchanges one’s spirit, respect, and honor. It is
similar to the Eastern concept of namaste -- I honor the God in you. The Jewish theologian
Martin Buber called this the “I-Thou” relationship, where suddenly the I is related to thou,
and vice versa. Hindu beliefs state that all arises from the breath of the God Vishnu. This
concept of all peoples and animals sharing the spiritual breath of God is woven through the
Bible as well. Books of the Bible shared by both Jews and Christians refer the breath of
God’s Spirit causing life in animals and people. The Qur’an teaches that Allah is the giver
of all life and death in the earth and spiritual breath, and that Allah created the animals out
of water and people out of clay (which is a mix of water and soil) and share the same
breath of God. Yet even the ocean’s oxygen-producing abilities are declining as the ocean
systems degrading.
§0.7 Water is sacred in virtually every religion, culture, and tradition around the
world because we all depend upon water for life. Just as 70% of the earth is covered by
salt water in the oceans, so 70% of our human bodies is composed of saltwater. All of the
world’s oceans are linked in a flowing whole, so in that sense, there is really only one
ocean.
§0.8 As Patriarch Bartholomew observed in his “Declaration on the World’s Oceans”:
“Oceans were and are our medium of travel around the world. They link all peoples,
coastal and landlocked, in study, in trade, in communication, in worship.”
§0.9 Almost half of the planet’s species abide in the oceans and thus merit care,
compassion, and protection. Saint Francis acknowledged this by calling all of nature our
brothers and sisters. This is a common view in indigenous cultures around the world. The
Dakota Sioux say, “Mitukaye Oyasin,” All My Relations, or we are all related in the circle of
life. The first books of the Bible shared by Jews and Christians, and in part by Muslims,
states that the Lord put humans in a covenant with the animals and God after the flood and
Noah’s ark. This covenant is a relationship of inherent and intimate connectivity. The Hindu
sacred text Atharva Veda states "Let there be peace in the heavens, the Earth, the
5
atmosphere, the water, the herbs, the vegetation, among the divine beings and in
Brahman, the absolute reality. Let everything be at peace and in peace. Only then will we
find peace." The Blessed John Paul II put it this way, “Peace with God the Creator, Peace
with All Creation.”
§0.10 The Bible teaches that for Christians, for in addition to the story of creation and
many other references through the Old Testament, the New Testament states that Christ is
in all creation (“In the beginning was the Word… and through Him all things came to be”
John 1) and one is asked to discern Christ in each person as well as in every species and
element in nature. Jesus taught his followers how to pray using the words “our,” “we,” and
“us: and not “my,” “I” and “me.” From the genesis on and the covenant made after Noah’s
flood, it is clear that God’s “our,” “we,” and “us” embraces all of creation.
§0.11 Other religions and spiritual paths also acknowledge the connective nature and
kinship of all of life. Buddhism states that this earth emanates from the clear light and that
this is light is the Primordial Buddha, and all of life is connected in this, which is always in a
state of emergence. We are all in this together on this planet, beyond borders of religion,
culture, nation, color, age, time, and species.
§0.12 Despite this connectivity, the world is not acting sufficiently to save the coastal
indigenous peoples and islanders, and indigenous polar peoples who are feeling the ocean
effects rising waters, storms, and melting glaciers, sea pack, and tundra. It is a form of
environmental racism for the world not to care and act to stop the loss, hunger, and
suffering.
§0.13 As Patriarch Bartholomew observed
So what we do to the oceans, God's vast blue Creation, we also do to God's other creations,
including ourselves. Once we humans did not know that we could harm God's Creation.
The oceans, especially, seemed so vast as to be invulnerable.
But now we know differently. We know how fragile is our precious Earth and its oceans.
We know how essential they are to sustaining our bodies, our minds, our hearts and our
spirits. And we know that the oceans, even in their vastness, are feeling the crushing
burden of humans' callous ignorance.
§0.14 Ocean water is the global thermostat that regulates climate, redistributes heat, and
circulates moisture around the planet through gigantic currents. The weather on land
originates over the ocean. Sea water evaporates into moisture in the air, is carried by
winds and clouds, and brings moisture inland for rain and snow, giving the land its water
cycles, essential for life.
0.15 Around the world, in natural disasters, influenced by ocean and weather systems,
the poor are always hardest hit and have the least resources for recovery. They become
the refugees and depend upon others until they can restore their livelihoods.
§0.16 Eighty percent of pollution to the marine environment originates on land. A
major source of contamination occurs from harmful substances being drained or spilling
into rivers and streams. This involves many industrial sources as well as small residential
6
and business sources, such as leaking septic tanks, farm and ranch runoff, and soil
erosion. Millions of motor vehicle engines drop small amounts of oil onto roads and parking
lots. Much of this washes into the sea. Some water pollution originates as air pollution. It
then falls mixed with rainfall and drains into waterways and oceans. Topsoil or silt from
fields or unprotected construction sites can run off into waterways, harming fish and wildlife
habitats. Most plastic pollution also derives from land sources. The consumer and life
habits and products we have in cities, towns, and rural areas shape the state and fate of
the oceans.
§0.17 Sadly, our economic systems, personal habits, physical infrastructures, energy
sources, and products are built upon unrealistic visions that our waste and overuse of
resources harm nothing – that the oceans are so vast and marine species so numerous
that they can be maintained without care. We worry instead that limits on corporations,
businesses, governments, and ourselves based on communal responsibility actually harm
us. But the Qur’an teaches: "O children of Adam! ... eat and drink: but waste not by
excess, for Allah loves not the wasters." (Surah 7:31). It counsels that care must be given
to share with those less fortunate. The Judeo-Christian Bible also teaches not to eat or
drink or use earthly goods or the land to excess, but always to save a portion for the poor,
the sojourner, and God’s own purposes. “When you reap the harvest of your land, you
shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after
your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen
grapes of your vineyard (Leviticus 19:9-10). The varied indigenous spiritual traditions of the
globe emphasize taking only what you need from Mother Earth, respecting other species,
and sharing with all those with less. This is just a sampling of the similar ecological and
earth-care wisdom running through the religions of the world.
§0.18 In contrast to these religious, spiritual, and moral teachings, we are daily and
monumentally stripping the oceans of their abundance, diversity, and fertility, and using
them for our dumping grounds. We have divvied up the oceans into little territories,
ignoring the larger systems, migration paths, and health of the whole. (The Roman
Catholic Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace addressed the problems of this in its
statement on the laws of the sea: “The Universal Purpose of Created Things.”) We are
overfishing, overharvesting, and polluting the ocean with plastics, oil, sewage, chemicals,
and nuclear refuse that is not only killing species but distributing toxins back to us in the fat
cells of the marine species we eat. The fossil fuels we are pouring into the atmosphere,
especially the carbon, are being absorbed by the ocean water. As the C02 meets the H20,
it turns to carbonic acid. So not only are we heating up the oceans but we are turning them
to a warmed acidic soup that is eating away at the calcium-based skeletons of the marine
species and the shells of lobsters, shrimp, oysters, clams, mussels and other shellfish and
the coral reefs.
§0.19 Many people of faith and of secular beliefs are not aware of all the threats. As Dr.
Dr. Ufuk Özdağ, asks of the Turkish people of the Marmara region in her plea for an ocean
ethic:
Can Marmara residents expand their vision to include marine life in their sense of
community?
Such a community concept would urge responsible behavior toward the sea and its
7
creatures. Are [they] aware that they are connected to the sea around them through
the seafood they eat and the other marine resources they use? As [Aldo] Leopold
noted, to not be aware of this linkage poses a “spiritual danger.”
Do the Marmara people know how the marine environment has changed within their
lifetime? Do they know what events led to loss of marine biodiversity? Do they know
that the sea around them is what it is because of their past decisions? If they did,
would they now be willing to make pro-marine life choices?
Knowing the impact of our past decisions is a first step toward a sustainable marine
ecosystem. Are they aware that human health is connected to sea health, and that the
health of the seas, and in turn human health, is determined by our values? Such
awareness would be a key factor in developing an expanded land ethic to include the
seas. Do they know that for replenishing diminished sea-life, collective action of
coastal communities is necessary? Such collective action would reconnect us to the
sea creatures.
§0.19 If religion is to speak authentically on anything, it must speak about these reckless
activities and about systematic threats to the ocean systems and marine species, the poor,
the hospitability of our planet, and all of creation upon it for generations to come. It is time
for religion to make people aware and of all the physical and spiritual dangers involved in
ignorance, indifference, and inaction. This is why religious leaders such as Pope John Paul
II and many others have proclaimed unequivocally, “The ecological crisis is a moral crisis!”
(World Day of Peace Message 1990).
The Necessity for the Voice of Religion
To Speak Out and Act in
A Compelling, Full-Life Vision of Care
that Embraces the Oceans
§1.0 Scientists and ocean organizations have seen for decades the destruction occurring
but have not been able to sufficiently awaken the public to the dangers and the need to
change and to restore what has been lost. Science can detect, describe, predict,
understand, and restore some of the complexity of ecological relationships. Science can
also provide a window for seeing the connections, causes and effects, and offer tools for
choosing actions that support or degrade an ecological system or a species. But science
cannot adequately offer the values and moral vision to inspire others to choose the
protective actions. Nor does science provide the necessity to respect and care for and
sustain what can be scientifically described and studied. That is the role of religion, ethics,
morality, affectionate imagination, respect, kindness, and compassion.
8
§1.1 The oceans, unseen in their depths, are integrally connected to all life on land through
the weather, water, and food systems. The Islamic poet, philosopher and mystic, Jalāl adDīn Muḥammad Rūmī, also known a Rumi, wrote "You are not just the drop in the ocean.
You are the mighty ocean in the drop.” And since the present destruction of the ocean
systems and species is undermining the foundational systems that support all life on earth,
causing greater suffering and poverty for the poor, and eliminating species, the voice of
religion cannot be silent. It must speak out emphatically and prophetically, calling all to
repentance and action, transformation and restoration. The physical and ecological
indicators show us we have no time to spare. We must speak and act now. We have
delayed too long already.
§1.2 Historically, religion has had a role in every major movement for rights and
responsibility. From the framing of constitution’s that give voice to individuals and the
poor, to the Abolitionist Movement to Women’s Rights, to the Civil Rights Movement, to the
War against Poverty, religion has provided the moral, ethical and spiritual underpinnings
and rationale. Now religion has turned to the very foundation of life and religion itself—the
garden of this planet.
The Spiritual and Physical Connectivity of All Life
§1.3 As in all past movements, the calls for change calls to account failures in societal
assumptions about who we are and who we include in our structures of rights and
responsibilities. Each movement has called for a deeper understanding of our sense of
connection and mutuality. As Martin Luther King Jr, wrote in his “Letter from Birmingham
Jail,” “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of
destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” In terms of application to
ocean issues, marine biologist Dr. Sylvia Earle put it well: “What we must do is encourage
a sea change in attitude, one that acknowledges we are a part of the living world, not apart
from it.”
§1.4 The diverse species, habitats, and ecosystems each perform needed functions,
such as mangrove swamps absorbs metals, toxins, and sewage, filtering the water that
flows into oceans while providing essential nurseries for shrimp and other sea creatures;
sea grass beds filter water and offer some shore protection; sea otters keep the sea urchin
population from overpopulating to the point of harming coral beds and kelp forests. Sharks,
tuna, swordfish, and sea turtles hold jellyfish populations in balance. Bioluminescent fish
and tubeworms offer light sources in the depths beyond sunlight. Tubeworms scavenge on
whale bones and scat. In this way, intact nature provides ecosystem functions and humans
with food, materials, and medicines. On land, the forests absorb carbon and help combat
ocean acidification, while also storing moisture for rain and keep land from eroding into
watersheds and eventually into oceans in addition to providing oxygen for breath, home for
wildlife, besides wood products and just plain beauty (the many essential gifts of trees is
why they are sacred in the Bible and in most cultures); coral reefs protect coastlines from
storms and harbor marine life. Just as a hand and an ear are different but just as essential
to the working of the human body, so are these different parts essential to the body of
nature of God’s creation.
9
§1.5 From the perspective of science and economy, the task of each species in
cooperation with the whole is often referred as “nature¹s services”, the tallied cost
of the benefits offered by the species to human quality of life. The Natural Capital
Project -- a joint project by Stanford University Woods Institute for the Environment,
University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, The Nature Conservancy and The
World Wildlife Fund -- helps governments, businesses, and organizations globally try to
assess some of these qualities in their decision making and planning, but not be limited to
them. Putting a monetary value is just one way to see the richness of the functions of each
species and their services to the planet. It is not a way to reduce their worth to only the
functions humans can tally, or trade, or put a price tag on. Some may seem worthless or
even only destructive to humans with limited site, but decisions to extirpate species for
such reasons in the past, such as with wolves, have led to ecologically devastating effects
to other species, and to human economies. Such is the case of declining shark populations
leading to dangerous blooms in jellyfish populations, harming tourism and costly attempts
to reduce the negative effects of the overabundance of jellyfish.
§1.6 All things, even the smallest creatures, have intrinsic value by virtue of their very
existence and origin from a Creator. This is made clear in many religions throughout the
earth. For example, in the Genesis story of creation, which Jews, Christians, and Muslims
all respect, declares that when God created each element or directed the earth to call them
forth, it proclaims, “And God saw that it was good.” For this reason, all parts of creation must
be respected and honored as good and necessary and loved and cared for, even the “least”
of our species. By honoring God’s spirit in all things, each species, and each individual of a
species, people of faith do not worship matter but worship the Author of all matter and
all organisms.
§1.7 From the perspective of many religions, nature is a varied theophany -- or expressed
glimpses of God’s awe inspiring power, majesty and natural art. St. Francis envisioned it
all species and elements of nature as creatures in a choir, continually singing God’s
praises through their existence. From the nano particle through the bacteria and amoebas
to sea slugs to whales to forests of sea kelp, all are filled with energy and spirit. The
principle of physical biodiversity is mirrored in the New Testament concept of diversity of
spiritual gifts and talents needed for harmony in the human community. In the vastness of
creation, each species has unique and essential values, and is necessary for the integrity
and health of the planet. No ocean species or individual is without value as each has a
function in life’s design or a place in God’s choir of creation. Each culture, people, and
religious tradition also has unique voices in the songs of creation.
§1.8 The nautilus shell, with its enlarging spirals emanating from the center, is a symbol of
this spiritual flow of the universe and the order within its relationships, with the ripple
effects of actions for good or for ill radiating outward from the Creator, through creation
and our ourselves, as well as from the ocean to the atmosphere and land masses and the
poor, from economic and social systems, from the present to the future, from the Creator
to all of life and all the universe through the infinity of time and space.
§1.9 Too often, this vision of natural sacredness is forgotten as religious traditions tangle
with secular assumptions, narrow dogma, or wrangle with political agendas. Or when
10
greed, corporate or stockholder success, or personal luxury and convenience trump over
values and responsibility. When we forget this sacred spirit of God alive in the universe, we
see the world only as something to exploit for profit, convenience, whimsy, or recreation,
with no limits to our use. The consequences harm all of us. The ocean systems and
species are now in such a deteriorating condition that as they degrade, our lives and
livelihoods become buffeted by storms, droughts, and toxicity, threats to public health, the
collapsing of marine species and markets, and the loss of places and species of beauty
and worth.
An Expanded Life Vision, Understanding, and Action
§1.10 Care of the oceans is at its heart a core life issue not only because of the
spectrum of life affected, but also because the unborn and children are particularly
vulnerable for many reasons, including:







