Happy 48th Earth Day!

​The world below the brine, 
Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves, 
Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick tangle, openings, and pink turf, 
Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold, the play of light through the water, 
Dumb swimmers there among the rocks, coral, gluten, grass, rushes, and the aliment of the swimmers, 
Sluggish existences grazing there suspended, or slowly crawling close to the bottom, 
The sperm-whale at the surface blowing air and spray, or disporting with his flukes, 
The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sea-leopard, and the sting-ray, 
Passions there, wars, pursuits, tribes, sight in those ocean-depths, breathing that thick-breathing air, as so many do, 
The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed by beings like us who walk this sphere, 
The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres. (Whitman)

Photograph Courtesy of Phil Maier

​2017’s Earth Day theme was Environmental and Climate Literacy. This meant educating the masses about the dangers currently presented to the environment and how they can take action to defend it for both the present and future. It was to bring Environmental Literacy of our next generation that we began our Ocean Warriors program.
 
A year ago, we set out to educate several third-grade classes in the Bay Area about environmental advocacy and how even the smallest action in the everyday can go a long way. If you’re a follower of our Facebook page, then you’ve seen the extent to which our program has succeeded.
 
This year’s Earth Day theme is End Plastic Pollution. This includes reducing our use of single-use plastics and cleaning them off our beaches. Say no to plastic straws. Use a reusable bag for grocery shopping. Visit one of our Beach Clean Up Stations. Attend one of our cleanups! If we work together, treating every day like Earth Day with simple actions like these, we will be ready for the 50th Earth Day anniversary in 2020.  

Photograph Courtesy of Phil Maier

​On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef 
of the universes and of the future.
 
A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,
All distances of place however wide,
All distances of time, all inanimate forms,
All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, or in 
different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the 
brutes,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any 
globe,
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann'd,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them. (Whitman)

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Whitman, W. Walt Leaves of Grass. The First (1855) Edition, New York: Penguin                Books, 2005.