Water is the heartbeat of our world.  As a planet whose surface and footprint is dominated by water, the juxtaposition of humanity’s dependence and it’s understanding of this scientific fact is a fascinating contemplation.  It may be the greatest example of what I see as humanity’s greatest weakness: myopia.

Earth’s oceans are its largest storage centers for carbon, absorbing a large portion of the CO2 emissions that civilization has released at a steadily increasing rate since the industrial revolution.  Climate change is omnipresent in our world, and nowhere are its effects greater on our blue planet than in the oceans and other bodies of water.  Just like our air, oceans are seeing more and more heat waves, along with a general warming due to increased carbon levels.  Along with it, the CO2 absorption is changing the entire biochemistry of our oceans.

With rising acidity and falling oxygen levels, the ecosystems within are being strained to the utmost.  Coral reefs are dying.  The populations of fish that depend on them as homes are dwindling.  This has set off a chain of events that is effecting the way the largest fish and mammals in the ocean live and consume.  In turn, the resources and the industries that humans rely on globally are effected as well. 

Meanwhile extreme weather events controlled by the forces of our ocean, as well as rising sea levels have become more and more prominent around the globe.  Professor Dan Laffoley of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas says it best: “We are an ocean world, run and regulated by a single ocean and we are pushing that life support system to its very limits…”

The scientific facts and data are there.  We are presented with them more and more often as time goes by.  But humanity as the planet’s most dominant species, is failing to act sufficiently in our own self-interest.

Myopia.

It is what has made uniform change so difficult to enact throughout history.  Even if the facts are there; even if we believe them, if we cannot see the visceral effects with our very own eyes; if we cannot witness the immediate visual causation of our actions, few will accept the urgency to modify our behavior.  Ironically, the ‘debate’ on climate change is just as much an op-ed on human psychology as it is anything else.

Horrific examples of this idea have occurred in just the past year.  What may be the greatest outcry to date for climate change action manifested from the Australian bushfires of 2019-2020.  A conglomerate of natural disasters that upended life altogether for much of a nation turned into a collective that was broadcast globally.  A visceral event, with stories, images, and videos abound attached itself to the subject of climate change.

As the effects become more and more prominent, time will tell whether we can enact global change that can combat the worst of our effects on our world.  Tragically, we may need more sparks like the bushfires in Australia in order for that to happen.

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My relationship with water has always been a love affair.  The sound of a rushing river as it courses through its bed of rocks.  Mist settling on my skin from a roaring waterfall, dropping hundreds of feet from its precipice.  The taut feeling of salt on my face as I crinkle my skin after a day spent in the ocean.  Waves pummeling the body, my strength no match for one of nature’s greatest forces.  That feeling of calming isolation as I dip below the surface and sounds are muted as the pressure of the water embraces me.  Water’s unrelenting force and strength shows us that we are no match for nature’s commanding grip on our planet. 

The gallery below is my attempt to portray these feelings through my imagery.  It is a set of images from the coastline of Victoria, Australia, all featuring our planet’s ‘life blood’.  20% of any sales of these images will be put forward to the Ocean Conservancy and its efforts to ‘protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges.’

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