A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

Yoga is becoming part of corporate culture, and that is good for the bottom line. [Via LearnVest]

Where you live affects your health. A new study shows that rural living could be an obesity risk factor. [Via Los Angeles Times]

What do you do when you have a day off? According to this poll, most of us sleep. [Via NPR]

Spice up your coffee with these five seasonal ingredients. [Via Organic Authority]

If you can rent out your apartment, why not your bike? Enter the Airbnb of the cycling world. Just make sure it’s tuned up. [Via Ethical Ocean]

Call Me Maybe vs. Gangnam Style = immediate internet sensation. Doesn’t mean it’s good. [Via Soundcloud]

What is the number one thing you couldn’t live without in the kitchen? Probably the refrigerator. This and 19 other significant inventions in the history of food and drink. [Via The Atlantic]

What do “clean” and “dirty” sound like? Take city pollution, map it with sound and you get a musical landscape. [Via PSFK]

The murder of an environmental journalist in Cambodia reminds us that we are all connected. [Via Dot Earth]

We live in an era of creativity; here is a compilation of the 25 most iconic artworks over the last five years. [Via ArtInfo]

Image: mmarcotte51

The post Link Love: Rural Living Affects Obesity, Airbnb for Bikes and the Murder of an Environmental Journalist appeared first on EcoSalon.

Everyday is better with a new track… or album.

Can’t wait for the new The xx album Coexist? NPR is streaming the entire album a week ahead of its release, slated for September 11, 2012. In the meantime, here’s a beautiful live version of one of the album’s signature track, “Angels.”

The post Daily Track: Stream The xx’s New Album ‘Coexist’ appeared first on EcoSalon.

Ten easy-to-make DIY projects to get your kids all geared up for school.

Hard to believe for most parents, but it’s time to send your kids back to school. Instead of spending tons of money on all that back-to-school gear they need, involve them in the process and make the stuff yourself. All you need are some basic tools and materials and a serious sense of play. Here are ten great back-to-school DIY projects you (and the kids) can easily make at home.

Apple Print Drawstring Backpack.
A is for Apple, and this easy-to-make drawstring bag by Alphamom features an apple print that is made using an actual apple, and its leaf. You could also totally decorate this bag with any motif you like, or better yet, let the kids design one.

Initial Drawstring Backpack
Drawstring bags are great because they are so easy to create, which means you can actually make more than one of these. We love the striped fabric in combination with a large bold initial on this DIY bag by Momtastic. You could also make this with smaller letters to spell out your child’s whole name (but think twice about that if that name happens to be really long).

Patterned Backpack
Who says you have to buy a new bacpack just because school starts again? Maybe an old backpack could do just fine with a fun little update. This floral backpack tutorial by Hello Cotton shows you how to add panels of patterned fabric – which, by the way, doesn’t have to be floral – to an existing bag to give it a whole new look. We’re thinking you could do this and just tell your kid it’s a new bag.

Solar Backpack
For all those science nerds out there (and their parents), this DIY solar backpack by Dick Demenus (via NPR) would be a fun family project. It involved soldering and weatherproofing, so it seems like it could take a while, but making it yourself means it will cost around $40 – far less than the $200 or so that similar backpacks cost in the store.

Fabric Lunch Bag
Instead of packing them lunch in paper bags, make a washable, reusable lunch bag that will last all year long. This fabric lunch bag by The Purl Bee features cute embroidered detailing on the front, which you can skip or modify (maybe let the kids loose with some permanent markers?). The basic construction, though, is very simple, sturdy and, of course, easy to make.

Oil Cloth Lunch Bag
If your kids are on the messier side of the scale, it could be a good idea to try your hand at making one or two of these resuable oil cloth lunch bags by Skip to My Lou. They can easily be washed off and you can make them from worn out outdoor table cloths you may have laying around after summer.

Bicycle Frame Lunch Bag
If you’re fortunate enough to live in a place where it’s safe to send the kids off to school in their bikes, you should totally make sure they have a lunch bag that attaches to their bike frame. This simple tutorial by Evil Mad Scientist shows you how to make it. While you’re at it, make one for yourself too (oh, and start biking to work).

