MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

World celebrates “one ocean, once climate, one future”

Our “blue backyard” threatened y burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and agricultural practices

The world’s oceans generate most of the oxygen we breathe, supply us with food, regulate our climate, clean the water we drink, and offer a pharmacopoeia of potential medicines.

The United Nations had officially declared June 8 each year as World Oceans Day (WOD). The concept for a WOD was proposed by the Government of Canada in 1992 at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro. Since then it has been celebrated annually.

The theme of 2009 WOD is “One Ocean, One Climate, One Future’’ to emphasize that we live on a blue planet where 70% of the surface is covered by ocean waters, and to raise public awareness of the key connections among a healthy ocean, a healthy climate, and our future. Regardless of where we live, we are dependent on the state of health of our shared bodies of water.

To mark the daylong celebration, UN member countries will host various activities, including coastal cleanup and mangrove planting, film showing celebrating the oceans and the seas, lectures and forums on relevant topics, essay writing competitions, and theatrical plays on environmental conservation.

The burning of fossils fuels, deforestation, and certain agricultural practices produce increasing amounts of carbon dioxide that our oceans can no longer absorb, resulting in the altering of their chemistry. This has resulted in some marine animals and corals failing to form calcium carbonate shells and in the creation of a habitat conducive to the survival of invasive alien species.

Let us work together to do everything we can to conserve our “blue backyard’’ to make sure that our progeny will continue to benefit from and enjoy our beaches, the coral reefs that have the potentials to yield new medicine and valuable proteins, and the limitless inspiration provided by the ocean’s magnificent “landscape.’’ Our oceans have life, let us keep them healthy.