Because all of life depends on the healthy relationships between the oceans,
atmosphere, land, and freshwater systems.
Because the toxins that are degrading life in the seas -- such as mercury,
chemicals, radiation, plastic wastes and their chemicals– accumulate in fish and
other marine life, and when eaten by mothers, cause unwanted abortions, birth
defects, childhood cancers and illnesses.
Because the chemicals from oil, gas, mining, hydraulic fracturing that pollute the
freshwater sources that flow through rivers to pollute the oceans first pollute the
water sources of the local communities. Once again, the mothers who drink this
polluted water offer in utero and through breast milk toxins to their children, causing
unwanted abortions, birth defects, childhood cancers and illnesses.
Because the poor, women and children and elderly, and our brother and sister
species are first and most harmed by destruction of ocean life and systems.
Because future generations to come are also harmed, causing suffering for
generations to come.
Because degradation of marine life causes economic degradation, the ripple effects
of economic problems make it more difficult to care for society’s children.
The natural disasters and rising ocean levels
§1.11 If we do not act now, we are offering nothing for our unborn children and
generations to come. We must engage with the realities shown by science, pray for help
and God’s own Spirit, and become the change we seek. We must also band together to
push for new cultural values and actions; to say no to pipelines, hydro-fracking, off shore
drilling, and coal plants; and cal for new public policies of ocean, land, and atmospheric
restoration, reforestation, and grassland reconstruction. We must also put our money
where our mouths are and divest as individuals, faith communities, seminarians, and
universities in corporations that are involved in oil, gas, mining and deforestation. We must
shift to alternative energies and earth repairing investments.
11
The Mandate for Religions to Speak Up and Act
§1.12 There too will be a spiritual and moral accounting if religions do not speak up
and tell the truth. We do not own this planet or anything on it in any permanent
sense. It all belongs to the Creator, and we are but tenants with use of this earth in
our short lifetimes. And even beyond the damage we do to other species, which is
substantial and immoral, each of these ocean problems affects the poor drastically.
§1.13 If we do not speak out and change our ways, we will not only find ourselves in
biological and ecological disasters, we will find ourselves in spiritual and physical peril –
not just because of an accounting with our Maker, not just because we will have neglected
the needs of the poor of this world, and not just because our economic systems will
unravel as the natural resources do, but also because our youth will turn from us in
cynical disgust at our hypocrisy and selfishness – that we would pass on to them a
world degraded and inhospitable to life because of our selfishness: our pollution, over
waste, over exploitation, over harvesting, over development, and loss of species.
§1.14 Our youth shall find religion and spiritual beliefs irrelevant and impotent.
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from jail about this same problem. He was addressing
Christian churches about civil rights and justice, but his words hold true for all faiths and
prophetic witnesses, and they hold true for the cause of creation care and ecological
justice, working to free all the poor scourged and imprisoned by ocean and climate
destruction they cannot control and did not fully cause:
So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So
often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the
church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent-and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not
recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the
loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the
twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church
has turned into outright disgust.
Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound
to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner
spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the
world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized
religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active
partners in the struggle....
I have no despair about the future. I... We will win ... because the sacred heritage of our
nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.
12
§1.15 We also are spiritually harmed when we cut ourselves off the beauty of
creation and our kinship with the animals and plants, both wild and domestic. As
anyone who has a pet or garden or birdfeeder, planted forest or prairie knows, our
relationships with other species are life giving in ways that are difficult to define and put on
an accounting sheet. When we harm other species, and help along their suffering and
extinction, we harm ourselves as humans, and generations to come, on more levels than
we can ever see.
§1.16 This is why we, as people of faith, together with you, must speak out strongly to
make people aware of the threats and connections, and remind all people and
policymakers of our serious moral and religious obligation to care for the systems and
species of the oceans. And we must work through restorative actions and justice to renew
the face of the earth, engaging the poor, especially women, and our youth, as creative
actors with local expertise and understanding to share.
A Succinct Interfaith Ocean Ethic
§1.17 To catalyze unified religious voice and action in behalf of ocean issues, the Interfaith
Ocean Ethics Campaign has articulated an ethic of shared religious principles that can
then be applied to the varied ocean issues and threats:
The whole cosmos, including the earth’s lands and oceans, belongs to God, its
ultimate Creator.
Thus, an act that affects the oceans is right if it tends to preserve, conserve, or
repair the stability, integrity, beauty, and fruitfulness of the ocean’s natural
communities -- of which we are an interactive part – and if it extends the Creator’s
respect, love, and kinship to all the living creatures therein.
Any act that tends otherwise is morally and religiously wrong.
And a status quo of harm is wrong as well. We are called as humans to love what
God has given us, and work harmoniously with God for the healthy living of all
species and systems, both now and to come, with special care for the poor,
vulnerable, and endangered. So we must begin our transitions, service, and
sacrifices for better ocean and earth care now.
Together, and as individuals, we must ask for forgiveness for our excesses, work to
repair wrongs done, and accept in humility that we will never live in perfect
harmony. Yet we must strive, and in the striving and prayer, be transformed as the
oceans are restored.
§1.18 We also recognize how difficult and imperfect all of our efforts are, and that we
cannot feel guilty for all our actions because they are not completely in full harmony or
because we cannot know or be responsible for all the repercussions of each large and
small action. As conservationist Aldo Leopold said:
13
We shall never achieve harmony with the land [or ocean]
Any more than we shall achieve
Absolute justice or liberty for people.
In these higher aspirations
the important thing
Is not to achieve but to strive,
“Natural History,” A Sand County Almanac
This rare and endangered Hawaiian monk seal
crawled onto the beach right in front of us as
we discussed the plight of the oceans.
14
The State of the Oceans and
Our Seven Deadly Sins of the Seas
§2.0 Now, and within the next ten years, we as humans are making choices that will
determine in part the quality and diversity of life on this planet – what will survive
and what will not, the amount of suffering and poverty, and what beauty shall be left,
on this earth.
Whether we like this role or not, we are co-creators of a positive or negative future for the
planet. And right now, without intending it, we are globally creating some of the same
ecological conditions that existed at the geological time dubbed as “the Great Dying”
(Permian-Triassic), when there were mass extinctions – in the oceans, in the atmosphere,
and on land.
§2.1 As scientists at the University of Bristol explain:
excess carbon in the atmosphere causes warming, the warming triggers the release
of more methane [carbon-12] from gas hydrates, this in turn causes yet more warming,
which leads to the release of more methane and so on. As temperatures rise, species start to
go extinct. Plants and plankton die off and oxygen levels plummet. This is what seems to
have happened 251 million years ago ….. It took 20 or 30 million years for coral reefs to reestablish themselves, and for the forests to regrow. In some settings, it took 50 million years
or more for full ecosystem complexity to recover. Geologists and paleontologists are only just
beginning to get to grips with this most profound of crises.
§2.2 One of the great worries of climate and ocean scientists as they are watching the
polar sea ice and tundra melt is that the enormous methane gas hydrates and sinks will
begin to give off dense concentrations of methane. Scientists say we are heading for a
runaway greenhouse gas feedback loop….more warming with more methane released,
with oxygen levels dropping in the oceans and on land.
§2.3. The temperature trends of the planet have been heading upward with some of the
hottest recorded sustained global temperatures in the last decade. Australia experienced
such intense, sustained heat in January 2013 that climatologists had to add two new colors
to their heat index maps. So far, much of this warmth is being absorbed by the seas. With
hotter seas, fish migration patterns are changing as they cannot stand the rising heat, yet
their food sources may not be moving with them. These shifts in themselves are causing
problems in fish populations and for the fishing communities that depend on them.
§2.4 The polar caps are melting at a faster than predicted rate and sea levels have rising in
a similar fashion, shifting and weakening the Gulf Stream, and causing more intense
marine storms, as well as inland droughts and tornadoes. As in a pressure cooker, we
have been turning up the heat to low boil. Bangladesh, the Caribbean islands, and the
Philippines particularly know the increasing fury of such storms. In the last six years, the
Philippines has been pummeled by Fengshen, Washi, Bopha, and now Haiyan.
15
§2.5 On November 11, 2013, after Super Typhoon Haiyan, Yeb Sano, the Philippines’
delegate at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Poland
spoke out powerfully and poignantly, saying:
To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off
your ivory tower and away from the comfort of your armchair. I dare you to go to the islands
of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian Ocean and see the
impacts of rising sea levels ... to the hills of Central America that confront similar
monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise
become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce ... And if that is not
enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.
To underscore the urgency of the situation, Sano began a hunger fast calling the UN to
commit to real progress on a plan for action to solve the climate crisis. In 2009, the
government of Maldives held a cabinet meeting underwater to underscore their impending
fate without action. The island nations are calling out for the world and religious
organizations to care and send aid after the death and devastation, but they are also
asking us all to stand up to take responsibility for helping to cause the conditions that are
resulting in harm. Then commit to the work of changing our ways to restore balance to the
ocean, land, and atmospheric systems to prevent such intense and widespread suffering.
Suffering and Extinctions Increase
§2.6 The world already is seeing the suffering of the climate change migrants and
refugees. Polar peoples who can no longer survive by hunting the species that once
thrived in the northern tundra and oceans, such as caribou and whales. The Alaskan
village of Newtok is being eroded away. Island peoples, such as those of the Pacific
Islands of Kiribati and Cartaret, are being forced from their homes because of rising seas.
Coastal villagers end up as refugees as ocean waters rise and typhoons increase. Island
nations are so threatened they are creating refugee emigration plans. They do not want to
be seen as “poor” victims but as self-sufficient people of dignity, who will migrate and offer
skills and vibrancy to any community that they enter. But they fear cultural erosion of their
values and ways as they meld into other cultures.
Economic Connections Resulting in Long Term Suffering and Decline
§2.7 Another way to look at the situation is in terms of the ocean-weather economic
connections. As these more frequent weather events are becoming the norm, they destroy
lives and economic systems. Consider the devastation of economic systems and
infrastructure from Super Typhoons Haiyan; Super Cyclones Sidr, Nargis,and Yashi;
Hurricanes Ingrid, Manuel, Sandy, Ida, Wilma, Katrina; Joplin, Missouri tornadoes, or
Winter Storm Xavier. Besides the loss of life and suffering caused, the economic ripple
effects have been enormous. For instance, almost 2,000 people died in Katrina and the
costs and losses totaled about $148 billion. That could have built almost 1 million homes
for $150,000. As for the tornadoes in just one city, Joplin, Missouri, over 160 people died
and 500 people were injured, plus a damage at $2.8 billion. Some say those were unusual
natural disasters. But are they? In 2012 alone, 200 people were killed in Hurricane Sandy
and Congressional relief was $50 billion. Total costs are estimated to be $100 billion plus,
16
much to be paid by local communities, insurance companies, FEMA, and private citizens).
And the federal crop insurance program for the 2012 drought and other farm weather
disasters is costing up to $20 billion (with the costs for farmers much higher). That adds up
to about $70 billion at a total of $700 per family of three in the U.S. for just two events. Add
at least another $100 billion could be added for the increase in food prices.
§2.8 Obviously, national and local aid and insurance can only do so much to help a
region rebuild. Many faith communities also stepped up to do what they could to aid those
who were hurting. But how sustainable are the systems of assistance? The money in both
the government and religious bodies gets drained from other needed services and
concerns. Taxes get raised to cover the bills, and ministries get cut. The raised prices and
taxes harm the poor and struggling middle class again! These are just a sample of the
ramifications of warming to ocean waters that we do not think about. We must always
remember that it is those who have the least wealth who are most vulnerable and harmed,
for they have little to no resources to protect themselves, rebuild, move, or start over. So
the poor, especially women and children and the elderly, bear the brunt of these problems,
as well as our brother and sister species. Do we have the right to eliminate species that
God loves? How can this large-scale suffering and loss not be moral and religious
questions when we’ve been called to serve the least of our brothers and sisters?
§2.9 And what of the many islands, developing countries, and countries drowning in debt,
with no governmental money for infrastructure rebuilding or aid for disaster relief,
supporting refugees, or augmenting the loss of fisheries? Will there not be more economic
collapses? How many wars will be fought over dwindling resources?
Dying of the Coral Reefs, Nurseries of the Seas
§2.10 Then another question must be faced: How do fossil fuel and greenhouse gas
emissions affect ocean life? One need just look at one slice of marine life – the coral reefs.
A quarter of all marine species depend on coral reefs, and over ¼ of these
prehistoric living reef structures are dead from the assaults from acidifying and
warming sea waters, as well from chemical pollution, sedimentation, and other human
damage.
§2.11 By mid century, without change in our policies and behaviors, 60% of the
remaining coral reefs will be dead along with the species dependent upon them.
Eons of God’s creation killed in decades. What of all the marine species, and birds that eat
the coral reef species, won’t they too die out? If we were people who cared about money
alone, would we not be scared, for the loss of just the Philippine reefs alone will cost more
than $1.1 billion dollars annually. Then consider how many jobs will be lost and how many
people will suffer. Then multiply this suffering by loss of all the reefs in the oceans. Are
these not religious and moral questions?
§2.12 Some people even say, "The cost of reining in carbon emissions will destroy our
economy!" Fortunately, that has not proven to be the case in Denmark, Germany, Sweden,
Iceland and many other countries. Costa Rica, New Zealand, Norway, Iceland, Tuvalu,
Bhutan, and The Maldives are in a race to be the first carbon neutral nations. They want to
17
show the way to the larger nations, and that the transition can actually help their
economies find new direction and vitality.
They use much less oil per dollar of GDP. And they export 2-5 times as much as we
do per dollar of GNP.
§2.13 Yet even if all the nations in the world signed onto and abided by the Kyoto Protocol
today, it would be not enough. Not only do we as humans in a global community need to
stop bad behavior and divest from corporations involved in it, we must reforest and
restore native grasslands as well as other ecosystem restorations to absorb the
excess carbon that is already in the atmosphere. If not, this carbon will continue to heat
the planet and acidify the oceans. So all goals of carbon limitation must be linked with
restoration and values transformation.
The Loss and Suffering of Marine Life
§2.14 In addition, in twenty years, the world will have little population stock left to
save many of our over-harvested marine species. Scientists are alerting the world that
global fish stocks are likely to run out by 2048, with some commercial species collapsing
into extinction within ten to fifteen years without change in fishing policies. (Some
commercial species are being harvested at 2.5 times the rate of reproduction -- Atlantic
cod and bluefin tuna may be extinct or near extinction within a decade). Not only are the
seafood species being overfished but even the tiny krill, which are the building blocks of
the ocean food chain, have been in danger from overfishing for krill-oil and aquaculture,
and from melting of sea ice, have dropped since the 1970s and have needed protection.
The populations of sea and coastal birds and mammals, which are dependent upon marine
species, are also plummeting.
§2.15 The corporatization and increasing technology of fishing fleets have intensified the
overharvesting problems. Already back in 1984, Pope John Paul II spoke out about the
enormous overfishing problems, harming not only the wildlife but also the family and local
fishing operations to Newfoundland fishermen:
With careful stewardship, the sea will continue to offer its harvest. However, during
the last few years the means of processing and distributing food have become more
technically sophisticated. The fishing industry has also been concentrated more and
more in the hands of fewer and fewer people.
Around the globe, more and more small or family fishing concerns lose their
financial independence to the larger and capital intensive enterprises. Large
industrial fishing companies run the risk of losing contact with the fishermen and
their personal and family needs. They are exposed to the temptation of responding
only to the forces of the marketplace, thus lacking at times sufficient financial
incentive to maintain production. Such a development would put the security and
distribution of the world’s food supply into ever greater jeopardy, if food production
becomes controlled by the profit motive of a few rather than by the needs of the many.
September 12, 1984
18
The pope said it would take “courageous decisions” to stop the negative consequences.
There needed to be ecological principles applied to the stewardship policies and the
fishing fleets, with fishing cooperatives for small operators and joint ownership of large
operations to fight the international corporate fleets driving family fishing boats off the
ocean and decimating fish populations. The fish need to be preserved and the fishermen
need a voice in their own lives. And a rest needs to be called for fishing in certain areas
and for certain species to allow for recovery.
§2.16 It is not just how much we fish, but how we fish, with gill nets, bottom sea trawling,
sonar, radar, and helicopters, plastic nets, and an acceptance of cruel and wasteful
methods, which we would consider “inhumane” on land because of the suffering caused to
the species, as just part of the business of fishing. As National Geographic reporter Fen
Montaigne writes in 2007 after ocean expeditions:
"Cruel" may seem a harsh indictment of the age-old profession of fishing—and certainly
does not apply to all who practice the trade—but how else to portray the world's shark
fishermen, who kill tens of millions of sharks a year, large numbers finned alive for shark-fin
soup and allowed to sink to the bottom to die? How else to characterize the incalculable
