00:09World Ocean Day allows people to celebrate the ocean, what it gives to us and a chance for us
00:15to give back to it. You may never see the ocean, you may never touch the ocean, but the ocean
00:23touches you. Every breath you take, every drop of water you drink. I'm Sylvia Earle, I'm an oceanographer.
00:35For me, the ocean is infinitely fascinating. You never know what you're going to find,
00:43but you know it's going to be good.
01:04I've loved the ocean from the earliest memory that I have. When I was three years old, my parents
01:11took my brothers and me to a beach in New Jersey. I got knocked over by a wave. The ocean
01:18caught my
01:18attention. I realized that was really fun. I loved it then. I still love it.
01:33I've had the good fortune to be able to come along at a time when diving was just getting underway.
01:38So I was among the first to use scuba diving as a scientist. In 1970, I had a chance to
01:45live
01:46underwater. We were called aquanauts. As a diver, you look down and there's this ocean that keeps
01:56going. You have to stop. But the fish don't. The whales don't. They just keep going. I always wanted
02:03to go as deep as the ocean. When I used the gym, the walking suit, to go to 400 meters,
02:14it was the first
02:15time that a system of that sort had ever been used without a cable going back to the surface.
02:22Using little one-person soaps that I could drive myself, I've been to a thousand meters.
02:30It was through what I could see for myself that I first became concerned.
02:43Since the 1950s, about half the coral reefs are gone. Some calculations suggest that 40% of the
02:52the phytoplankton, the small organisms, are gone. 90% of many of the fish are gone.
03:08Now we know that we have the power to alter the nature of the ocean.
03:15In many ways, this is the sweet spot in time. The first thing that people should do is hold up
03:25the
03:25mirror. Look at who you are and what are your powers. What can you do to make a difference?
03:31It's true with kids. It's true with grown-ups. It's true with corporations.
03:37Individuals can make a difference when they go to the grocery store. What do you choose to eat or not?
03:42With the clothing that you choose to buy or not?
03:47Get to know the companies. It's like getting to know a friend.
03:52If you find a company that is doing the right thing, stick with them.
03:58Some companies are doing the right thing. Giving back, taking care of the natural world and
04:05showing care of the ingredients that they use for their products.
04:12Individuals can help companies by choosing those companies that are really doing the right thing.
04:19I tell kids who seem worried about the future, and they should be, not to despair, but rather
04:25realize if you could choose a time to be around, choose now. Because this is the first time
04:32that we know that we are changing the nature of the world.
04:43What you think of the ocean is the blue heart of the planet. It keeps us alive.
04:50How much of your heart do you want to protect?
04:54How much of your heart?
04:56I don't know.
05:01You