Drawstring Gym Bag
Sometimes it’s helpful to have a smaller bag to pack special things for school – such as gym clothes or supplies for a special project. This drawstring pouch by Planet Green takes only minutes to make. Using a tea towel is clever and saves time, but you can use any material you like.

Pencil Case
Help your little ones keep their pens, scissors, erasers and such in order with a nice pencil case. This DIY one by Pink Penguin is a little more involved, but – if you have the time to do it – totally worth it. Again, you can use any kind of fabric. Let the kids pick them and you can be sure they love their new case.

Chalkboard Notebook
Customizing notebooks is something most of us have done since we were in school. It’s a basic way to express our creativity, which is why we love the idea of one that can constantly change and evolve. Check out this tutorial by Warm Hot Chocolate and make the cover of your child’s notebook into a chalkboard. A bonus is that they can use it instead of passing notes, because that, well, kills trees you know.

The post DIY: 10 Backpacks and Other Projects You Can Make With the Kids appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

A fancy men’s-only golf club finally opens to females, here is why that is important and why you should care.  [Via LearnVest]

Animals and natural environments are clear victims of climate change, but talking about that in zoos and aquariums takes tact. [Via New York Times]

A sheriff candidate in New Hampshire says he would be willing to use deadly force to stop an abortion. Because that makes sense. [Via The Frisky]

Tiny houses really do make us swoon. [Via Tiny House Swoon]

Can creativity be taught? A Stanford professor weighs in on what it takes to unleash your creative potential. [Via 99u]

We’ve been told a lot as women, especially when it comes to beauty. But a lot of those things are completely and utterly irrational. Here are 20 of then. [Via The Hairpin]

Want to be all awesome all the time? You can, if you power up your brain. [Via Lifehacker]

90 Days, 90 Reasons: in case you needed a reminder of who to vote for this election cycle. [Via 90 Days 90 Reasons]

A desktop garden? This should certainly make you more productive. [Via Gardenista]

Women in Afghanistan have gotten far in the last decade, but as the international community pulls out, those gains are at serious risk. [Via NPR]

Image: me and the sysop

The post Link Love: Stopping Abortion With Deadly Force, Teaching Creativity and 20 Irrational Fears About Beauty appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

Care for a vacation in Chernobyl? A new book explores the world by visiting some of the globe’s most polluted places. [Via Afar]

Does retail therapy really do anything to make us feel better? As it turns out, you might be better off “underindulging.” [Via LearnVest]

The main seven reasons why you’re unhappy and what you can do about them. [Via Pick the Brain]

What to do when your dream job isn’t so dreamy anymore. [Via The Daily Muse]

Liven up your house so that you’re truly celebrating the summer season. [Via CasaSugar]

You’re planning a dinner party and you just can’t bring yourself to do another taco buffet. Solution? Noodle bar party. [Via Big Girls Small Kitchen]

Ordering food online might seem to be a quick fix for the busy schedule, but it’s actually making you fat and broke. [Via NPR]

With summer in full swing, it might be high time to take on one of these 8 outdoor DIY projects. [Via Curbly]

Image: epSos.de

The post Link Love: Pollution Tourism, The Failure of Retail Therapy and the Next Big Thing in Dinner Parties appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now.

Eating consciously does not have to be expensive. As it turns out, you can eat like a vegan and be on food stamps. [Via Ecorazzi]

Looking to decorate? This line of reclaimed lumber can be used on walls, on floors and even on your ceiling. [Via CasaSugar]

You can stop looking for the perfect summer project; DIY lighting it is! [Via Curbly]

$500.50 for a pound of coffee beans? Sure, that seems reasonable. [Via New York Times]

It’s good to have daily reminders of happiness. Some of the best? Children. [Via Elephant Journal]

Mixed drinks do add up; for every $100 the average American spends, about $1 of it goes to alcohol. [Via NPR]

There are things in life you should worry about, like courage. Then there’s a lot of other stuff that you really should just let go of. [Via Lists of Note]

Just imagine what you could accomplish if you were just a little more anxious. [Via Jezebel]

Image: puuikibeach

The post Link Love: Being a Vegan on Food Stamps, $500.50 for a Pound of Coffee, and Things You Shouldn’t Worry About appeared first on EcoSalon.

