In a press conference on May 27, 2010 called to discuss the horrific BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama said: “I grew up in Hawaii where the ocean is sacred.”
I learned a little about honoring the sea as a source of life on New Years Eve, when my friend Eve invited me to Ocean Beach for a ceremony to pay homage to Yemanja, a goddess from the African Yoruba religion. She is the ocean, the essence of motherhood, and a protector of children. In Santeria, Yemaya is seen as the mother of all living things and the owner of all waters.
We, like millions of people around the world, threw offerings into the sea in hopes that she will grant our wishes for the coming year. In San Francisco and in Rio de Janerio, we threw in flowers. In Cuba and Haiti people throw in melons, molasses, fried fish and pork rinds. What we did NOT throw into the ocean were oil or petroleum-based plastics.
But, that’s exactly what “we” are doing. Our addiction to oil caused the awful Gulf of Mexico oil spill that now looks like it will keep spewing millions of gallons of petroleum into the sea until August. The 1989 oil spill from the Exxon Valdez spilled “just” 11 million of its 53 million gallon cargo. According to experts: “Massive cleanup efforts removed much of the visible crude oil within a year, but the slow release of the remaining oil has continued to affect populations of local marine plants and animals to this day.” In the Gulf oil plume is a much, much bigger disaster than the Valdez spill. The impact of exposing ocean life to toxins in the oil and to an unprecedented use of dispersing chemicals will last for years to come.
Each of us contributes to the slow death of our oceans not only by our demand for oil, but by our continuing use of petroleum-based plastics. It is said that the oceans are downhill. Rain and wind carry plastic litter to the rivers, bays and eventually the oceans. Most of our waste today is made of petroleum-based plastic. According to the website GreatGarbagPatch.org, every bit of plastic that has ever been created still exists (except for a small amount that has been incinerated). In the ocean, plastic waste accumulates in swirling seas of debris where plastic to sea life ratios are 6:1.
The oceans support life on earth. We need to honor the oceans as sacred. Ending the addiction to oil will be tough and takes effort by powers bigger than the individual. Choosing not to use plastic products (and making absolutely sure that the inevitable plastic that we use does not escape as litter) is something that each of us can do, starting today. Yemanja!