number of fish and other sea creatures scooped up in nets, allowed to suffocate, and dumped
overboard as useless bycatch? Or the longline fisheries, whose miles and miles of baited
hooks attract—and drown—creatures such as the loggerhead turtle and wandering
albatross?
Do we countenance such loss because fish live in a world we cannot see? Would it be
different if, as one conservationist fantasized, the fish wailed as we lifted them out of the
water in nets? If the giant bluefin lived on land, its size, speed, and epic migrations would
ensure its legendary status, with tourists flocking to photograph it in national parks. But
because it lives in the sea, its majesty—comparable to that of a lion—lies largely beyond
comprehension.
Is this how the Creator wants us to treat our brother and sister species of the seas?
§2.17 And what of all the beauty lost as these colorful and varied corals that took millions
of years to grow whiten into stark bones and the colorful fish that once darted within their
shelter are gone? Do we have the right as humans to eliminate God’s own
underwater rainbows? That is why we must speak up.
The 7 Deadliest Sins of the Seas
§2.18 Scientists who have been monitoring the situation say there is hope if we eliminate
the destructive actions through changes in global and national policies and regulations,
commercial activity, and personal products and habits. In addition, we must restore
habitats (on land and in sea) and marine populations, and establish enormous marine
19
sanctuaries and reserves to allow nature’s systems to heal themselves. Put into religious
terms, these are the major wrongs that we must right:
1) Carbon, methane, and nitric oxide air pollution (which are greenhouse
gasses) is resulting in atmospheric warming and warming of the seawater and
acidification. The greenhouse gas overloads are also causing the melting of sea
and land ice, rising of ocean levels, especially on low lying shores, and the
changing of ocean saline levels, and a shifting the abundance and distribution of
marine life with the currents. Even if we eliminated all additional carbon input, the
present excess carbon in the atmosphere will continue to acidify the oceans and
storm/weather, warm the oceans, and melt the polar caps and release the methane
catches. So in addition to stopping the greenhouse gas emission, we must do
massive global reforestation and restoration of native grasslands and marine kelp
forests and tidal grassland communities. We need to invest more in alternative
energies, including those offered by the oceans themselves in wave and tide
energy.
2) Overfishing, improper, cruel, and illegal fishing are also leading to the
collapse of fish species and other marine populations. Industrial fishing fleets are
too large and technologically advanced, leaving marine species few chances of
escape. Plastic fishing nets and bottom trawling methods result in huge amounts of
unintended catch left for dead as bycatch waste, Abandoned plastic nets continue
to kill for no purpose. Cruel, wasteful, and illegal fishing methods also deplete the
marine populations along with poaching. The Pew Charitable Trust, which is deeply
committed to ocean health, reported that “In 1950, fishermen pulled 17 million tons
of fish from the sea; in 2010, the 3 million fishing boats worldwide caught 77 million
tons, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The
agency found that nearly 9 in 10 fish stocks it examined were either “fully exploited”
or “overexploited.” For some species, the fishing industries harvest two and a half
times more than the species reproduce each year. We are literally eating ourselves
out of house and home. Also, the hunting of predator fish, such as sharks, are
endangering the health of the whole food chain and leading to excessive blooms in
other populations, such as jellyfish. Without changes in our attitudes and appetites,
all major ocean commercial fish species and many others will be gone in less than
forty years. Corals, shells, and tropical fish are also being collected with few limits
so that those natural elements that have so beautified our shores, or homes, and
our bodies in jewelry may also be gone.
3) Chemicals, Nuclear, Sewage and Oil Pollution. It is
washed from farms and lawns and industrial sites into
rivers and the seas, incinerated into the air, spilled from
ships or oil refineries, or dumped from land, ships, and
cruise lines. The toxins are sickening and killing marine
life and entering the food chains. Huge dead zones, like
the one in the Gulf of Mexico, are expanding each year,
killing the life once there. In some coastal areas,
pollution can become so intense that it causes beaches to be
closed after rainstorms. For example, more than one-third of the
20
shellfish waters of the United States are adversely affected by coastal pollution.
Pesticides, fertilizers, flame retardants, factory and cleaning chemicals, birth control
hormones, and other toxic substances are causing cancers and deformities in
marine life such as sea turtles and dolphins, as can be seen on this sea turtle that
crawled up toward our first expedition in Hawai’i, as if asking us for help. The
chemicals are also killing the coral reefs, leaving them dead and bleached of color
and vitality. The seafood we eat now contains dangerous levels of mercury and
other chemicals, adding toxins to our bodies and to our children through the breast
milk of mothers who eat seafood.
4) Plastics -- from plastic bags to straws to fishing nets to packaging to toys
and everything in between -- are strangling, choking, and killing sea life and
marine birds. The plastics degrade into small pieces, and the marine animals and
birds eat this colorful food, as it looks like small fishes and jellies, and die from
clogged digestive systems and malnutrition. There is more than six times the
amount of plastic “food” to phytoplankton, a basic building block of food within the
ocean systems. Other plastics degrade into a toxic plastic sludge that is eaten by
micro-organisms that are later eaten by larger species, in complex food webs, with
the toxins moving up the food chain until they reside in the bodies of our favorite
seafood and then in our own bodies. This is causing a variety of illnesses and
immune system disorders in all forms of life, including humans.
5) Careless and excessive coastal development is destroying the natural
barriers and buffers that protect shorelines. The intensive development is ruining
wildlife habitats, harming the nesting places and nurseries of marine animals, birds
and fish, and degrading or killing coral reefs.
6) Invasive species are devastating wild populations through improper methods of
fish farming, through the pet trade, and through carelessness in international
shipping and commerce. Exotic species take over the niches of natural species, and
having few or no natural predators, the introduced species deplete wild populations,
especially if already declining from other numerous pressures.
7) Noise, light, and smell pollution are disrupting the ability of fish and marine
mammals to communicate and function in the ocean. Excessive noise are causing
whales and other marine mammals to lose connection with each other for mating
and offspring care as well as for protecting themselves from predators.
§2.19 The list of these grave and deadly problems from our conglomerate ignorance and
indifference is both shocking and frightening. These are not “natural” occurrences, nor are
they “acts of God.” Each of these problems is being caused even at this moment by our
own habitual, inappropriate, insensitive, or unlimited human activity and products. That is
why the voice of religion is so needed.
§2.20 No one intended to cause these problems, but we, as humans, have thought that
somehow the ocean and planet are limitless or the pollution and waste somehow gets
cleaned up naturally on its own. Or someone else will take care of it. But there is no one
else, except our children and their children, and by then, it will be too late. We need to stop
the ignorance through massive education on the scientific, moral, and religious truths.
21
§2.21 But there will be an ocean accounting, and an earth accounting. Physical
systems do not lie. They will do what they naturally do and the destruction is happening
even now.
The Benefits and Call to Religious
and International Action
For all these reasons, we must change. And NOW.
§3.0 The world will not change fast enough on its own, as the prevailing values of
the media and commodity-oriented world are focused on the corporate and individual
desires of the moment, consumption and having more, more, more without thought for
tomorrow. These values have created the ecological crises of today. That is why
religious groups throughout the world must and are stepping up to be in the
forefront of the transformation movement.
§3.1 In prayer and solidarity, we have the power to change -- while there is still time.
That is why we, as religious leaders, institutions, and communities are presenting this ethic
and committing ourselves as individuals and as a group to pray, be the change, teach
these spiritual truths and physical realities and connections, and work together for cultural
and communal change.
§3.2 Science, development specialists, inventors, and entrepreneurs, among others, have
been implementing creative and practical solutions for all the ocean and sustainability
problems we as humans face. We need to be willing to risk change and invest in new ways
of doing things as well as in some self-restraint and forward thinking. If we are to resolve
our ocean crises, it will not be by just changing a few light bulbs or similar small actions,
though those actions are very important. It will also be by enlarging our worldview to see
the inherent connections. We must repair the way we see our relationship to nature's
systems and other species, and to the poor, especially the women and children, and
vulnerable species, who are most harmed by nature’s degradations. We must offer
enduring values about respect for all of creation, seeing the inherent goodness and
necessity of each species and the earth systems.
§3.3 In this, we take a lesson from the octopus and seek to reach out in many directions –
across political, religious, economic, class, culture, and species lines. This conveys a
caring for all of nature and each other, just as God cares for all of creation and showers
sunlight and rain on all without favoritism. We are to take seriously our privileges of living
in this glorious world with all the varieties of life and the responsibilities imbedded within it.
Call to Action from Religious Leaders
§3.4 We urge all religious and spiritual leaders, institutions, organizations and
congregations, and individuals to sign on to this interfaith ocean ethic or to craft one of
22
their own, and to study, teach, and preach about the responsibilities we must face and
why. Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has led the way toward an inclusive ocean
ethics statement with his 2003 “Declaration on the World’s Oceans”. The Pontifical Council
of Justice and Peace updated its 1979 statement about the “Universal Purpose of Created
Things” in terms of the world’s ocean heritage in 2011, which covered territorial issues of
the ocean ethics discussion, and much more is needed to address the global ocean
threats. Anglican Bishop Winston Halapua of Polynesia, issued Waves of God’s Embrace:
Sacred Perspectives of the Ocean. Dr. Ufuk Özdağ, from Hacettepe University in Ankara,
is working to prompt the formation of a Turkish land and ocean ethic with its spiritual
underpinnings.
§3.5 This interfaith religious ethic of the oceans, informed by science, offers a guide
to right responses to the threats facing the oceans. Actions and products that harm the
earth must be eliminated. Actions and products that sustain life and improve the well-being
of all must be enhanced. And acts of repentance, repair, and restoration must begin in
earnest. This means we have to change our habits, products and policies to slow
climate change, acidification, and other ocean crises, and to transform our
conception of waste and convenience into protection of resources and care for all of
life in the oceans and on the shore.
§3.6 This effort in interfaith dialog and partnership, can also help build
understanding, respect, and peace between religious groups and nations. The
Interfaith Ocean Ethics Campaign offers the religions of the world and all spiritual and faith
traditions the opportunity to lay down differences and highlight our common aims before
God and our common destiny on earth. This is an opportunity to build peace through
shared work, respect, and love for God, the poor, our brother and sister species, for life,
and for our children and their children’s children throughout the ages.
Connectivity of Sustainable Solutions
§3.7 Restoring our inland forests, native grasslands, and rivers, divesting from fossil fuels,
and investing in alternative energies will not only fight ocean warming and acidification but
will improve land economies and quality of life, helping to alleviate drought, famine,
poverty, and even wars over resources. These transitions will establish paths of
sustainable development. As we strive for a right relationship between God, society, and
the requirements of a healthy planet, we can be personally, religiously, economically, and
culturally transformed and help heal and prevent some of the suffering on earth. This is the
promise of our varied faith and spiritual traditions, but it takes effort to learn the
connections between our behaviors and their effects and a willingness to change how we
live and think.
§3.8 We seek to serve our Creator by caring for the creation of people, other species, and
systems that God has put in our care, and we ask for God's Spirit to guide and assist us in
this, for we cannot do it on our own. Thus we must commit to teaching the necessity and
realities of a religious, full-life, creation-care ethic as vigorously as we teach about any
other Scriptural, pro-life and moral issues.
23
Growing Closer to God and Each Other
§3.9 By realigning our priorities, products, habits, and economic systems to care to those
of God in caring for the poor, our brother and sister species, our youth, and the future of
the planet, we will become closer to God and less materialistic, greedy, and selfish -- more
focused on relationships. Psychologists say that people who are oriented this way are
happier, and have happier, stronger, longer lasting marriages, which benefits society in
many ways. Through this reorientation, we will build the virtues of generosity, kindness,
self-restraint, patience, humility, and service, all of which offer benefits to ourselves, our
families, our community, and our world. We will bridge the antagonisms between religions,
and between faith and science, and find common goals on which to work side-by-side in
the name of our different faiths, building greater planetary and community peace and
prosperity. We will form more sustainable coastal communities and beauty, and the marine
species we eat will be healthier and less likely to compromise our own health with toxins,
§3.10 If we stand together in prayer and action for a renewed and sustainable world for the
future, cynicism in our youth will fall away as they are engaged in this work, becoming ever
more aware of the sacredness of all of God’s creation and God’s presence with us, among
us, and through us. So we have everything to gain and nothing to lose but the effort, which
will transform us. Psalm 104:30 observes “When you send your Spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.”
Changing Ourselves, Changing the World
§3.11 Even as we are speaking out to international policy makers at the United Nations, to
the World Bank, corporations, and to national and local legislators in our home places, we
must also become the change we seek. As religious institutions, organizations, leaders,
and believers, we need to learn to make an annual examination of actions and
conscience (or assessment) that includes our carbon footprint, habits, and products
that affect the ocean systems and species. And commit to change ourselves.
§3.12 Out of love for God and respect for creation, we must see, teach, and preach
the connections between our actions on land and their impacts on the oceans, and
the impact of the degraded ocean systems back onto us. Bluntly, we are all struggling
with the sins of excess – arrogance, extravagance, greed, and sloth – and a prideful sense
of no limits or responsibilities -- these sins underlie the plight of the oceans. We face a
religious responsibility to correct our personal, religious, community, commercial, national
and community policy choices in light of our duties toward God, creation, and the future,
toward the poor and the vulnerable, and toward the many ocean species and habitats that
are endangered -- for we are all related.
§3.17 We have also fooled ourselves, and been fooled by corporations and commerce,
into thinking we must have pollution and waste to have jobs -- as if there could be no jobs
in more harmonious ways or products. Humanity is NOT bereft of the science, technology,
and creativity to come up with exciting sustainable options and solutions.
§3.18 We have also told ourselves we must have all that we want to have freedom and a
satisfactory life – yet happiness is down and suicide is up in many developed nations
including the U.S., especially among our young.
24
§3.19 And we have told ourselves that corporations, businesses, banks, and investors
know what they are doing and can monitor themselves and function without limits because
somehow the markets will be their consciences and they all must be trusted to keep the
economy alive. But experience has told us the opposite, that businesses and jobs rise from
the small entrepreneurs and businesses. Stable and sustainable economies grow from the
grassroots up, not from corporations down, yet we still lack the muscle to call for real
change and support it with policies. This has resulted in public policies that have favored
complete personal and corporate freedom without responsibilities over the common good
and responsible limits. We need massive education on the economic truths linked to
natural resource degradation.
§3.20 Numerous faiths and religious denominations and organizations have stepped up
on environmental care and stewardship. (We assembled a list of some U.S. and
international organizations and will be adding more, in the addendum and on our website.)
This movement needs to go wider and deeper, and include care of creation as an inherent
mandate and joy of faith. It must also encompass care of ocean systems and species.
Religious institutions, organizations, communities, and faith groups also need to engage
their communities, especially their youth, in outdoors enjoyment and liturgy, and in the
service doing restoration of marine and land habitats (reforestation and replanting of native
grasslands, wetlands, and tidal communities) and ecosystems. We invite religious leaders
and believers to seek out these religious-environmental organizations for study and action
resources particular to your faith or nation. We also encourage you to link up your youth
with conservation service projects in your area for reasons of faith.
§3.21 In terms of climate care, the Franciscan Action Network and the Catholic Climate
Covenant invite all people to join Catholics in the St. Francis Pledge to personally Pray,
Learn, Assess, Act, and Advocate. In the U.S., Interfaith Power and Light sponsors a
Preach-In Weekend in February, encouraging all faith communities to speak to their
communities about climate change and the connections to other issues and offers a
Preach-In kit for assistance. This American movement can serve as a model for other
nations and internationally.
§3.22 In terms of particular ocean issues and actions, there are numerous organizations
dedicated to ocean health and wellbeing, among them the local aquariums and marine
sanctuaries, Ocean Conservancy, Pew Charitable Trust Ocean Campaigns, National
Geographic’s and World Wildlife Fund’s ocean divisions, Blue Ocean Institute, MarineBio
Conservation Society, Oceana, Nature Conservancy’s Global Marine Initiative, among
others. There are also many national governmental organizations, such as the U.S.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), at work on ocean care issues.
Then there are organizations dedicated to the saving of particular threatened species or
working on a particular ocean issue. We urge all religious institutions, organizations,
communities and faith groups to go to their sites and local marine aquariums to learn from
them about must done on international, national, corporate, local, and what they as
individuals and groups can do. And then volunteer to serve, in the name of faith.
§3.23 We must each of us, at every level, commit as individuals and organizations to a
Creation Care Pledge to work to
25
1) Push for greater investment in international and national marine and
coastal science, relying on marine conservation, systems, wildlife,
oceanographic, and ecological science and sustainable development as guides
for policies, legislation, and zoning.
2) Advocate together for international, corporate, and governmental policy
changes for strident goals and swift action to meet the enormity of the
problems head on in terms of climate change, river health, fishing policies,
chemical use, garbage and waste, the pet trade, etc. Get involved in religious,
interfaith, and multi-party political activism for stopping carbon, chemical, and
plastic proliferation and promoting reforestation, natural resource restoration,