Do little girls need an annual National Princess Week?

April 22, 2012 marked the start of the first annual National Princess Week, as declared by Julie Andrews, Target, and, of course, Disney. Target and Disney have teamed up to push their princess-related marketing items even harder this week and Mary Poppins is blessing it with her sweet smile and graceful benevolence. Andrews even lists 30 ways to celebrate princess week, including learning to wave properly, curtsy and exit a vehicle with grace.

What Could Anyone Have Against Pink?

In 2000, Disney stumbled onto the idea of marketing its princesses with all manner of gear (dresses, tiaras, makeup, etc.) and after a decade, the total has reached over 26,000 items and is a $4 billion a year business. But all that pink frothiness has sparked a princess war amongst parents.

Many parents see the Disney stories as harmless fairy tales that ultimately see good triumph over evil, celebrate romance and spotlight the moral goodness in the heroine. Others point out the beauty stereotype, where the heroine is impossibly beautiful and thin and many times battles an older woman who is wrinkled and mean (age = horror). Rapunzel’s mother/kidnapper was so jealous and obsessed with beauty that she held Rapunzel prisoner all her life, Snow White’s stepmother wanted her killed just because she was prettier, Ursula the sea witch (a demented, overweight character) wanted power over the ocean, Cinderella’s stepmother wanted her daughters to be admired rather than Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty was cursed by a snubbed fairy.

Parents who defend princess mania argue that it’s all make-believe, and the caricature of flawless women is part of it, as is the huge dividing line between the sexes, where the man usually plays rescuer. Can adults see past the imagery and pick out the positive message? Usually. Can young children? Some experts say no.

Peggy Orenstein is a nationally acclaimed writer about women and girls’ issues. When her previously un-media-tainted daughter went off to preschool in striped overalls carrying a Thomas the Tank Engine lunch box and transformed into a pink-obsessed princess inside of a month, she was stunned. Orenstein began seeing princess references everywhere – from the woman who gave her daughter a pink balloon (without asking if she wanted another color), to the dentist who told her to hop up into the “princess chair” so she could “sparkle her teeth.”

It’s Not About the Moral of the Story, But Who Looks the Prettiest

Orenstein’s investigation into princess mania was the basis for her book Cinderella Ate My Daughter. She visited Disney, Pottery Barn Kids and American Girl, and delved into the world of child beauty pageants and the international toy fair, and soon saw the peril behind the pink. She told The Daily Beast’s Jessica Bennett:

“’It’s not that princesses can’t expand girls’ imaginations,’ Orenstein explains. ‘But in today’s culture, princess starts to turn into something else. It’s not just being the fairest of them all, it’s being the hottest of them all, the most Paris Hilton of them all, the most Kim Kardashian of them all.’ Translation: shallow, narcissistic, slutty.”

Orenstein and others argue that the calculation-of-worth-based-on-appearance beast lurks underneath all those frills and the pop music track for preschoolers, and Disney starts the ball rolling way too early for young girls (and boys) to get the right message. Orenstein told NPR that an expert she consulted for her book told her that little brains are very malleable at those young ages, and soon, little gender differences become big gaps as they grow older.

Author Barbara Ehrenreich and educational consultant Lori Day have also excoriated princess marketing culture as the gateway to appearance becoming the dominant worry for girls at too young of an age, leading to depression and the skyrocketing rate of eating disorders in the U.S.

Miss Representation’s Jennifer Siebel Newsom points to early princess indoctrination as the start of media’s message to girls to value looks above substance and leads to media dismissal of women as people of worth. “Disney is now selling to kids as early as newborns.” Newsom adds, “your pink little onesie… reinforces gender.”

