54 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO SAVE THE OCEAN

“Conservation” means many things to many people, and that’s a good thing. It’s going to take all of us, each in our own unique way, to complete the work celebrated in this special issue. From one small first step, a life-changing journey may begin. So let’s get rolling...

1 WE ARE WATER

Everything that happens on the surface of Earth is returned to humanity to drink. We must become more water literate, and we must do it right now.

TEXT AND PHOTO BY JILL HEINERTH

When I go cave diving, my survival hangs on a thread, a thin safety line that leads me back to daylight. Many nondivers call cave diving a claustrophobic nightmare, but I feel differently. Inside the belly of the planet, I swim through the sustenance that nourishes everything we know and love. In the robust current, I feel the pulse of Earth’s life force.

As an optimist, I want to share my passion for water, but I see trouble coming down the pipe. I’m the canary in the coal mine, observing water at its source while I swim beneath homes, businesses and natural landscapes. I see water before it spills from a spring to nourish a river, enrich an estuary or despoil a harbor in decline. I am a witness to how the world’s oceans begin beneath our feet, in vast aquifers and arteries of groundwater. I have seen that everything we do on land is eventually returned to us to drink.

We search for water on faraway worlds but don’t seem to cherish what we have here. There is plenty of water on our big blue planet, but we are quickly running out of clean sources we can afford, and fighting over what’s left. We need to improve our water literacy. We need to know where our water comes from, how we unintentionally poison it, and how we can preserve it for future generations. Clean drinking water should be a universal human right. Protecting it is a moral imperative.

Water is the fragile thread that runs through humanity, connecting us via the shared oceanic lungs of our planet. Water reminds us of our global interconnectivity and responsibility. Earth is 70 percent water. Our bodies are 70 percent water. All of us are intertwined in this water dance called life.