Our oceans are in trouble and so are we. That's the message from
Sylvia Earle, keynote speaker Wednesday morning at the Blue
Ocean Film Festival and Conservation Event in Monterey. The good
news, she said, is that new technology can raise our awareness,
enhance our exploration and improve our ability to act — without
ever getting our feet wet. "The actions we take in the next 10
years will affect the planet for the next 10,000 years," Earle
told a packed room of scientists, filmmakers, engineers,
educators, divers and artists gathered at the Portola Hotel &
Spa for the weeklong meeting dedicated to creating ocean
awareness through media, science and research. As terrestrials,
she said, our roots are deep, but not as deep as the creatures
of the sea, and this is the time to turn things around. "It's
taken billions of years to make this a hospitable planet," said
Earle, an oceanographer and conservationist. "It's taken a
frighteningly short time to move things in the other direction."
Perhaps no one knows that