Most girls will outgrow the princess phase, but the worry is that after the princess dresses and tiaras, come more marketing products that send the same superficial message with more emphasis on body image and sexiness too early. Is Disney entirely to blame? Should parents ban Ariel from their homes? No, but Orenstein believes that awareness of the dangers will help parents strike a balance between tea parties and tee ball, between looking healthy and building confidence in abilities, not appearance. Day agrees, saying, “To all of the parents reading this who say, ‘My daughter loves to wear her Jasmine costume while she’s running around playing sports and collecting bugs,’ bravo! Moderation and balance are awesome.”

In her book, Orenstein writes,

“As with all of us, what I want for my daughter seems so simple: for her to grow up healthy, happy, and confident, with a clear sense of her own potential and the opportunity to fulfill it. Yet she lives in a world that tells her, whether she is three or thirty-three, that the surest way to get there is to look, well, like Cinderella.”

Image: Andrea Newell

The post National Princess Week: The Peril of Pink appeared first on EcoSalon.

Your guide to discovering new beats that put you ahead of the game making personal playlists.

In today’s music industry, there’s a lot to keep up with, and as much as we love them, Pandora, Spotify and your personal iTunes on shuffle just can’t do it all. That said, we pulled together a list of 25 of our favorite music sites, our go-to sources for finding new tunes, streaming our favorite mixes and above all, staying ahead on our playlists. Just keep in mind that if you’re tempted to spend half your day perusing new music, don’t blame it on us.

A New Band A Day

The name says it all. Whether you like the bands or not is up to you, but fortunately there’s a new one every single day so you’re bound to discover something.

All Scandinavian

If you know anything about the music world, you’ll know that there’s a lot of creativity coming out of Scandinavia right now. Miike Snow, Lykke Li, Sigur Rós – they all have Nordic roots. All Scandinavian is the place to keep up with the big names as well as all of the smaller ones that you would otherwise only catch at festivals like Roskilde.

Aquarium Drunkard

Based in Los Angeles, Aquarium Drunkard is an eclectic mix that “bridges the gap between contemporary indie with vintage garage, psych, folk, country, New Orleans funk, r&b, soul and everything that falls in between.” That means it’s diverse, different and certainly worth your time.

La Blogothèque

A beautiful combination of music and videos, this French website has an appealing layout and the kind of content that will make you stick around for hours. Certainly not your average music blog, this site feels more like a high end lifestyle magazine.

The Chuckness

Chuck, The Chuckness’ namesake, knows his stuff when it comes to good, upbeat music, and this site should certainly make it onto your list of sites to check regularly. Chuck and his team also started featuring a bi-weekly mixtape called The Fortnight, mixed by a guy out of Boston named DJ Rob. It’s worth checking out and keeping an eye out for.

DML.fm

If you need workout mixes and danceable tracks, look no further. Don’t have time to sort through all the posts? For a quick fix there’s a list of top 10 tracks on the main page, which, thanks to a music-savvy readership, is always full of good music. The site offers plenty of the featured tracks for download, which means that even without internet access at your next party, you can still work your DJ skills.

The Fader

The Fader is actually an entire lifestyle magazine, but they have their finger on the pulse of the music scene and do a good job of pulling together everything from hip-hop to Caribbean.

Fighting Musical Ignorance

Electronic, indie, hip hop and dance, it’s all here. These guys know their party remixes, and if you’re in need of a good mashup should be your #1 source. They also know a thing or two about making playlists, and make them available for download, which is perfect for when you need a rocking set but are too tired to pull something together yourself.

Find New Jams

The concept for Find New Jams is simple: press play and listen. The site sticks to party, hip-hop, mashups and rock, and the platform allows you to vote on your favorite songs. Don’t expect commentary, this site is simply a “click and listen” kind of place, but it’s known for having some of the freshest tracks available, particularly when it comes to the sort of music that deserves to be blasted on loud speakers.

I Guess I am Floating

If The Phoenix called this site an “…uber-hip indie blawg.” you know if has to be good. I Guess I Am Floating always has the kind of music that you can listen to no matter what mood you’re in.

