Do the preparation task first. Then read the article and do the exercises.
Preparation
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!
What role does the ocean play in your life? What would you prefer to do to celebrate World Oceans Day?
Since I was a kid, the ocean did play a wide role in my life. I love how it is unlimited. I am full in love with it bule's color. I think the ocean represent the depth of wisdom. I prefer to celebrate at the Redsea, because it is not far from me. I would like to clean up it with my friends. I believe the most important thing td do to conservation our planet and our environment is keep it safe and clean, with use something that no dinger or harm.
Because i live near beach just take 40km, sometime many people here go to that beach for holiday. I think the ocean play that much for my life. If people easy to put their trash on the beach, we can not enjoy our holiday in the beach because there are a lot of trash and the sea water changed to brown. Besides that, we always at fish, you can imagine if the sea full of rubbish, can we eat the fresh fish? Or is there any fish life?
I think because many people here forget who they life, i will post on my social media about world ocean day to remind people how precious the sea is.
What role does the ocean play in your life? What would you prefer to do to celebrate World Oceans Day?
Hello everyone, I live far from the ocean but I have learned thanks to this article that the ocean has an important role in my life. From my point of view, the water cycle is one of the most important ocean's job that provide us rainy days before the drought comes. The water helps to fill our rivers and to improve our harvest.
I would like to celebrate this day, going to clean a river with my family. By the way, this article helped me realice how to interconnected our world is and how even far inland, we rely on a healthy ocean.
I like it
This is very informative article about saving natural sourches, especially oceans. Today, we are facing global climatic change because of desruction of the nature. İf it goes like this, we would not leave a good world-nature for our children.
I am from Taiwan, and I do not see any troubles with the ocean. However, since I found out about World Oceans Day, I now know that the problems t are just to come. I, with my friends, shall do all we can to stop using non-sustainable plastics for shopping and other things.