World Smile Day is on October 1st, and in 2515 we have lots to smile about. We have the green of the escarpment on one side, and the blue surf on the other, and luckily we don’t get too inundated with pollution, other than the occasional overflowing bin at playgrounds and beaches on the weekends. If you do see a bin that needs to be attended to, then the solution is easy: simply download the SNAP SEND SOLVE app which allows you to take a photo of the mess. In less than a minute your notification will go through to Wollongong City Council who will then add the job to their list. Seeing results like that brings a smile to my face!
In a few weeks our region will open up for business again, and with that freedom comes the opportunity to rethink how we move into the future. One of the things that I took from this lockdown was the fact that our community was going out of its way to show kindness. We collected close to 1200 masks for the communities in Western NSW who had no access to masks when the Delta strain was racing through the region. If we can come together in times of need for our own health, then surely the same urgency can be applied to the planet. It’s so hard to see the problem when we live in paradise and when one of the biggest problems is micro plastics which aren’t easily seen - even when you are looking for them.
The Ocean provides solutions to many of the global climate heating issues that we currently face. The Blue Carbon Ecosystem consisting of mangroves, sea grass meadows and salt marshes are among the most efficient ecosystems in the world at sequestering carbon, and leading research is happening in our backyard, down the road at the University of Wollongong; this is exciting stuff and I feel like we are winning. Yet, further up the road in Sydney, our Surfrider branches are campaigning against PEP-11 which stands for Petroleum Exploration Permit 11; a licence to drill for oil and gas just offshore from Manly to Newcastle beaches.
For too long, fossil fool governments have been taking the worlds oceans for granted, feeding it our garbage and exploiting its riches. There was a time when exploring the seabed and blowing it apart was called ‘progress’, but that can’t be justified anymore as we move into the era of renewables and countless positive possibilities for energy. Jacques Cousteau said that “people will protect something if they love it” so let’s get to know more about our oceans and this amazing body of water that we have at our doorstep.
To quote my friends at the Oceanic Research Institute, the Ocean keeps us alive by producing up to 95% of the oxygen in the atmosphere, and every second breath that we take is from the Ocean; it provides everything that humankind needs for survival even though it is largely unexplored. There are 288,450 known species in the Ocean and yet 95% of it is unknown to science; there are possibly up to two million more species awaiting discovery. If only Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos would put their flippers on!!