The Kollection

Intended for a younger crowd, this site is actually run by a bunch of savvy and music-loving college students, but you would never know it. It’s a professional operation that looks slick and has a good mix of music from various genres, from indie to dubstep. The commentary is smart and we keep an eye on it on a daily basis.

Hype Machine

Need a new morning routine? Brew your coffee and go immediately to Hype Machine. Hype Machine is one of the premiere music sites out there, more like a consortium of good music blogs and all of the tracks that they feature. The Popular list changes on a daily basis and one minute you can find yourself listening to Brazilian samba and the next a folky blues tune. You can bookmark your favorites and the songs continue playing while you navigate the site. And did we mention the Hype Machine Top 8 playlists that are released every Monday? If you can only commit to an hour a week of getting caught up on the latest and greatest in music, start here.

HypeTrak

Daily updated news and features makes this a go-to blog of music lovers of all kinds. One day Wiz Khalifa, the next, a Feist remix. The site also has an entire section devoted to music videos.

Indie Shuffle

Indie Shuffle is a huge collection of independent music of all genres. The San Francisco-based site’s music player is very user friendly, and every track that is posted has recommended similar artists, making it easy to know what you’re going to get and also encouraging you to discover new gems. Can’t decide where to hit play? Just hit the shuffle button and you’ll end up with a random track from Indie Shuffle’s extensive library. A must for anyone that’s trying to break out of their usual music tastes.

The Music Ninja

The Music Ninja’s About page says it all. “With one simple goal, to only feature the best music we come across, we have swiftly infiltrated the ears and minds of Ke$ha fans and permanently set them on the path to better, more fulfilling music.” So no auto-tune and no overly poppy bass lines. Your ears will thank you.

NPR Music

And you thought they only did Talk of the Nation and Fresh Air. NPR is very on top of their game when it comes to music. Song of the Day is a good way to kick off your morning, and because they’re a larger media brand, they also have a wide variety of album previews that you can listen to.

Pitchfork

You can barely call yourself a music lover if Pitchfork isn’t on your reading list. Album reviews, new tracks and even music festivals, this site has it all. They also have music lists that go as far back as the 1960s, in the event you’re looking to beef up your music knowledge.

Remix86

Dance. Party. That’s all there is to it when it comes to Remix86. Now you know, go forth and enjoy yourself.

SoundCloud

Soundcloud is the darling of artists and producers as it allows you to easily upload your music. But even if you’re not a musician, you should be using Soundcloud. Follow artists and producers, share your own stuff, keep track of all of your favorites and see what others have been listening to.

Stereogum

A well-respected industry blog, Stereogum was at the forefront of the music blog world from the beginning. That means that you can expect bigger releases alongside unknown artists just making it onto the scene. It’s also an excellent source for music news as well as Stereogum’s famous lists, with everything from The 20 Best Indie Madonna Covers to Bon Iver’s 5 Favorite Hip-Hop Lyrics.

Sunset in the Rearview

What would you be listening to on a roadtrip, driving cross country and appreciating the sunset reflecting in your rearview mirror as you head east? Probably something that would be featured on Sunset in the Rearview. It’s all indie rock and hip hop, and the main draw of this site is all of its daily features like Womp Wednesday and Friday at Five.

This Song is Sick

If you’re looking for a “this song is incredible!” reaction from your friends, here is where you will find it. It’s a lot of electro, but there’s a also a good chill section to offset the dance party selection.

We All Want Someone to Shout For

“Genres don’t exist here. Only good music does.” New York-based, We All Want Someone to Shout For sticks to its mantra, which means you get a diverse grab bag that you’re sure to love. Much of the featured content is available for download.

We Are Hunted

Take Pandora, add a little more Euro beats, indie rock and fresh DJs from the dance floor, a curated list of the day’s 99 most popular songs based on blogs and social media activity and you get a taste of what We Are Hunted has to offer. Type in the name of your favorite group or musician and the site immediately pulls up a grid of related artists, 75% of which you probably have never heard of. You can make your own playlists and embed them on blogs and share them on social networks, that way you can prove to your friends that you really are up on what’s new on the music scene.

