Beyond the tipping point

Phillipe Cousteau did a dive into the Gulf of Mexico last week.

Perhaps you have seen it, if not it's on You Tube. So sad to watch

him don a hazmat suit to dive into the oily disaster. So sad to

see what he saw and hear his words. I heard him interviewed

since his dive and he was asked if it was already too late for

our beloved mother ocean. HIs answer was troubling. A man

can survive without an arm, without a leg, with his eye gouged out

but the man will never be the same Cousteau replied. When will

people realize that the ocean will never be the same, never be

healthy he asked?

I too am surprised as to just how many people are not connecting

the dots on the devastation we humans have wrought on the

ocean. The big fish are virtually gone, yet we continue to seek

them out. The list of fish on the unsustainable list grows, yet go

into almost any eatery and look at the seafood portion of the menu.

Gyres filled with plastics ( an oil based product) are in all the worlds

oceans. The stomachs of fish and birds found in even the most remote

places on earth are filled with plastic. Walk any beach on any continent

and you'll see it littered with plastic. Go to virtually every beach snack

bar and ask to buy some kind of drink what you'll get in all likelihood

is a plastic bottle.

The ocean and our unwillingness to look at our behavior is a metaphor

for how many people live their lives. Sure you can survive eating

the wrong food, not exercising, being a workaholic, using your hard

earned dollars to consume for the sake of consuming. You, like the

ocean or the man with one arm, one leg, and one eye can survive. Do

you really want to? Have you, have we gone beyond the tipping point?