Celebrating World Ocean Day

World Ocean Day

World Ocean Day, is a day to celebrate our most powerful ally against climate change, and a reminder to do everything we can to protect it. Our health and climate are intrinsically linked to ocean health, and if we don’t work hard to help our oceans in a big way, it’s going to stop helping us.

So firstly, how exactly is the ocean helping us?

• It generates 50% of the oxygen we breathe through photosynthesis. Underwater, photosynthesis is carried out by tiny plants that live in the top 200 metres of the ocean – that’s about as far as the sun’s rays can travel through the water to power photosynthesis.
• It absorbs 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions that are generated from human activity, making it one of the world’s largest carbon sinks. One of the ocean’s carbon-capturing plants is seagrass, a little-known hero that captures carbon up to 25 times faster than tropical rainforests.
• It captures 90% of the excess heat generated by these emissions, acting like a giant air conditioner, and spreads it across the ocean. January’s UN Climate Assessment found that between 1971 and 2018, the ocean had gained 396 zettajoules of heat – that’s the equivalent of 25bn Hiroshima atomic bombs.

These are some pretty powerful stats, but there’s a catch… It doesn’t come cheap. The cost? Ocean acidification, changes in the frequency of extreme weather, rising sea levels, damage to coral reefs and marine ecosystems. And these costs are rapidly increasing in frequency and harm. The Ocean’s incredible power to absorb and capture our CO2 emissions has, up until recent years, lulled us into a false sense of security. The ocean has a huge impact on every aspect of our lives, so it has never been more important to take urgent action to protect it.

What are we already doing to help our oceans?

At COP15 (the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in December 2022) leaders from over 50 countries around the world made a global commitment to protect 30% (it’s currently 8%) of our ocean by 2030, AKA 30×30. Fulfilling this commitment is incredibly important to not only protecting and restoring our ocean, but also stabilising the climate.

And at Ketchum, we worked with WWF and Sky Zero to shine a spotlight on the aforementioned hero of our ocean – seagrass – giving it the superstar attention it deserved with its own movie trailer. The trailer was created to support WWF and Sky Zero’s mission to plant a seagrass meadow in the South of England, part of their bigger project to restore vital carbon-capturing habitats.

How can you do more now (in just 3 minutes)?

The 30×30 commitment was a monumental moment for our oceans, however, to date, our government hasn’t taken the action they need to in order to help make it a reality. Which is why it’s also up to us, as individuals, and incredible organisations like WWF, to make a pledge to protect our oceans.

And so, I have three requests from you today that will take just a few minutes – that’s less than 1% of your working day:

1 – Sign up to be a Force For Nature Campaign to support WWF and Sky Zero’s ambition (and bonus, share with a friend).

2 – Tell World Ocean Day why you want to protect our oceans (requires simply clicking a few boxes), in order to encourage our national leaders to follow through on their 30×30 commitments.

3 – And finally… take a deep breath and say a little thanks to our ocean.

Authored by Kit Thwaites, Junior Strategist