8tracks

Where would we be without 8tracks? Think back to the days when you spent hours making mixtapes. Well, now there’s a website and an app for that. We’re even doing it. You can search for playlists based on artist or genre and you can stream them on your computer or your phone. Crowd-sourced internet radio that’s always full of good surprises.

Image: lamda_X

The post An A to Z List of Where to Go When iTunes Doesn’t Cut It appeared first on EcoSalon.

World Oceans Day is today and we celebrate that which sustains us.

Welcome to World Oceans Day 2011. Since 2008, the United Nations has recognized June 8th as a day to celebrate, learn about, and take action on behalf of the oceans that cover three quarters of our planet and sustain all life on Earth – what author Julia Whitty calls our Deep Blue Home.

Last year at this time, oil was still spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from the mangled riser pipe of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig. All told, more than 4 million barrels of oil were spilled, and nearly 800,000 gallons of the chemical dispersant Correxit were injected deep into the Gulf. On the one-year anniversary of the explosion that killed eleven men and started what President Obama called “the greatest environmental disaster of its kind,” oil spill researcher Chris Reddy told me it was still too soon to know how much oil and dispersant remains in the Gulf and what the long-term ecological impacts will be.

This year, as we recognize World Oceans Day, we wait for news of another environmental disaster – the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan. Yesterday, Japan’s nuclear agency doubled their estimate of how much radioactive material has been released from the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant that was crippled by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. In the weeks immediately following the disaster, levels of radioactivity in surrounding ocean waters skyrocketed. Now Bloomberg has reported that radioactive water may once again begin flowing into the ocean as it overflows service trenches. The announcement adds to the urgency of a research expedition now underway to map the location, type, and levels of radioactive contamination in the Pacific Ocean.

And yet, despite their devastating effects, these dramatic environmental disasters are not the greatest threats to our ocean.

Studies released in the past year have trumpeted dire news: nearly 60% of the world’s coral reefs are at risk of being lost in the next three decades, 85% of natural oyster reefs have already been lost, and it’s estimated that large fish have declined by two-thirds in the past century. These declines are largely the result of five human-driven processes that slowly but surely chip away at ocean ecosystems.

1. Climate Change: The ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat trapped by rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Rising water temperatures are driving commercially important fish species offshore and toward the poles in search of cooler climes – bad news for fishermen and seafood lovers alike. Warmer water also holds less oxygen, and that spells trouble for marine animals who – like us – breathe oxygen. Scientists recently warned that low-oxygen ‘dead zones’ are expanding, and that we could be in for a repeat of the mass extinctions triggered by prehistoric warming events.

 

Carbon dioxide emissions pose a double threat to the ocean, raising water temperatures and increasing acidity.

2. Ocean Acidification: Carbon dioxide doesn’t just build up in the atmosphere; about a third of it gets absorbed by the ocean. The inevitable chemical result is the production of carbonic acid that, in sufficient quantities, disrupts the acid-base balance of the ocean (thus, the term ‘acidification’). That, in turn, throws off a whole host of other chemical processes. Corals and shellfish can’t get the calcium carbonate they need for their skeletons and shells. And the microscopic marine plants upon which the entire ocean food chain depends may not be able to get the nutrients they need to grow. Scientists have generally considered ocean acidification to be a problem of the future, but a study published last fall forced a revision of that thinking by demonstrating that scallops and quahogs are already feeling the burn.

3. Pollution: Plastic, nutrients, pesticides, hormones, oil. The list of things we dump into the oceans is disconcertingly long. Last summer, a team of researchers from Woods Hole, MA, confirmed what many had long suspected – that plastic debris is accumulating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, just as we’ve known for decades that it does in the Pacific. Another recent study confirmed that the vast majority of plastic releases estrogenic chemicals when soaked in saltwater and exposed to sunlight.

