World Oceans Day

World Oceans Day is a day to think about the extremely important role that the oceans play in all our lives, the dangers that are facing our oceans and the actions we can take to protect them.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the article and do the exercises.

Preparation

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There is only one global ocean. This is divided into five geographical regions: the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean.

Introduction

Seventy per cent of our planet is covered by one huge, continuous body of seawater – the ocean. It holds 1.35 billion cubic kilometres of water. Nearly half of the ocean is more than 3 kilometres deep. The deepest known point of the ocean is in the Mariana Trench, 11 kilometres below sea level. But there may be deeper points that we have not seen, as we have only explored five per cent of the ocean to date.

World Oceans Day

The government of Canada suggested the idea of World Oceans Day at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In 2008 the United Nations officially recognised the date and it has been growing ever since, from 100 events in 2008 to over a thousand events in more than 120 countries ten years later. The day is celebrated in a variety of ways, including special events at aquariums and zoos, beach and river clean-ups, school activities, conservation programmes, art contests and film festivals.

The importance of our oceans

One of the main aims of the day is to remind people of the important role the ocean plays in our lives. Life began in the ocean. And the ocean is home to the majority of plants and animals on Earth, from single-cell organisms to the blue whale. Marine plants provide us with 70 per cent of the oxygen we breathe. The ocean controls the climate, providing heat in winter and cool air in summer. It also provides us with food and medicines as well as transport. No matter where you live on the planet, no matter how far from the sea, your life is dependent on the ocean.

The problems facing our oceans

The most urgent problem facing the ocean at the moment is plastic pollution. Reducing one-use plastic, including plastic bags and plastic bottles, has been an important theme for World Oceans Day for a number of years. Climate change and rising sea temperatures are also a huge problem. Rising sea temperatures have a direct influence on weather patterns and are seen as partly responsible for an increase in extreme weather conditions. An increase in carbon dioxide is increasing the acid levels of seawater and putting many marine organisms at risk.

What we can do to help

On World Oceans Day, wear blue, go on a march, find a beach or river clean-up near you, organise a local event, print a poster and put it in your window, or use the hashtag #worldoceansday on social media. There are so many things you can do on 8 June to join in the celebrations, to remind people about the importance of the ocean in our lives and to make a difference!

Task 1

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Task 2

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Discussion

What role does the ocean play in your life? What would you prefer to do to celebrate World Oceans Day?

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I wasn't aware of the role that ocean plays in our life. But through this article I can say that there won't be life on the earth without ocean simply because we can't stay alive without oxygen. In my live I think I need ocean for the food it provides to me, I like eating sea food, such as roasted fish. I envoy sending time on beaches, to relax. Bank holiday can be so calming and refreshing. I always feel better after spending time on beach. So want I could do to celebrate this day might be to raise awareness about the importance of ocean in our live, take part in cleaning-up movement and try to keep ocean clean everytime I would have the opportunity to go to beach.

I think oceans are very important for everyone.We must save oceans and marine life.

People should be taught against the pollution and also laws should be more solid against it. I've never seen an ocean before but i always see the similar things on the black sea and one should be blind to not see the seriousness of the issue.

I think that we could help a lot with our consumerism, not buying plastic bottles, using eco-bags and decrease our meat consumption. companies put two options In the market, for they are more profitable to sell plastic products and not processing glass bottles again so by the moment is our decision. Obviously, we could help to separate our trash and clean up rivers and beaches when we may.

I live near the Adriatic Sea, which is a "closed" sea, therefore it's less exposed to the turnover of the currents. I think the best way for celebrating World Oceans Day is limiting the marine pollution.

I love oceans and want to save them. I think it’s difficult to change the horible situation that our oceans are facing. But if we try together, we can do it. Many people don’t know and don’t care about this important problem so the plastic waste is increase quickly day by day. I am very worried about that.

I live far from the ocean coast, but I realy like to move to the see on my vacation. I think the best thing we could do on celebrating day is to remind people of scale of the problem and to persuade people to use eco-bags and bootles. Also a big contribution would be made if we cleaned the nearest water place round us on this day . Of course we should remember this in all days not only on the 8 June.

That was interesting headline...really I don`t know that... yesterday whole world should celebrate help for our planet... help which maybe some people do it for our home... sometimes consciously or unconsciously, that with waste pollution is really big problem....but that depends of conscious thinking everyone... I should save our home! :)

I am from Bangladesh. I live in Dhaka. After reading this article I knew that 8th June is the world's oceans day. The day has a important role in saving our oceans as well as our world. The ocean made up our world about 70 percent and has tremendous role to our environment keep safe by providing oxygen. It is the major habitats of most of the animals and plants. We get row materials of most of the medicine and food from ocean. It also helps in transport. Now ocean is in danger. Human are responsible for this condition. So we have to take necessary action to stop oceans pollution. We may aware the people so that they keep sea beaches clean. We should limit the use of plastic and also chemicals in our daily life. Government of every country has to realize that if oceans do not survive than we won't. I like to celebrate world's oceans day by awaring people.

Actually I've never heard about oceans day before, maybe it is because there is no ocean around my country and our people and our government don't care about earth's condition and global warming, etc. But I know some people in my country who really try to conserve environment they are trying to learn people not to use plastic bottles, bags or glasses less. They are trying to learn people to be kind with environment and animals and I think it is really effective. Though many people in my country don't care about environment but people are going to be aware. I have some friends that work on these matters, they always discuss with people who use plastic glasses and trying to learn them use those things less than before. So although there is no oceans day in my country, but there are many people who trying to save the earth. they gather plastic bottles, bags , etc of other people and trying to do a clean-up. I think we shouldn't consider just a day for environment and ocean, we should always care about our earth.

The oceans as the lungs of our planet play a vital role in our everyday life providing most of the oxygen we breathe and providing food and various ecosystems in the communities of the globe . we celebrate the world oceans day then we encourage people to protect the oceans and its sea life , actually we remind people about the great and major role, the oceans have in our life . we take actions to manage the trash accumulation . reducing the one use plastic productions and avoiding to use plastic bags plays vital role to clean our environment . we control the recycling systems on the globe to help pure environment . on the conservation day ,we ll clean up a beach or a river near us. i will use hashtag the world oceans day on social media and then share a clip about the ocean to celebrate the day. All the best Mehrazin

Well this is a very informative article I have learned new things the purpose of reading these articles to improve my reading skills is it a good to improve?

It's too important to raise the public awareness about the importance of the oceans to our planet. We need to spread these catastrophic information before talking about the advantages of it to us. I'm so surprised when I look at the facts.

I would save the purity of ocean's water by avoid throwing pollutants in them.

This is a very useful article. It can be given various trainings on special days, seminars, conferences ... should be encouraged to consume less plastic products. recycling studies should be given great importance.

It's a good article with much helpful information

In recent times, to celebrate worlds ocean day has become a hot topic of debate. This article is an eye opening for us to take care of ocean's environment as majority of life in our habitat is due to clean oceans. we should protect them from deteriorating. I will try to celebrate this day with my kids to ensure importance of this day in brain of her.