alternative energy and socially responsible business development.
3) Divest from corporations, businesses, and industries that overharvest,
pollute, harm ocean species and life, and invest in socially responsible
ones and alternative energies.
4) Reduce your carbon footprint as stridently as you can as a religious
organization, community, family, and individual.
5) Purchase only ocean safe seafood and products. Boycott harmful products,
services, companies, and industries, and purchase and promote positive ones
(organic, local farmers, coops and farmers markets, etc.).
6) Push for plastic bag bans, packaging reduction laws, and for the use of
biodegradable, edible, nontoxic plastics where necessary. Avoid nonnecessary plastics, packaging, and disposable, single-use products.
7) Consider carefully everything that goes down your drain or that you put on
your land that can wash into a river or ocean. Avoid toxic cleaners,
unnecessary medications, etc. Don’t litter.
8) Reconsider purchases, Re-evaluate priorities. Revise habits. Reduce.
Reuse. Recycle. Renovate. Respect all species Reforest. Regrass. .
Remember God, the poor, our youth, the future. Restore. Renew. Rejoice.
§3.24 The Green Zionist Alliance (GZA) has created ethical and prayerful responses to
help prompt and sustain caring actions and transformations of hearts, minds, habits,
policies, and products: Brit HaYam: A Covenant with the Sea; Birkat HaYam: Blessing over
the Sea; and Tehillat HaYam: A Psalm of the Sea (used with permission from David Krantz of the GZA).
Tehillat HaYam: A Psalm of the Sea
Our fate rests with the sea:
With every breath
we breathe air from the sea.
Yet,
Listen to the sea:
26
It cries from overfishing — greed and gluttony.
It cries from pollution — avarice and wastefulness.
It cries from heat — carbon consumption and apathy.
May we return to days of old:
Let the sea and all within it thrive.
Befriend the plankton and the minnow,
The coral and the turtle,
The seal and the shark,
The dolphin and the whale;
Like us, they are part of Creation.
May the waves lap the shore
As a mother cradles her child.
Let the sea once again be filled with fish
As stars fill the sky.
Listen to the sea.
27
Preliminary Policy Recommendations
On the Seven Deadly Ocean Issues
General Ocean Care
§4.0 Around the world, science and ecological education is often lower rather religious
education. Religions can integrate science and ecology into its teachings about creation
and responsibility. But it can also push for greater science and ecological education
internationally and nationally, and more conservation, systems, and ecological science to
be at the table of every ocean and coastal decision-making table, along with an emphasis
on caring for the poor and sharing resources and respect. Science and religion together
must both see humans as an essential part of nature, not opposed to it, and that all
solutions must find ways for both humans and other species to sustainably benefit. For as
the conservation scientist, author, and ethicist Aldo Leopold once observed, “Breakfast
comes before ethics.” We must seek solutions that alleviate suffering for local people while
considering global systems, while helping to heal and restore the fertility and abundance of
the natural systems and species for the good of all and those to come.
§4.1 In a global survey done by the Global Ocean Commission at Oxford University, 74
percent of people believe that “There needs to be one organization with overall
responsibility for protecting international waters and the life in them.” Yet no organization,
including the UN, is yet managing the oceans as a full system.
§4.2 People also believe that the high seas are presently protected – 61 percent said they
believed that at least 25 percent of the oceans are protected, but in truth, only 1 percent of
the high seas and 2.4 of the oceans are – in a patchwork way. Another global study found
that 84% of the world’s population, the same amount that is religious, that the oceans need
to be sustainably managed (www.globaloceancommission.org).
§4.3 General Policy Recommendation
A) Establish an international organization to be in charge of coordinating and
networking ocean scientific monitoring, studies distribution, ocean standards and
management.
B) Develop international and national ocean policies that have integrated and
systems thinking, solving varied levels of ecological, social, and economic
problems – “solving for pattern thinking” as Wendell Berry says. Systems and
species protection and restoration must also be integrated with sustainable
development and poverty abatement. Ocean decisions should integrate climate
change prevention policies just as climate change policies should integrate ocean
effects. Land pollution must be linked to ocean pollution, and their policies of
prevention, as pushes for restoration, such as reforestation, should be required
for ocean conservation as well. Marine sanctuaries, reserves, and species
recovery plans should be integrated into the effects of other species and
28
C)
D)
E)
F)
G)
H)
I)
systems. All loss of income for workers and subsistence living should be offset by
new work in restoration or new sustainable industries.
Invest in more and more internationally and nationally in conservation, systems,
and ecological science.
Require objective (non-industry-funded) scientific studies and findings to inform
and guide policy, legislative, and zoning standards and decisions.
Launch a global public health campaign, like that of anti-smoking ones of the
past, to educate international and national citizens about the dire threats of
greenhouse gases and climate change and the damage to the oceans – and the
threat of plastics, chemicals in watersheds, and overfishing. Educate citizens
about the connections.
Establish international and national science and ecology standards, teaching the
ecological and economic connections at all levels.
Teach a community ethic of respect and care for the land and oceans in schools,
civic organizations, and government offices.
Work with community and youth leaders, artists, musicians, writers, bloggers,
filmmakers, marketing specialists, teachers, and youth to promote the one-time
use of plastic irresponsible, and “uncool,” slobbish, irresponsible, and sinful – and
the same with actions that harm that contribute carbon to the atmosphere.
Make gas guzzling and waste uncool because people see the connections – just
like demonstrating the connections of smoking to black lungs and cancer. And
visualize caring and responsibility as cool and daring, risking a leap into the
future.
All policies to address the ocean sins need to be combined with coastal
and undersea habitat restoration efforts, such as restoring the coral
reefs, kelp forests (comparable to forests on land), and marine reserves.
Since half of all life and planetary systems are encompassed in the
oceans, and so much of human and land-based life are dependent upon
them, oceans merit their own UN attention as well as being part of other
initiatives on Climate Change, Sustainability, Reforestation, Freshwater
Conservation, Species Conservation, Indigenous People, Education,
Population, etc.
Carbon and Methane Air Pollution
§4.4 Rising levels of carbon dioxide and methane, and other greenhouse gasses in the
atmosphere, are changing ocean chemistry, warming ocean temperatures, raising sea
levels, changing salt levels and killing sea life. The absorptions of these gases and other
chemical inputs result in toxic algae blooms and lower oxygen levels in the ocean. The
major sources of carbon dioxide come from fossil fuel combustion, including that of power
plants, airplanes, ships, trucks, cars, factories, buildings, building heating and cooling
systems. Methane is even a more significantly powerful greenhouse gas than carbon. The
largest human-induced sources of methane are from the raising and processing of
livestock and landfills. As the atmosphere has been warming from these greenhouse gas
29
sources and melting the polar caps, catastrophic reserves of methane are being released
from the methane sinks in the tundra and polar sea ice and floor.
§4.5 One of the newest, powerful greenhouse gases is nitrogen trifluoride (NF3). It is used
for manufacturing liquid crystal flat-panel displays, thin-film photovoltaic cells, and
microcircuits. Also, it has been used as an alternative to perfluorocarbons. Nitrogen
trifluoride is 17,000 times more potent as a global warming agent than a similar mass of
carbon dioxide. It also survives in the atmosphere about five times longer than carbon
dioxide.
§4.6 Acidification within the human body is harmful to personal health, and the same
holds true for the ocean. Excess carbolic acid dissolves calcium in corals; it eats away at
the shells of crustaceans and crabs; and hinders the growth of plankton and fish. Coral
reefs are the nurseries for thousands of ocean species, offering habitat, protection and
nourishment. Without them, populations decline and food chains are disrupted. In addition,
many islands and coasts, such as those on the northern shore of the Hawaiian Islands will
be overrun with waves, as the coral reefs are their breakers and shoreline protection.
§4.7 The higher acid rates also affect fishes’ brains, changing their behaviors, and often
making them less wary or aware of predators. Marine scientists have studied this change
in ocean chemistry for several decades, but it is still impossible to know precisely how
ocean acidification will cascade through the marine food chain and how it will affect marine
ecosystems. They know that ocean acidification will bring about sustained declines in fish
populations but they can’t say how intense these declines will be.
General Policy Recommendations
§4.8
A) Craft ambitious fossil fuel reduction levels in the UN protocols, with commitments
from developing and developed countries, with affluent nations offering
technological and investment assistance for the transitions.
B) Add NF3 to the international list of dangerous greenhouse gases and set up plans to
monitor and reduce its industry use and seek safe alternatives.
C) Restructure and refocus developing countries debt repayments into funds for their
nation’s alternative energy technology and sources, and small grid energy
distribution, reforestation, and restoration of grasslands, river, wetlands, and tidal
ecosystems, as well as to literacy and science education with sustainable values
and hands-on outdoors experiences.
D) Make ambitious international and national goals and policies for sustainable
development and the phasing out of the input of carbon dioxide, methane, and other
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and offer resources, encouragement, and
assistance for this to happen from the community to national levels.
E) Stop national subsidies to and investments in all fossil-fuel based companies and
industries, and support alternative and sustainable energies, technologies, products
and services through tax incentives, research grants, and private investments.
F) Invest in the development of ocean-based alternative energies that can particularly
useful for island and coastal peoples, such as wave and tide energies.
30
G) Develop more community-run alternative small grid energies that are less harmful to
other species and offer more freedom and economic independence for small, less
affluent or isolated communities on coasts and in rural areas.
H) Stop deep seas oil and mineral explorations because of damage done by the
extraction to the ocean floor and sea life and the ocean pollution, as well as
because of the fossil-fuel emissions in extraction and final use.
I) Religious organizations and institutions can lead in divestment and reinvestment,
and use group consumer power to phase out of non-sustainable fossil fuel energy
sources, such as oil, natural gas, and coal, and replace them and into alternative
and renewable energy sources, such as solar power, wind power, geothermal, and
other non-destructive energy sources. They can convert their buildings and vehicles
to more sustainable technologies, which will not only save the oceans and planetary
health but in the long-run save money.
J) Encourage the international community and national governments to set ambitious
goals and funding for massive reforestation and forest protection, as well as tree
plantings in denuded parts of the urban and rural landscapes and poorer
neighborhoods and landscapes. Modify the models of the GreenBelt Movement and
the U.S. 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps to use such re-greening programs to
also re-green economies and train youth and disadvantaged women and men in job
and work skills, giving them opportunities and training. Ambitious goals for the
restoration of native grassland communities and implementation of holistic
grassland and grazing methods need to be established.
K) Match affluent faith communities with those in those poorer neighborhoods to work
together for re-greening. Push for regional and community restoration, reforestation
and tree planting campaigns and programs. Tree planting campaigns can be
structured in the models of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s and the
contemporary Green Belt Movement in developing countries, both of which provide
training, education, and work for the jobless, so not only are forest communities
restored, but the human communities and individual lives. Advocate together for
massive world reforestation programs and protocols to accompany the Kyoto
protocols.
L) Push for ambitious goals for restoration of marine habitats and blue sequestration
ecosystems. Involve faith groups and youth in this work locally wherever possible.
M) Establish ambitious goals and models for diverse buildings, zonings, and
transportation standards and technologies, with local adaptations, to encourage
energy efficient new construction. Religious organizations can seek to reduce their
carbon footprint and encourage their members to the same in their homes and in
every organization to which they belong.
Overfishing and Improper Fishing
§4.9 Popular species of fish, such as tuna, cod, salmon, and many others have been so
overfished, destructively fished, or wasted in unintended catches (bycatches) that
populations and their abilities to regenerate are collapsing worldwide. Bluefin tuna, orange
roughy, Goliath grouper, Acadian redfish, and Bocaccio rock fish, and other popular
species are particularly estimated to be a swift path to extinction. The Maltese Ray is
endangered because of bycatch, and the winter skate because of being used for lobster
bait and fishmeal.
31
§4.10 A 2010 study on oceans by the WorldWatch Institute reported that 76 percent of the
world’s fish are plummeting to dangerous levels, which has been confirmed by more recent
studies, with the number of species under threat rising. Without action now and recovery
plans, these marine species will not survive into the next half of the century as they are
under stress not only from overharvesting but so many other ocean dangers. For example,
sea turtles, are endangered both from fishing but also from entanglement in fishing gear in
use and plastic nets and gear that are left floating in the seas. Radar, sonar, and satellite
fishing techniques end up being so precise as to leave insufficient fertile remnants for
reproduction not only from the targeted species, but others caught in the nets. Deep sea
trawling depletes not only all the fish and marine creatures in its path, but it destroys the
seabed including shellfish, corals, and spawning grounds.
§4.11 The global fishing fleet is presently almost three times larger than what the oceans
can support - meaning humans are consuming far too many fish compared to what can be
sustained. That leaves those who depend on fishing in ever increasing danger of losing
their livelihoods. Enforceable systems of “Fish Shares” and limits on a national and
international level need to be implemented, along with other population management
practices.
§4.12 The other difficulty is the fishing of top predator species, such as sharks, which are
becoming endangered. This reduction of top predators leads to a reduction of predators
alters the balance of the marine food chains, causing overpopulation blooms in jellyfish
and other species that reduce the diversity, fertility of the ocean ecosystems, and also the
safety of humans who swim and recreate in the oceans.
§4.13 Over-collection of mollusks for their shells for food, jewelry, decorations, curios, and
souvenirs have so reduced populations that some nations have put bans on their collection
and sale. Shells are no longer seen on many beaches where they were once numerous.
Wild tropical fish caught for the pet trade also endanger the fish populations. Loss of these
species lower on the food chain drastically affects populations of both other marine
species and birds.
§4.14 Hawai’i’s native people once had an intricate set of fish management practices that
actually allowed for larger fish catches than are currently enjoyed. We might learn from
their example and embrace and enforce a more rigorous set of restrictions on fishing.
Hawaiians historically used a system of community-based prohibitions coupled with strict
enforcement. They set aside land zones with protections to prevent runoff in the rivers and
marine zones linked to catch limits. They protected coastal areas as marine sanctuaries,
reserves, and nurseries; established strict fishing seasons, enforced method and gear
regulations, and catch limits. They also oversaw farm fishing that used algae fed species
as food rather than wild catch to avoid decimating wild fish numbers to feed captive ones.
General Recommended Actions
§4.15
32
A) Change the perception that nations can carve out territories in the ocean for their
own catch limits, Revise international understandings, treaties, and protocols to
acknowledge and codify that the ocean is a world resource and system. Establish
global fish and marine species management practices as well as national and local
fish limits, with cumulative catch limits far below the rate of reproduction to allow
marine populations to recover. Ban the catch of endangered and threatened
species as well as any with sharply dropping populations to allow the species to
replenish. Stop the wild catch of tropical fish for the pet trade and ban their
importation.
B) Set aside more international and national marine reserves and sanctuaries large
and small, scattered around every coast and island and hard-hit harvesting area to
allow marine populations to recover and have places of no or low stress. Patrol
these waters on the seas and from the sky to ensure poaching is not occurring.
C) Establish an equitable system of “catch shares” based on scientific population
surveys so that commercial fishermen are invested in the care of fish populations
and to break up corporate fishing monopolies that overharvest and leave smaller
fishing operations with no fish or opportunities. Give priority to the subsistence,
small operation, and family fishing operations over corporate and commercial fleets
to balance out access and reduce poverty. Require commercial fishing fleets that
have damaged the fish populations to pay a fee to help restore them. Present largescale corporate fishing fleets need to pay for marine sanctuaries, reserves, and
ecosystem and population restoration in a similar way to former corporate polluters
paying for the damage they have wrought.
D) Work to reduce commercial licenses and shares of allowed catch by at least half as
soon as possible. Create jobs for displaced fleets and individuals in fish stock
restoration activities and other marine related industries that can sustain jobs
without devastating the future of the very resources upon which they depend.
Penalize companies who buy for long-term freezing.
E) Establish and enforce fishing seasons and best practices, as well as a list of
forbidden practices, including bottom trawling, gill nets, dynamiting, long-line fishing,
and wasted bycatch.
F) End the hunting of top predators and endangered species, and nonsustainable,
wasteful, cruel practices, such as killing sharks only for their fins.
G) Ban the use of wild caught fish as feed for fish farms and ranching.
H) Ban deep sea trawling as it depletes not only all the fish in its path, but it destroys
the seabed including shellfish, corals, and even spawning grounds.
I) Establish more stringent laws and enforcement to protect inland watersheds and
rivers that feed into the oceans and inland seas.
J) Restore damaged coastal and marine habitats. Restore mollusk beds and
populations, banning collection of dwindling populations and engaging people in the
jobs of restoring the populations and beds.
K) Religious groups can boycott fish companies that use destructive, cruel, and
wasteful fishing practices, and urge legislators, corporate and international leaders
to outlaw them. They can seek out sustainable species and those raised or
harvested in sustainable, cruelty-free ways.
L) Promote awareness of plummeting fish numbers and the connections between
consumption and catch. Avoid eating any endangered or threatened fish species.
Minimize the consumption of large predator fish. Avoid sea food restaurants that do
not offer sustainably grown or harvested fish and marine species. Get a guide to
33
seafood species to avoid (the Monterey bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch site
ttp://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_consumers.aspx
Plastics in the Ocean
§4.16 Plastics are everywhere in the ocean. There is now more plastic food than
