You Voted. Great! Here’s 4 Actions You Can Take to Keep Our Ocean Healthy
It’s been a long few weeks, right? And if you voted in the election, awesome! But the hard job of keeping our ocean (and democracy) healthy doesn’t stop at voting. As long as people and corporations profit off the destruction of the Earth, there will always be something that can be done to help protect it. Here are 4 things you can do to help keep our ocean healthy.
Tell Your Elected Officials to Support the Ocean
Although the election has just barely passed, it’s never too early to tell your newly or currently elected officials to support the ocean. On the national level, that means supporting the Ocean Climate Solutions Act and the Break Free From Plastic Act. The Ocean Climate Solutions Act will harness the immense power of the ocean to help combat climate change by stopping oil drilling and protecting ocean habits to increase “blue” carbon storage. The Break Free From Plastic Act is the first comprehensive bill on the national level to address plastic production and pollution.
One easy way to tell elected officials to support the ocean is to use the Surfrider Foundation’s Action Alert tool. They have easy templates that you just fill out your name and address (they need your address to locate the correct elected official) and they send the email on your behalf.
On the local and state level, bills that ban or reduce single-use plastics or require the region’s energy to come from renewable resources help to protect the ocean whether you live on the coast or in the middle of Kansas. Rivers and creeks lead to the ocean, so every state has an impact on our ocean!
Look For Your City’s Climate Action Plan
On the local level, look for your city’s Climate Action Plan. This plan describes how the city intends to address the risk of climate change. Normally, it talks about what it will do in the case of large climate change events that affect the region. For example, in California it will talk about wildfires. And on the other side it should talk about what the city will do to decrease their carbon footprint and what their goal is for carbon emissions reduction.
If your city doesn’t have any of these things, ask the city council and mayor why and demand that the city put one together. You can do this over phone, email, or sending a letter through regular mail. You can also attend a city council meeting…most likely it will be online due to COVID. Whatever your method, let your city council know that a climate action plan is important to their citizens. And then, go ask your family, friends, and neighbors to do the same.
Join a City Commission
If you want to take it one step further, look at the commissions in your city. There are various commissions in each city dedicated to a certain subject and each is staffed by volunteer citizens. For example, there’s a planning commission to decide what types of buildings will go where or how various areas of the city will be developed.
I previously served on the environmental committee in one city and then the human services commission in another. The environmental committee helped the city find more ways of reducing waste, water usage, and energy usage. Whereas the human services commission helped the city find ways to fight homelessness and poverty.
You are a smart and capable person and have a lot to contribute to your city. So, find the commissions and see what has an opening. If it’s a subject your interested, submit an application!
Tell Your Favorite Businesses You Want Them to be Plastic-Free
Finally, the ways you can affect change usually fall into one of three categories: government (or laws), businesses (or products), personal (or habits). We’ve spent some time talking about actions you can take in the government sector and most of my blog is about the changes you can make at home. So, the last thing I wanted to talk about is businesses.
Just like the government, if enough people make noise, businesses will make changes. So, tell your favorite company that you love them but that you also want them to be plastic-free. Here are a few ideas:
- Take a picture of their plastic packaging and tag them on social media
- Write a letter or email about why you want them to go plastic-free
- If the companies do Q&As on social media, join and ask them about why their packaging is still in plastic and what they plan to do to reduce it
No matter what your method, make sure to make your voice heard!
What do you think? Can you do one or more of these actions today?
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