But not all pollutants are chemicals. Some experts include ‘biological pollution’, or invasive species – plants and animals that are introduced by human activities, like global shipping, into areas they have never been before. These species often out-compete or outright kill native species. This year, we learned that rising water temperatures may be making a bad situation worse, giving invasive species a competitive edge over their native counterparts.

4. Overfishing: Ecosystems are like jigsaw puzzles: remove one piece and you can’t complete the puzzle. Remove several, and the puzzle may not hold together or form a recognizable image. In this way, overfishing and its cousin, by-catch, wreak havoc on ocean ecosystems. Of course, collapsed fisheries take a human toll as well, causing economic hardship and threatening food supplies.

Counting fish is no easy matter, and there is always controversy about the status of fish populations. This year was no different. A high-profile presentation at a high-profile scientific conference set off a renewed debate, with one side claiming that large, predatory fish could be virtually extinct by 2050 and the other arguing that the reductions in large fish are exactly what would be expected of well-managed fisheries. But scientists on both sides of the overfishing debate have agreed that more than half of fish populations worldwide need rebuilding.

Still, there’s some good news on the overfishing front today. Federal officials are optimistic that the 2010 fishing season may go down in history as the year U.S. fisheries set – and stayed within – science-based, sustainable fishing limits. The U.S. is just one country, but this is evidence that we have the tools necessary to end overfishing. The challenge is putting them to work in the places – like Asia – that need them most.

5. Ignorance: Less than 10% of the ocean has been explored by humans. We have better maps of Mars than the seafloor, and some oceanographers have compared their research to shining a flashlight into an immense, dark cavern. Last fall, scientists announced the completion of the Census of Marine Life – a decade-long, global effort to shine a light on the amazing diversity of life that inhabits the ocean. The efforts of more than 2,000 scientists raised the total number of known marine species to almost a quarter of a million. Still, they estimate that’s less than a quarter of what’s out there; the vast majority of ocean life remains unknown to science. That means that, even for the ocean scientists who know the most, the ocean is largely a big blue bag of mysteries. Susan Avery – Director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution – says that the greatest threat facing the ocean is our limited ability to see what’s beneath the surface, to truly grasp our impact on the vast expanses of ocean.

Lest you think this doom and gloom doesn’t affect you, let me remind you of a few key facts.

It is no exaggeration to say that the ocean sustains all life on Earth. To quote W.H. Auden: “Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” The oceans contain 97% of all water on the planet and drives the global water cycle. We’d also be hard-pressed to live without air, and microscopic marine plants produce more than half the oxygen we breathe.

Almost half of the world’s species live in the ocean. That rich biodiversity is not only an ecological wonder, it’s a treasure trove of chemicals that show up in everything from ice cream to toothpaste, and could hold a cure for cancer.

And in the age of globalization, when what you’re wearing, eating, or driving is more likely to be made in China than made in the U.S.A., it’s worth remembering that more than 90% of international trading is conducted via the ocean.

Just as we all benefit from the ocean, we all contribute to the threats facing the ocean, and we can all do something to help.

The greatest threats facing the ocean start in our homes and workplaces, whether we’re five minutes or 500 miles from the beach. While beach clean-ups are a tried and true way to repair some of the damage we inflict, they’re far from the only way.

• Learn more about what the ocean does for us, and what we’re doing to it.

• Tell others what you’re learning.
• Eat fish responsibly: Buy local, if possible, and know how the fish you eat was caught. Look for the Marine Stewardship Council label or check with a consumer guide, like Seafood Watch or the Smart Seafood Guide. None of the guides or labels are perfect, but they’re better than nothing.
• Ditch disposable plastic: We may only use it once, but it stays in the ocean forever. Plastic shopping bags and water bottles are particularly egregious offenders. Invest in a reusable water bottle and some canvas shopping bags.
• Reduce your carbon footprint: Don’t know where to start? Try an online carbon footprint calculator or a home energy audit to pinpoint areas where you can reduce.

This story was originally published in Climatide.

Image: Nasa Goddard Photo, Mike Baird, rkraemer, laszlo photo

The post Celebrating The State of the Oceans 2011 appeared first on EcoSalon.