phytoplankton in the oceans. In the Pacific Ocean, there are areas where up to six pounds
of plastic litter exist for each pound of plankton -- the building block of marine nutrition and
the ocean food chain. The very brightness of plastics that make them attractive to humans
also makes them attractive to marine animals and birds as food. Plastic bags are a
particular hazard as they are so common and often look like a jellyfish or some other sea
creature. Midway Island, far from any human habitation, is filled with birds dying of
malnutrition from eating plastics. It’s a cruel and wasteful way to die, strangled, choked, or
starved by plastics.
§4.17 Massive floating garbage islands are drifting in ocean gyres, becoming funeral
pyres for the species tangled in them. The Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch is
estimated to be at least a mile deep and twice the size of Texas. Even in the isolated and
unpopulated Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, far from human settlements, over 50,000
fragments of plastics are now found per square kilometer of ocean. Tsunamis push
plastics from one side of the world to the far side, as radioactive plastics from the
Japanese tsunami have just reached Hawai’i’s shores.
§4.18 Plastic takes many shapes and forms, from straws and cups, to the packaging on
your i-pod, to disposable diapers, ball point pens and toothbrushes, cigarette lighters and
plastic bottles, Styrofoam fast food containers, discarded fishing tackle, plus much more.
The petro-chemical industry produces approximately 100 million tons of plastics each year.
About ten percent of this volume ends up in the oceans
§4.19 Plastic is migrating into the food chain. In the moving sea water, plastic degrades
into smaller and smaller pellets. This fragmentation process continues all the way down to
the molecular level, making it easy for animals to ingest. The plastic eventually becomes a
grainy sludge that is eaten by the smallest life forms in the ocean. As this plastic residue is
subsumed by larger creatures, the plastic moves up the food chain, until the larger fish are
eaten by humans. So we end up eating our own plastic waste and suffering from the health
conditions and diseases that result – and passing it on to our youth in utero or through
breastmil,k. Plastic ingestion involves toxic ingredients such as Bisphenol A (BPA),
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), petroleum derivatives, and derivatives of styrene, many
of which are known to cause cancer in humans.
General Recommended Actions on Plastic Waste
§4.20
A) Ban uses of non-biodegradable or edible (not photobiogradable) plastic or
styrofoam products. Require container and deposit laws, In their place use glass,
34
B)
C)
D)
E)
paper or other biodegradable substances. Ban plastic bags for non food items,
require biodegradable plastic bags for food, and put a ten cents tax on paper
bags to encourage the use of reusable cloth bags. See the map that shows
countries and communities that have already done so (Italy, formerly the
largest European user of plastic bags, banned single-use plastic bags in January
2011):
Push for legislation that requires businesses to take back their products and
packaging for disposal after use. Require all containers and packaging to be
recyclable. Place a responsibility on businesses and consumers to ensure that
plastic materials are recycled. Plastic manufacturers should include markings on
their products to ease the recycling process.
Push for the passing of international and national container and packaging laws
that place responsibility on businesses and consumers to recycle all plastic
containers and packaging. Formulas for plastic manufacturing should include
making them edible and biodegradable so that they can eventually be
reintegrated into the ecosystems of the planet.
Promote stronger penalties for littering and dumping of refuse along streams,
rivers, roadways, picnic areas, or oceans.
Ban the dumping of refuse and sewage by cruise ships, garbage barges, and
other ocean vessels. Impose stiff fines for violations of clean water regulations.
Place signs and warnings at boat docks and fishing wharves of the danger from
plastics in waterways and oceans.
Chemical and Sewage Pollution
§4.21 The world’s oceans have become a dumping ground for a wide variety of pollutants,
all of which have degrading effects on ocean life. These include pesticides and agricultural
nutrients, oil spills, urban sewage, manufacturing discharges, industrial run-off, commercial
accidents, farm erosion, explosions, sea disposal and dumping operations, mining, waste
heat sources, and radioactive discharges. Here is a quick examination of some major
ocean pollutants.
§4.22
Oil Spills and Other Oil sources
Oil exploration, transportation, and spills cause great damage to coastal fisheries. The
initial effects involve fish mortality and contamination of marine life, but the long-term
effects can disrupt sea and shore life for decades. Oil spills attract media attention, and are
devastating, but oil leakage from pipelines and from cars – either from improper oil
changes, drips, or road runoff – are also large source of ocean oil contamination. One oil
change poured onto the ground releases about five quarts of oil, much of which will seep
into the sewer and eventually the ocean. Estimates are that 363 million gallons of oil
annually reach the ocean in this way.
§4.23
Agricultural Wastes
35
Animal wastes reach rivers and oceans via runoff from rains, or by seepage through the
soil. Agricultural runoff containing these wastes does not receive “treatment” except what
is naturally afforded by microbial activity during transit. Feedlot wastes and agricultural
operations (e.g., manure-spreading on cropland) can be contaminated by pathogenic
microbes, which eventually reach coastal waters. Agricultural runoff contains nitrogen and
phosphorus, which can cause dead zones in coastal regions that receive the runoff.
§4.24
Ocean Dead Zones
As a result of nutrient-enriched agricultural runoff flowing to the ocean from rivers, huge
dead zones are forming at their mouth. For example, in the United States, the Mississippi
River transports excess nutrients from the American Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. These
nutrients cause algal blooms that rob the seawater of oxygen, and kill plants and marine
life. The result is a massive “dead zone” at the mouth of the Mississippi River covers over
7,500 square miles and is growing daily. Dead zones are spreading around the coast of
U.S. The rest of the world does no better — there are now over 400 ocean dead zones
worldwide. The good news is that studies show that these dead zones do not necessarily
persist. The Black Sea was once the world’s largest dead zone. By limiting nitrogen
fertilizers and other pollutants, local governments and citizens working together brought
the Black Sea back to life and restored a sustainable fishing industry.
§4.25
Human Sewage and Cleaning Chemicals
A major pollutant by volume is sewage coming from rivers, coasts, and ocean vessels.
Human sewage largely consists of excrement from toilets; wastewater from bathing,
laundry, and dishwashing; plus animal and vegetable matter from food preparation, and
undigested hormonal and medical chemicals flowing through urine and waste. In addition,
some flush kitty litter that ends up transporting feline parasites to the oceans, killing otters.
Because coastal areas are densely populated, the amount of sewage reaching oceans is a
major concern. In addition to killing marine and coastal wildlife, sewage harms ecosystems
and poses public health threats for recreational enjoyment. Annually, thousands of
swimming advisories and beach closures take place because high levels of diseasecausing microbes are found in the water. Seafood contaminated by sewage-related
pathogens sickens people worldwide.
§4.26
Industrial Wastes
Commercial industries in some place dispose of their factory chemicals through drains to
rivers, wetlands, and the ocean itself. Or they improperly dispose of them on land where
they leach to a water source. Other dispose of liquid wastes through municipal wastewater
systems. Sewage frequently contains industrial minerals and chemicals as well as human
waste. Other sources of chemical pollution in the oceans include pipeline discharges,
transportation accidents, leaking underground storage tanks, and port and harbor
activities. Again, besides the harm to wildlife, humans are harmed because seafood
become tainted by these chemicals, and end up as public health problems.
36
§4.27
Heavy Metals
Copper, lead, and mercury are reaching high levels of concentration in marine animals,
and are being passed along to people in seafood. Mercury has proven a serious public
health issue with toxic levels in ocean and freshwater fish. Mercury is a particularly
dangerous neurotoxin that scientists say no level is safe. Mercury originates primarily from
coal-fired power plants that emit several tons of mercury into the atmosphere and oceans
daily. Top predator fish contain the highest concentrations because they bioaccumulate
mercury. One of the first signs of mercury toxicity in humans is forgetfulness. Mercury and
other industrial chemicals also adversely affect the growth and development of both
humans and marine creatures.
§4.28
Nuclear Wastes
As demonstrated at Fukishima, Japan, after the destruction of the power plant, nuclear
waste tossed into the sea by tsunamis and storms, nuclear fallout, and run-off are also
problems. Irradiated waste washed up in Hawai’i less than a year after the disaster, and
fish with radiation from the Fukishima coast have been caught off the coast of California.
General Recommended Actions on Chemical, Nuclear, Agricultural and Sewage
Waste
§4.29
A) Phase out the use of coal for electrical generation. Not only does it put
carbon in the atmosphere, but also mercury. It causes acid rain and mercury
poisoning of the waters and ocean causing great harm to sea life and to the
people who ingest the seafood.
B) Promote stronger and more meaningful penalties for dumping of chemicals into
and along streams, rivers, or beaches. Provide incentives or require those who
dump to clean up and restore areas. Outlaw the water-polluting methods of
mountaintop coal removal and other strip mining that harms water sources as
well as hydraulic fracturing for natural gas removal, which also pollutes enormous
freshwater sources that make their way to the ocean.
C) Internationally ban ocean dumping of sewage and refuse by cruise ships and
other vessels, and by coastal and riverside communities. Provide stimulus
investment for the building of sustainable sewage treatment infrastructure and
treatment to protect water sources.
D) Pass international, national, and local goals and standards to restrict and phaseout manufacturing or non-harmonious commercial development along wetlands,
fragile coast areas, and the bays and estuaries where harmful commercial
wastes can originate. Organize cooperative watershed districts and require wide
vegetative buffer zones along all wetlands, creeks, streams, rivers, estuaries,
tidepools, and beach zones and edgings.
E) Phase out toxic fertilizer and pesticide use on farms, gardens, and lawns.
Require the planting of wide and extensive buffer zones along the shores of all
bodies of water. Establish strict international standards for the process of new
chemical introduction or new chemical applications, making the process more
37
rigorous and time consuming, with more long-term health studies for effects on
wildlife and humans, and how they interact with other chemicals in an
environment and body. Require chemicals to be non toxic for humans and
wildlife, including marine species.
F) Restrict new oil drilling and exploratory expeditions, and engage in stricter
standards and enforcement of safety and environmental regulations in present
drilling and oil pipelines and transportation must be put in place.
G) Stronger regulations and enforcement must be put on industrial and factory
chemicals and their disposal, keeping them from all water sources, and phasing
out toxic chemicals for less toxic replacements.
H) Establish international goals and standards for ocean-freshwater-friendly
cleaning components and chemicals, and phase out the those that are toxic.
Coastal and Tidal Community Overdevelopment and
Destructive Development
§4.30 Development along coastlines and in tidal communities is linked to the declining
health of the nation's ocean habitats and resource. As urban infrastructure expands to
coastlines, it typically includes roads, homes, shops, factories, airports, and perhaps port
or harbor facilities. These features replace natural habitats and bring increased pollution,
boat traffic, and devastation of coastal integrity and stress on coastal wildlife. Development
requires protection so harmful seawalls, dredging, and other developments are added to
safeguard coastal investment. Though these actions attempt to protect the human
environment, they eliminate the ability of the natural coastal environments to support life
and fulfill their natural ecosystem functions.
§4.31 Coastal communities and their infrastructure are also at risk from sea level rise and
increased storm surges. As coastal populations grow, more people and assets occupy
potentially high-hazard areas. Coastal habitats (e.g. salt marshes, barrier islands, tide
pools, mangroves, and reefs) that provide natural storm buffers for these communities
have been degraded or removed. For example, this was a key factor in the flooding that
New Orleans experienced from Hurricane Katrina.
§4.32 Global warming is particularly impacting coastal areas, and scientists predict that
these trends with increase and intensify. Sea levels will rise at a more rapid pace, beaches
will erode more severely, saltwater intrusion into fresh water supplies will happen more
frequently as the reach and ferocity of storm surges expands. More frequent and more
widespread flooding will result. Coastal development and water quality will be more
vulnerable to disaster. Unexpected issues will arise, such as sewage spills, trash debris
from flooding, and various forms of pollution, some of it highly toxic, as was demonstrated
in Super Typhoon Haiyan and Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.
General Recommended Actions on Coastal Development
§4.33
A) Seaside communities need to make far-sighted, scientifically-informed decisions
in the zoning and permits about where and how to build and develop along
38
B)
C)
D)
E)
coasts. International goals and models need to be established. They must take
sea rise and increased storm intensities into consideration in planning.
International and national emphasis and financial support should be placed on
protecting barrier islands, reefs, sea-grass wetlands, sand dunes, tide pools, and
all other natural storm buffers and fragile coastal communities as they moderate
and restrain the impact of storm surges and the erosion of unabated waves and
wind. They provide habitat for wildlife, including threatened and endangered
species like sea turtles and coastal birds.
All businesses that benefit from development near beautiful shores and scenic
ocean tourists spots must offer portions of their income for the ecological
maintenance of healthy natural communities. Towns and coastal destinations,
worried about protecting tourist revenue and real estate values, need to
recognize that preservation of the local charm and character of their location
coupled with protection of its natural beauty and especially an unspoiled
environment will do more to retain its appeal, and therefore visitors and income,
than those locations that do not.
Critical community infrastructure should be moved away from vulnerable
exposure to hurricanes and sea level rise and placed inland at higher elevations.
Funds must be offered for coastal and island communities that do not have the
infrastructure or resources to assist their poor people in these transitions to
housing away from coastal danger areas.
International, federal, and commercial insurance programs should be banned
from issuing flood insurance for new coastal properties and development. The
cost of coastal flood insurance is rapidly increasing and disincentives for coastal
development need to be established. This will reduce the extent of future
disasters and end the subsidy of carelessness and ignorance.
Invasive Species and Improper Fish Farming
§4.34 Invasive species are plants, animals, seaweeds, and microbes that are introduced
into new habitats by human activity. The impacts of exotic species can be widespread and
damaging to the marine environment. For example, as US 2000 EPA study found that the
cost of invasive species in U.S. waters soars over $100 billion per year. This is more than
all other natural disasters combined. The primary sources of invasive species are
aquaculture, ship ballast water, ship hulls, the pet trade, and imported seafood.
§4.35 New species regularly find new homes in coastal waters and bays by hitching rides
in ship ballast water. Ships often take on extra water (sometimes millions of gallons) into
ballast tanks to maintain balance and stability when transiting the ocean. The ballast
water may inadvertently contain foreign species that are discharged when the ship gets
into a new port, thus introducing new organisms in the water. This is the primary method
by which invasive species are transported. As an example, San Francisco Bay is now
home to 175 exotic invasive species. These new species often crowd out native species
and alter the habitat and the food webs.
39
§4.36 Exotic creatures also hitchhike on ship, barge, and boat hulls. The cost to the
shipping industry is a whopping $36 billion by increasing the amount of drag they face in
the water and thus significantly adding to fuel use and time at sea. The cost to try to
eliminate the infestation to protect local marine life is monumental and can often only be a
situation of mitigation, not elimination.
§4.37 Aquaculture is an increasingly important source of food for humans, yet its activities
can have detrimental effects on marine environments. Fish and shellfish raised in pens
may escape or be released. The disturbances can be huge. In net enclosures in the waters
off of British Columbia nearly one million Atlantic salmon have escaped from commercial
farm pens over the past dozen years. These species now reproduce in area rivers, diluting
the gene pool of native salmon species by hybridizing with Pacific salmon.
§4.38 The aquarium trade has introduced devastating intruders to local waters. The
lionfish, a popular aquarium fish from Indonesia, is beautiful when small, but a voracious
predator when it grows larger. Lionfish have been released into Florida waters by
aquarium owners and have now spread down into the Caribbean and up the U.S. East
Coast. In the Atlantic the lionfish, because of its venomous spines, has no natural
predators, and has rapidly expanded its range. The lionfish affects the fishing industry
because they feast on small species such as sea bass and snappers.
§4.39 Even invasive exotic plants can be dangerous. For instance, a common aquarium
seaweed, Caulerpa, has invaded the waters off of California, Australia and Italy and is
spreading. Live fish or seaweeds purchased as seafood may be dumped or released into
local waters. These species can carry new diseases, parasites and other organisms. A
similar problem is happening with Eurasian milfoil, an aquatic plant, that is devastating
freshwater ecosystems in America.
§4.40 Solutions to the invasive species problem are not easy since each intruder is so
different. Different approaches to elimination are needed for each species. Strategies can
vary from placing a “bounty” on nuisance species to encourage fishermen to capture them,
to using volunteers to track their spread, to new laws and regulations, including even
efforts to use some of these invasive species as new food sources.
General Recommended Actions for Preventing Exotic Species Invasions
§4.41
A) The public has to be educated to the invasive species problem. The problems
associated with lionfish, exotic seaweeds and other species could have been
avoided if people knew not to dump aquarium species into local waters.
B) Stricter international and national regulations and enforcement are needed on
shipping to manage ballast water. States presently regulate ballast water with
each state having its own guidelines. Ship captains need uniform policies for
clean ballast water and for maintaining clean hulls. These protective operations
should take place out in open water so as not to release invasive species into
inland seas or bays.
C) The international pet industry must be banned from collecting wild marine
species. They must be required to post notices that tropical fish species – as
40
well as any exotic species -- should never be released into the wild. States
should levy hefty penalties for those who release exotic species.
D) The oceans need stricter international and national regulations on aquaculture,
addressing especially its waste disposal practices and ability to introduce
chemicals and pharmaceuticals into local waters. Operator certificates should be
required. For marine fish ranching, wild caught fish food should be prohibited as
it depletes area fisheries. Water quality standards should be established.
Inspections should be required. Penalties should be assessed for failure to
prevent releases of exotic species.
E) International standards should be passed aquatic invasive species prevention
laws for boats using their coastal and inland waters. This would prevent the local
transport of foreign species of algae or seaweeds.
