Dive into Ocean Literacy: From childhood ABC to the vastness of the ocean relearning interconnectedness.
If we go back to our early days at school, what did we first learn? The ABC, exactly. Now that we are grown-ups and literates, some of us – even scientists and intellectuals – should be able to know the ABC of many parts of our lives: the ABC of our body, of our health, of work, love, friendships, but most importantly the ABC of our surrounding nature, the forests, the animal habitat, and of course the ABC of the ocean to understand the fragile network and kinship, the interconnectedness. We just function on autopilot in most of these areas: We eat as best as we can, we work as efficiently as we are able to, we exercise to keep fit, we treat our family and friends in the most respectful way, we recycle, fly as little as possible, we try to produce as little garbage as possible, we plant trees, we only buy used clothes, we repair our things instead of buying new ones – those are the ideal cases. We do all of this because we learn it somewhere, read about it, listen to conferences, and educate ourselves. So far so good. But then there is something as huge as the world-spanning ocean and we are getting lost. Ok, we know by now that more than 71% of the world is really ocean and we should actually call our planet “Ocean” rather than “Earth”, but we are land-based beings and prefer to focus on what is happening on land because it is much closer to us and better understandable.
