Hello everyone. My name is Calista Michel and I am a part-time summer intern with ICA Canada’s Youth as Facilitative Leaders (YFL) program. The job has been wonderful so far. What drew me to it initially was the intrigue of working with youth to develop leadership skills. As a person who has struggled with public interface, I can immediately see the benefit of the program.

However, that is not what I would like to talk about today. Today I would like to digress on the state of the global ocean. Some people reading this may be thinking ‘What? What’s wrong with the oceans? Aren’t they still sparkly-blue and filled with fish?’ Well, yes, for the most part, they are. Blue, I mean. Most of the fish have been whisked out and covered in dill sauce. The oceans are also filled with thousands of tons of human waste; they are filled with hundreds of litres of oil, spilled over many decades; they are filled with dead zones, and the acidity of the global ocean is climbing. How do I know this, you may ask? From my mother.

Sea Sick by Alanna Mitchell (Seasick in Australia, the U.K. and the U.S.) gives a scientific breakdown of how the ocean is changing at a molecular level. It explains that 90% of the biomass on earth resides in the ocean. It details what creatures are unlikely to survive as the pH (acidity) level changes. It tells us that the ocean produces 50% of the global oxygen and controls the carbon cycle. If all life in the ocean were to die, life on earth would also vanish. My description sounds like a chemistry textbook. What makes the book different is that Mitchell humanizes science – she makes it accessible and easy to understand for the people who stopped taking science after high school. For people like me.

Sea Sick has had a positive influence around the globe. Mitchell is being interviewed left, right and centre; she has been on two book tours, one in Canada, one in the U.K.; she has been lecturing at various universities across Canada and at Canada’s parliament. It seems her book is being read.

What is most inspiring – to me, at least ¬– is the reception she gets at her lectures. Never has she ended a lecture without a standing ovation, without a rush of questions about the little things we can do to change our carbon footprint. People walk away from her talks feeling hopeful that, even though our planet is in crisis, something can be done to fix it.

So what can we do? As my mum would say, it is up to us. Each of us has our own unique talent. Hers is by writing books and causing a splash (forgive the pun), mine is writing poetry, my sister’s is by becoming a teacher. We will all change the world in a different way, at a pace that works for each of us. That is all anyone can do.

For those who are interested in more information, please visit www.alannamitchell.com, or find a copy of Sea Sick at your local bookstore.

Thanks,
Calista