Noise and Light Pollution
§4.42 A rising volume of man-made noise is disrupting the lives of marine animals and
creating a jumble of discordant underwater sounds. This forms a kind of underwater static
which some scientists call “acoustic smog.” The deep ocean may be dark, but it is far from
silent; it’s alive with an orchestra of gentle sounds. Whales, dolphins, and other marine
mammals, fish, even some invertebrates all depend on sound for finding mates and food,
navigation, avoiding predators, and communication. Sound travels much farther in water
than light does.
§4.43 The constant hum and throb of ship engines and propellers, naval anti-submarine
sonar, construction noise, seismic surveys, deep sea mining and oil drilling are all sources
of destructive noise pollution. Marine scientists estimate that underwater noise has
increased more than a hundred fold in the last fifty years. Most of this increase is due to a
dramatic growth in ocean shipping traffic. “Shipping noise is always there,” says Jim
Kapral, a bioaccoustic researcher. “It doesn’t have to be lethal to be a problem. Ocean
sound levels are steadily getting worse for another reason: ocean acidification is making
sea water a better sound transmitter.
§4.44 "If you could lay down under the shipping lanes at Great South Channel (off Cape
Cod) and spend a day there, you would get the impression of being on the tarmac at
Logan International Airport," said Christopher Clark, who runs the Bioacoustics Research
Program at Cornell University. Noise is stressing out the marine species, causing whales
and other marine animals to make major behavioral changes. To escape the sound, some
species end up beaching themselves on coasts. Marine species are demonstrating stress
in their methods of calling, foraging, and migration — even when human noise is not
intense enough to drive them onto a beach. For instance, cod and haddock in the Barents
Sea flee an area when seismic research air guns from oil exploration start firing. This
drastically reduces fish catches for weeks.
§4.45 Baleen whales are a special concern. They communicate over vast distances in the
same frequencies that ship propellers and engines generate. On most days, the distance
41
over which whales can hear each other shrinks to 10 to 20 percent of its natural extent.
Researchers observe that whales maintain communication within a pod by an almost
continual series of melodic sounds. But when ships are present, the calls of the right
whales are almost completely obliterated. The implication is the whales’ social network is
constantly being ripped apart and reformed. Unable to communicate, individual whales
have trouble finding each other and spend more time on their own. This leaves them more
vulnerable to ship collisions and isolation from the pod.
§4.46 A project in France called Quiet Oceans is documenting the impact of noise on
marine life to document the effects of noise pollution, and it is calling for strict evaluation of
underwater noise and radar, and permits for use.
§4.47 Sonar can be a particularly disturbing form of noise. During March of 2000, at least
17 whales stranded themselves in the Bahamas and the beaked whale population in that
region disappeared. A federal investigation identified the testing of a U.S. Navy sonar
system as the cause. According to an article by the Natural Resources Defense Council,
"More than a dozen harbor porpoises were found dead on the beach near the San Juan
Islands in Washington’s Puget Sound after the Navy tested a powerful new sonar system
in the Haro Strait. Tests on the deceased harbor porpoises revealed injuries consistent
with acoustic trauma. Videotape showed a pod of orca whales in the foreground behaving
erratically as the USS Shoup, a Navy vessel, emitted loud sonar blasts.” Presently the U.S.
Navy had implemented new glider drones that emit sonar. It is very likely other nation’s
naval forces will follow the American lead.Though these undersea gliders could be used to
provide scientific information, they could also increase the stess and confusion of sonarcommunicating marine life. Therefore, supreme caution must be used, with international
limitations of use and monitoring processes established to protect the wildlife, particularly
along undersea migration paths.
§4.48 Light pollution is another problem. Observers have known for decades that sea
turtle hatchlings are attracted to light – and head towards it once they crawl out of the sand
to begin what should be their scramble into the sea. But when streetlights are near a
beach, newly hatched sea turtles become confused. In natural conditions they rely on
starlight reflecting off the waves to guide them from the beach to the ocean. Streetlights
cause them to head in the wrong direction and thus to their death.
§4.49 Light also has a series of effects on coral reefs. While more research is needed on
light's direct effects, lab studies show that light disrupts coral reproduction, which is timed
to moonlight. Yet despite its significance, light pollution is only one of many stresses facing
coral reefs, which act synergistically to threaten their survival.
§4.50 For the natural world, artificial lights have changed the way that days and nights
affect wildlife. Some sea birds sing at unnatural hours in the presence of artificial light.
Scientists have determined that long artificial days can affect migration schedules, as they
allow for longer feeding times.
General Recommended Actions for Noise and Light Pollution
§4.51
42
A) International underwater noise, sonar, and radar standards and patterns of use
should be established and monitored, including the use by naval forces. Noise
mitigation efforts need to be established internationally and nationally. For
commercial shipping, major routes should be relocated away from marine
mammal habitats. For areas past the territorial limits allotted to each nation,
shipping authorities should establish routes away from important marine mammal
areas. Ship design should isolate engines from hulls; this would reduce noise.
Regular acoustic maintenance of ships is important such as cleaning the
propeller of debris (this reduces noise), and general maintenance such as
repairing bearings and loose plates. For mineral exploration, once acoustic
hotspots such as whale breeding grounds are identified, exploration in these
areas should be halted.
B) Marine development projects should be require an evaluation of the underwater
noise and lights it shall produce. New ships, ocean vessels, boats should be
required to pass underwater noise level standards.
C) In the EU all institutions and businesses that operate at sea are required to
monitor noise levels through hydrophones and to establish response protocols to
prevent whales and other marine species from falling victim to human noises that
may damage their hearing and cause an imbalance in marine ecosystems. Such
processes should become international.
D) Marine mammal protection laws in coastal nations need to be updated (or
initiated) to address noise issues. Allocating more authority to environmental
protection agencies that manage marine mammals would help to regulate noise
pollution. Creative thinking will be necessary. For instance, to reduce noise, oil
companies might employ a system of third party mineral surveys. The current
system fosters duplication with each company performing its own acoustic
surveys; this creates a lot of excess noise pollution.
E) Ship captains and recreational boaters should be made aware of the serious
effects that engine and propeller noise exerts on the marine world and make
every effort to minimize unnecessary mechanical noise and disturbance.
Education is crucial. If we do nothing to mitigate oceanic noise pollution, the
problem will only worsen. Over time, noise pollution may compromise marine
mammals’ ability to hear to the point where the survival of some species may be
jeopardized.
F) Similar efforts should be established to reduce coastal light pollution.
International coastal light goals and standards such be developed and promoted,
particularly banning artificial lighting sources near turtle breeding beaches.
§4.51 The oceans are big and complex, and there is no shortage of additional issues to
address. Some of these include the dumping of nuclear waste and toxic materials at sea
as has occurred in the past. The commodification of shells and marine life and their
capture, sometimes almost to the point of extinction, to serve as tourist objects and curios,
needs to be curbed. These actions and any others that degrade the oceans should all be
opposed.
§4.52 In general, a new ethic of care needs to infuse all policy and standards, where
money and profits are subservient to deeper values and goals of common responsibility
and shared prosperity and abundance, without removing individual freedoms and the
43
innovations of entrepreneurial economic enterprise – forms of limited and responsible
capitalism, socialism, and other economic systems, where money serves God, people,
and all of creation, not them serving the making of money. As the Qu’ran says in
Revelation 7:55 “Do not spread corruption on earth after it has been so well ordered. And
call unto the One with fear and longing: verily, God's grace is ever near unto the doers of
good!"
§4.52 His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama explained in his 1991 “Caring for the Earth”
speech:
The earth is not only the common heritage of all humankind but also the ultimate source of
life. By over-exploiting its resources we are undermining the very basis of our own life. …
Therefore, the protection and conservation of the earth is not a question of morality or ethics
but a question of our survival. How we respond to this challenge will affect not only this
generation but also many generations to come.
In the case of such global issues as the conservation of the Earth, and indeed in tackling all
problems, the human mind is the key factor. … If we want a beautiful garden we must first
have a blueprint in the imagination, a vision. Then that idea can be implemented and the
external garden can materialize. Destruction of nature resources results from ignorance,
lack of respect for the Earth's living things, and greed.
In the first place we must strive to overcome these states of mind by developing an
awareness of the interdependent nature of all phenomena, an attitude of wishing not to harm
other living creatures and an understanding of the need for compassion. Because of the
interdependent nature of everything, we cannot hope to solve the multifarious problems with
a one-sided or self-centered attitude. History shows us how often in the past people have
failed to cooperate. Our failures in the past are the result of ignorance of our own
interdependent nature. What we need now is a holistic approach towards problems combined
with a genuine sense of universal responsibility based on love and compassion.
§4.53 Patriarch Bartholomew called the world to this kind of attention toward the ocean life
and systems when he spoke to the participants of the fifth Religious, Science and
Environment Symposium in Stockholm, Sweden on the eve of World Ocean’s Day in 2003.
What he said then, the members of the Interfaith Ocean Ethic Campaigns also say:
The oceans are in peril. They cannot protect themselves. But God has endowed humankind
with the knowledge to rectify our mistakes, and we are, each one of us, given the choice of
what we will do.
To protect the oceans is to do God's work. To harm them, even if we are ignorant of the harm
we cause, is to diminish His divine Creation. We can stop over-fishing and destructive
fishing methods so that the miracle of the fishes will endure for future generations. We can
stop pollution so that the seas can recover from poisoning and from life-choking nutrients
produced by our cities and farms and industries. We can establish sanctuaries in the sea
where we agree to do no harm of any kind.
44
If we can find the faith to love each other and to love God, then we can find the faith to help
His vast water planet live and flourish. On this eve of World Oceans Day, we invite all of
you to join us in pledging to protect the oceans as an act of devotion, whatever your religion
may be. If we love God, we must love His Creation.
We thank you and we invoke upon you all the abundant grace and infinite mercy of the
Divine Creator.
Stories of Hope and Restoration
§5.0 In 2008, 405 ocean dead zones were identified globally, covering 95,000 square
miles, an area about the size of New Zealand. One such dead zone was killing the Black
Sea, as run off from the Danube River’s agricultural and residential lands, and industrial
sites were running into the Sea. In 1997, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew sponsored an
International Symposium on the Black Sea at the Halki Theological Institute on the Turkish
Island of Halki and the Religion, Science, and Environment (RSE), based in Athens,
Greece. This symposium helped spark international awareness and the UN Development
Program (UNDP) did an examination of pollution sources. In 1998, the international
Danube River Protection Convention was established, and the Patriarch then supported
this work with an international symposium on the Danube in 1999. In 2003, the Patriarch
addressed a conference on Black Sea Environmental Education. The UNDP, along with
nations, nongovernmental organizations, conservation groups, and those energized by
Patriarch Batholomew worked together. Farmers became more aware and learned how to
recycle their manure, which reduced the costs of fertilizer dependency and animal waste
removal, Homeowners learned to choose non-phosphorus cleaning products and
detergents. Sarajevo’s water treatment facility was refurbished. All this led to a decline in
the Black Sea Dead Zone. "It’s a clear first -- a successful reversal of dead zones," said
Andrew Hudson, of UN Oceans. In the northern Black Sea, habitats have become
healthier, species are returning, and sea-based livelihoods are again generating income
for local communities.
§5.2 In this, Patriarch Bartholomew and the voice of religion to care for God’s creation
helped spark and inspire the efforts. He did the same for the Aegean Sea (1995), Adriatic
Sea (2002), Baltic Sea (2003), Amazon River to the Atlantic (2006), and Arctic in 2007.
Pope John Paul II helped raise awareness for the Rhine River Restoration (called the
open sewer of Europe at the time) with his trip for this purpose down the Rhine from
Strasbourg, France in 1988. This project too has been immensely successful, benefiting
the ecosystems, bringing back the salmon and other species that had been lost, while also
leading toward better quality of life and tourism for those humans who live along the Rhine,
and ecosystem health of the North Sea.
§5.3 Efforts to change our orientation and actions do make difference. For instance, prior
to 2000, flounder populations were in great danger around U.S. coasts. But after tough
regulations and enforcement to stop overfishing, the flounder began a comeback, and their
45
populations rebounded and are now more stable. As long-time Atlantic Coast fisherman
John McMurray told Doug Struck with the Pew Charitable Trust Ocean campaigns, “If you
give the fish a chance, it’ll come back.” Since the implementation of summer flounder
fishing restrictions, “I see more flounder than I have ever seen in my 13 years as a captain,
or my 25 years as a saltwater angler. This is one fishery,” McMurray said, “where I don’t
have to stress about abundance levels.” Clearly, we can turn things around if we have the
commitment.
§5.4 In Ngaparou, Senegal, the fish stock were on the brink of collapse in2009 due to
overfishing, leaving fewer and fewer fishermen able to feed their families. To restore the
fisheries, the people worked with international, national, and regional organizations to
establish their own “co-management areas”. The local fishing community registered boats,
set limits on the number of fishing boats that could fish at a given time and determined the
quantities of different fish species that could be sustainably extracted from their fishing
zone, and enforced regulations with outside assistance. These community organizations
of fishers collectively registered fishing vessels and enforced legal fishing through selfpolicing. The community also benefits from assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard for
illegal fishing surveillance along the coast. In less than four years, Ngaparou had become
one of the most productive coastal marine areas in the country. The fish take mproved 133
percent with the size of the fish 42 percent larger. The improvement in the fisheries
produced positive ripple effects through the economy, with women starting a small fishing
supply and a community run refrigerated truck offering catch at far-away villages. An ice
factory will employ even more.
§5.5 California undersea kelp forests are turned into colorless ocean deserts by an
overpopulation of purple sea urchins that eat the kelp. This kelp forest devastation is due
to a reduction of sea otters and other species that feed on purple sea urchins. However, at
Palo Verdes Peninsula volunteer and commercial urchin divers, organized by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), hand-picked off the purple urchins.
Within a month of a clean up, the kelp forests started to grow back a diversity of color and
fish species returned to the habitat. The further step of restoring the sea otter populations
will help put the ecosystem into a sustainable balance. Stopping the chemical run offs that
are damaging the forests also foster their return.
§5.6 Over 85% of oyster beds have been lost globally due to overharvesting, pollution,
and habitat loss. The Nature Conservancy, local partners, NOAA, and volunteers from the
Biloxi Air Force base and local communities built a 224-foot living shoreline at Pelican
Point, Alabaman. Working side-by-side, the volunteers moved placed 10,000 concrete
blocks to form the foundation of the reefs. The reefs will also help protect the natural
shoreline, helping to minimize erosion, protect coastal dunes, and enhance natural habitat
for fish, birds and other marine life. The Conservancy, working with NOAA, and others
with over 10,000 volunteers have been placing undersea oyster quilts, replanting tidal sea
grasses, relocating adult clams to marine sanctuaries, and reseeding eelgrass among
other restoration projects. And they are working to bring back local populations.
§5.7 Work to bring back and protect a Virginia seagrass habitat that acts as a nursery for
endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles has helped the population increase by 12% each
year.
46
§5.8 On December 10, 2013, the European Parliament committed itself to stop overfishing
and restore fish stocks by 2015 or 2020 by the latest. This policy, which came about after
four years of negotiations with stakeholders is momentous in its significance. And it was
launched on January 1, beginning 2014 well, with hope and action.
§5.9 Mangrove forests offer wood for fuel and help protect coasts form erosion, flood, and
hurricane damage, nursery habitat nurseries for ocean species as well as for land and bird
species. Yet, mangrove forests have been cut in many areas, but efforts to replant them
have proved successful. To help the beleaguered nation of Haiti rejuvenate its economies
and livelihoods, the Global Partnership for Oceans brought together Fabien Cousteau’s
Plant-A-Fish organization and the Principality of Monaco to work with the local people
around the Bay of Bainet to replant the mangrove forests.
§5.10 These are just samples of the abilities of humans, and people of faith, to make
a difference through sharing science and practical initiatives and policies to
improve ecosystem health and also through hands-on volunteerism and service.
§5.11 Globally, the preparatory report and recommendations on oceans for the 2012
United Nation’s Rio+20 (UnESCO “Blueprint for Ocean and Coastal Sustainability”)
resulted in greater international awareness and action and is leading into the work to draft
measurable ocean policies for 2015 to at least 2025. However, issues such as
plasticization of the oceans as well as noise and light pollution have not occupied
significant international notice to yet be included adequately. Oceans need to be
considered a sustainable division with its own studies, programs, treaties and conventions
as well as part of UN initiatives in terms of Sustainable Development, Climate Change,
Reforestation, Species Conservation, Freshwater Presentation, Indigenous Peoples,
Population, Education, etc. And the world’s oceans need an international UN
organizational unit to coordinate the many ocean initiatives, dissemination of ocean
science, monitoring of threats, oversight of goals, etc.
§5.12 This Interfaith Ocean Ethics Campaign Statement and Report works to lay out
the common religious principles, longings, and commitment for working toward greater
health and care of ocean peoples, systems, species, and future for the planet. We invite all
religious leaders to sign on as endorsers or craft and release their own statements. We
also ask that you speak publicly about these issues as faith issues and distribute study
materials and service opportunities to all followers in your faith, prompting them to pray
and act responsibly toward all of life in the name of our Creator and the Spirit in all life.
47
A Preliminary List of Resources
(in process)
Websites and Apps
Interfaith Ocean Ethics Campaign: www.oceanethicscampaign.org
A Sample of Organizations Working On Oceans and Seas Specifically (more to come)


Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s Addresses on the interfaith Symposiums held with
Halki Institute – Aegean Sea (1995), Black Sea (1997), Danube River leading to the Black
Sea (1999), Adriatic Sea (2002) Baltic Sea (2003), Amazon River leading to the Atlantic
Ocean, Arctic (2007), Mississippi River flowing in the Gulf of Mexico (2009)
http://www.patriarchate.org
“Declaration on the World’s Oceans”, address by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on
World Ocean’s Day 2003: http://www.ec-patr.org/docdisplay.php?lang=en&id=480&tla=en

“The Universal Purpose of Created Things” by the Roman Catholic Pontifical Council of
Justice and Peace, 1979, updated 2011 -http://www.nrccc.org/site/Topics/Issues/Oceans/Vatican_law-of-the-sea.PDF

Green Zionist Alliance’s statements on the oceans and seas “Brit HaYam: A Covenant with
the Sea” and other ocean ethic materials:
http://www.greenzionism.org/resources/hayam/283

International Programme on the State of the Oceans and their documents:
http://www.stateoftheocean.org/

Preparatory UNESCO Document for Rio +20 “Blueprint for Ocean and Coastal
Sustainability”
http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/SC/pdf/interagency_blue_paper_oc
ean_rioPlus20.pdf

World Bank convened Blue Ribbon Panel, which includes 21 global experts from 16
countries and their document – “Indispensible Oceans: Aligning Ocean Health and WellBeing”
https://www.globalpartnershipforoceans.org/sites/oceans/files/images/Indispensable_Ocean
.pdf

“A Sea Change: Wave, Tide, and Hydroelectric Energy” by Christopher Vaughan,
http://www.greenzionism.org/en/resources/jeg/329

“For the Health of the Sea: In Search of an Expansive ‘Land Ethic’ in Turkish Maritime
Literature” by Dr. Ufuk Özdağ, first published in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Study of Literature
and the Environment (Winter 2013) 20 (1): 5-30 first published online February 20, 2013
doi:10.1093/isle/ist003. For the full article, see:
http://isle.oxfordjournals.org/content/20/1/5.full
48

“A Sea Ethic: Floating the Ark” by Dr. Carl Safina of the Blue Ocean Institute,
http://blueocean.org/files/FloatingTheArk4.pdf
A Sample of Organizations Working On Oceans and Seas Specifically (more to come)

MarineBio Conservation Society’s list of global ocean organizations:
http://marinebio.org/oceans/conservation/organizations.asp

Global Ocean Commission at Oxford University: http://www.globaloceancommission.org

Global Partnership for the Oceans http://www.globalpartnershipforoceans.org/

Global Ocean Forum: http://globaloceanforum.org/ and www.globaloceanforum.com

Pew Charitable Trusts’ Ocean Campaigns:
http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_category.aspx?id=126

Ocean Conservancy: http://www.oceanconservancy.org/

Cousteau Society, custodians of the sea: http://www.cousteau.org/

Blue Ocean Institute: http://blueocean.org/

UNESCO’s Blueprint for Ocean and Coastal Protection:
http://www.unesco.org/new/ocean_blueprint

Plant a Fish – Outdoors Ocean Education and Restoration Experience:
http://www.plantafish.org/programs.aspx

National Geographic’s Ocean Education:
http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/

World Wildlife Fund, oceans: http://worldwildlife.org/habitats/oceans

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: http://www.whoi.edu/

Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy, University of Delaware:
http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/cmp/index.html


Marine Conservation Biology Institute, Redmond, WA: http://www.marine-conservation.org/
Scripps Institute of Oceanography in UC San Diego: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/

Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Food Watch: This has the latest on marine conservation
issues and seafood:
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx

Seafood Watch Wallet Card Download and carry one of these pocket guides with you and
share it with others to help spread the word.
49
Seafood Watch Sustainable Seafood Guide
Seafood Watch Sushi Guide

Seafood Watch Apps for Android and iPhone
Up-to-date recommendations for ocean-friendly seafood app.






Project Fishmap. Whenever you find "Best Choice" or
"Good
Alternative" seafood, share the location on Project FishMap. Help the
database grow!
Fish Smart Facebook page and Twitter page from the Minnesota Zoo
Shedd Aquarium’s Right Bites program
Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program
Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
Ocean Watch: http://www.noaa.gov/ocean.html
Climate Watch: http://www.climate.gov/#climateWatch
Fisheries: http://www.noaa.gov/fisheries.html
Coasts: http://www.noaa.gov/coasts.html
Education: http://www.education.noaa.gov/

Religious/Spiritual Associations for Creation Care





National Religious Campaign for Creation Care: http://nrccc.org/
Franciscan Action Network: http://franciscanaction.org
Franciscan Earth Corps: http://franciscanaction.org/earthcorps
Franciscans International: http://www.franciscansinternational.org/
World Stewardship Institutive: http://www.ecostewards.org/

Green Zionist Alliance: http://www.greenzionism.org/

Religion, Science, and Environment (RSE),
http://www.rsesymposia.org/more.php?theitemid=58&catid=27

The Holy Theological School of Halki: http://www.patriarchate.org/patriarchate/monasterieschurches/halki

National Religious Partnership for the Environment – a joint effort of leadership of four
major religious groups: Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, U.F. Conference of
Catholic Bishops, National Council of Churches of Christ, Evangelical Environmental
Network: http://www.nrpe.org/

Interfaith Power and Light: A Religious Response to Global Warming
http://www.interfaithpowerandlight.org/

Interfaith Moral Action on Climate: http://www.interfaithactiononclimatechange.org/

Alliance of Religions and Conservation: http://www.arcworld.org/about_ARC.asp
50

Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life: http://coejl.org/

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Work on the Environment:
http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/environment/

Catholic Climate Covenant: http://catholicclimatecovenant.org/about-us/

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Conservation Center: http://conservation.catholic.org/

National Council of Churches of Christ Eco Justice Program: http://nccecojustice.org/

Evangelical Environmental Network: http://creationcare.org/

Laussance Movement (started by Rev. Billy Graham) for Creation Care:
http://www.lausanne.org/en/documents/all/2012-creation-care/1881-call-to-action.html

World Evangelical Alliance Creation Care Task Force:
http://www.worldevangelicals.org/projects/creation_care.ht

Seminary Stewardship Alliance: http://seminaryalliance.org/

Mennonite Creation Care Network: http://mennocreationcare.org/

Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences: http://www.ifees.org.uk/

Green Muslims: http://green-muslims.org/author/admin
https://www.facebook.com/greenmuslims

Muslim Green Team: http://muslimgreenteam.org/

African Muslim Environmental Network (AMEN):
http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/organizations/african-muslim-environmentnetwork

Dalai Lama and Buddhists on the Environment:
http://www.dalailama.com/messages/environment/a-green-environment

Association of Buddhists for the Environment:
http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/the-association-of-buddhists-for-theenvironment-abe
http://www.arcworld.org/projects.asp?projectID=1

Indigenous Environmental Network: http://www.ienearth.org/

Honor the Earth: Native American Environmental Activist Organization:
http://www.honorearth.org/

Indigenous Women’s Network: http://indigenouswomen.org/

Longhouse Treaty Nations: http://longhousetreatynations.webs.com/
51

Quaker Earth Care Witness: http://www.quakerearthcare.org/

Congress of World and Traditional Religions on Creation of a Future: http://www.religionscongress.org/content/view/323/lang,en/

Parliament of World Religions Get Down to Earth:
http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/_includes/files/articles/World_Religions_Down_To_Ear
th-parabola.pdf

Interfaith Youth for Climate Justice: http://iycj.org/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Interfaith-Youth-for-Climate-Justice/117288101703664
Resources for Faith Community Transformation

St. Francis Pledge: This pledge is to join together to be the change we seek and to make a
difference http://catholicclimatecovenant.org/the-st-francis-pledge/

Interfaith Power and Light: A Religious Response to Global Warming:
http://interfaithpowerandlight.org/

Green Congregation Guide:
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/small_business/congregations_guidebook/Cong_Gui
de.pdf?d669-9f6c

National Preach-In on Global Warming and Creation Care: http://www.preachin.org/

“Who’s Under Your Carbon Footprint?” A Catholic YouTube presentation, but the content
applies to all Christians in terms of Scripture quoted, but it does say “as Catholics” -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McdULlbg1_0

Moyers and Company: Ending the Silence on Climate Change,
http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-ending-the-silence-on-climate-change/

350.0rg The grassroots global movement to solve the climate change crisis, one parts per
million of CO2 at a time. Many religious groups are deeply engaged in this network of
people working in their own communities. http://350.org/

Do the Math/ Go Fossil Free: A new campaign in which group members urege their
institutions to divest from fossil-fuel based corporations and stocks. Students and faculty at
colleges and universities, religious institutions, cities, and towns are involved in the
movement to invest in companies that further their values and they divest from those that
don’t. It is a form of putting one’s money where one’s mouth is or finding that where there
heart is there treasure is also. “Do the Math” is the movie that shows why this is so
necessary. http://gofossilfree.org/

“Planting the Future”: the On Being radio program discussion with Nobel Peace Prize
Winner, Kenyan Catholic Dr. Wangari Mathai and her creation of the Green Belt Movement
that engages women and children in Africa and around the world in planting trees and
52
peace, improving their environments: http://www.onbeing.org/program/plantingfuture/transcript/2357

NRCC: Religious Campaign for Forest Restoration – A program for faith groups and
believers to help offset their carbon footprints by investing $6 per tree for rainforest
reforestation in Guatemala, planted and nurtured by school children, with their schools
getting some of the funds.

Blessed Earth’s Urban Tree Planting Project: http://www.blessedearth.org/treeplanting/

Blessed Earth is an educational nonprofit that inspires and equips people of faith to become
better stewards of the earth. Through church, campus, and media outreach, we build
bridges that promote measurable environmental change and meaningful spiritual growth.
http://www.blessedearth.org/

Muslim Approaches to Environmental Protection:
http://www.sundancechannel.com/sunfiltered/2009/05/islamic-creation-care-muslimapproaches-to-environmental-protection/

Green Deen Blog: Islam and the Environment: http://www.greendeenblog.com/
http://www.greendeenbook.com/



Muslim Environment Watch: http://muslimenvironment.wordpress.com/







Green Cross International: “Give Humanity a Chance: Give the Earth a Future” This
international organization, started by Mikhail Gorbachev and Swiss National Council
parliamentarian Roland Wiederkehr, has been promoting the development of sustainable
solutions to problems poverty and environmental degradation. Its programs include: Water
for Life and Peace, Environmental Security and Sustainability, Social and Medical, Smart
Energy and Value Change. Global Green US is an offshoot. Global Green USA has been
advocating for "smart solutions to global warming" including green building for affordable
housing, public schools and cities. http://www.gcint.org/ http://globalgreen.org/
Institute for Sustainable Communities the best practices from private and public entities, the
ISC is committed to promoting active citizenship in order to address climate change.
Finding out more about how they define a sustainable community. Religious communities
can become a catalyst for action within their larger communities. http://www.iscvt.org/
Story of Stuff: This site offers short, quirky animated videos that demonstrate how we are
turning our earth’s resources into stuff and then waste. They are enjoyable and thought
provoking – perfect for getting people to consider everyday actions in their wide context and
consequences. http://storyofstuff.org/ It also features a personality quiz.
Story of Stuff: Changemaker Personality Quiz: If you're keen to get started, take this twominute quiz to find out how your particular talents might be used to combat climate change.
After you take the quiz, vote on ideas submitted by other members of the "Story of Change"
community. https://storyofstuff.secure.force.com/changemakers/quiz
“The Inner Language of Beauty”, the On Being radio program discussion about the Spiritual
Power of natural landscapes: http://www.onbeing.org/program/inner-landscape-beauty/203
53
Books and DVDS (many more to come)
Ocean Background

Waves of God’s Embrace: Sacred Perspectives of the Ocean by Bishop Winston
Halapua

Song for the Blue Ocean; Voyage of the Turtle, Eye of the Albatross, View from
Lazy Point; The Sea in Flames, all by Carl Safina

The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Fate Are One; Dive: My
Adventures in the Deep Frontier; Atlas of the Ocean: The Deep Frontier; Hello Fish:
Visiting the Coral Reef; Sea Change: A Message of the Ocean all by Sylvia Earle

Sea Sick: Ocean Changes and the Extinction of Life on Earth by Alanna Mitchell

Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries: A Global Perspective by Villy Christensen
(Editor), Jay Maclean (Editor)


Plastiki Across the Pacific on Plastic: An Adventure to Save Our Oceans by David
de Rothschild (Author), Achim Steiner (Foreword)
General Creation Care

The Green Bible, editorial direction and input from Matthew Sleeth, from Blessed
Earth, and Frederic Krueger, from National Religious Coalition for Creation Care.

The Gospel According to the Earth, Serve God, Save the Planet, and
24/6: a Prescription for a Healthier, Happier Life all by Matthew Sleeth

Almost Amish: One Woman's Quest for a Slower, Simpler, More Sustainable Life,
and Go Green, Save Green both by Nancy Sleeth

It’s Easy Being Green by Emma Sleeth, a young adult’s counsel to her peers.

Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet, by Ibrahim AbdulMatin outlines Islam's teachings about the environment, and encourages American
Muslims to become more conscious of what they can do to protect the planet.

Following St. Francis: John Paul II’s Call for Ecological Action, by Marybeth
Lorbiecki, to be released by Rizzoli, April 2014.
General Background
54

The Fate of the Earth; Eearth; Honey and Oil, Deep Economy, Enough and others by Bill
McKibben
Supplemental Litany for faiths that share Biblical references:
A Litany for a Biblical Ocean Ethic:
O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
Psalm 104: 24-25
Because we did not create the oceans (Job 38:4); but rather God created the ocean and
all the life in it and called it all good (Genesis 1); and gave us dominion in the image
of God over all the fishes of the sea to care as God cares (Genesis1:26); and
Because 70% of our bodies is salt water, which is the same percentage of salt water that
covers the Earth's surface in the seas; and
Because 99% of Earth’s living space is in these seas, and 98% of the earths’ water, and
one ocean connects all the planet's salt-water seas; and
Because the seas are linked to all the vital sustaining systems of the air and oxygen
levels, atmosphere and temperature, currents and weather, freshwater and
moisture, and changes to these effect the seas and vice versa;
Because the ocean provides 50% of the planet's oxygen for breath; and because the
ocean contains and sustains over 94% of the planet's species; and
Because much of it is still mysterious and unexplored (less than 5% studied), with the
longest mountain range (35,000 miles long) and highest mountains on Earth
in its depths, with caverns so deep we cannot yet plumb their depths, filled with
life forms we do not yet know with light sources of their own (bioluminescence) as
well as underwater lakes, water falls, volcanoes, corral reefs and kelp forests as
tall and filled with species as our rainforests: and
Because the ocean levels are rising, driving humans and wildlife living on the shores from
their homes; and
Because about one third of the world’s population lives within fifty miles of the coast and
one fifth of the world’s protein comes from the seas; a large proportion of the world’s
hungriest people depend upon fish for subsistence;
Because so many economies depend upon the beauty, integrity, and stability of the
ocean and its seas and all that abide in it;
Because so many marine species have drastically declining populations and habitats and
are in danger;
Because so many different cultures of the world are linked by the oceans and so many
55
people and other species live along its shores, and are harmed by changes to the
ocean, especially the poor; and
Because the oceans of the world gather the waters from all the rivers and streams; and
Because our weather patterns are dependent upon their temperatures and currents; and
Because our very existence depends upon caring for our oceans and their resources;
for all these reasons and more, we say:
The whole cosmos, including the earth’s lands and oceans, belongs to God, its
ultimate Creator.
Thus, an act that affects the oceans is right if it tends to preserve, conserve, or
repair the stability, integrity, beauty, and fruitfulness of the ocean’s natural
communities -- of which we are an interactive part – and if it extends the Creator’s
respect, love, and kinship to all the living creatures therein.
Any act that tends otherwise is morally and religiously wrong.
And a status quo of harm is wrong as well. We are called as humans to love what
God has given us, and work harmoniously with God for the healthy living of all
species and systems, both now and to come, with special care for the poor,
vulnerable and endangered. So we must begin our transitions, service, and
sacrifices for better ocean and earth care now.
Together, and as individuals, we must ask for forgiveness for our excesses, work to
repair wrongs done, and accept in humility that we will never live in perfect
harmony. Yet we must strive, and in the striving and prayer, be transformed as the
oceans are restored.
So we must approach our ocean community with respect and care, knowing that the health
of our lives and those of all people and species of the world are linked to it oxygen,
currents, and the health of its water and species, so we must re-evaluate and repent of all
individual, religious, economic, recreational, and social activities that harmfully affect it,
such as dumping, sewage drainage, and run-off; plastic and chemical wastes; excessive
atmospheric carbon leading to acidification and global warming; overfishing and harmful
fishing methods; coastal overdevelopment; oil extraction; collection of marine life for
tourists; sound, smell, and noise pollution. We must see ourselves as part of and
dependent upon the oceans, with responsibilities for their vitality as an obligation to God
for the privilege of life.
56