We have been far too aggressive about extracting ocean wildlife, not appreciating that there are limits and even points of no return.
When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do.
I personally have stopped eating seafood.
I'm not against extracting a modest amount of wildlife out of the ocean for human consumption, but I am really concerned about the large-scale industrial fishing that engages in destructive practices like trawling and longlining.
I am not in any hurry to grow up.
I have lots of heroes: anyone and everyone who does whatever they can to leave the natural world better than they found it.
America gains most when individuals have great freedom to pursue personal goals without undue government interference.
If somebody dumps something noxious in my back yard, the dumper is the last one I would call on to repair the damage.
All through college, I had frequently been the only girl in a science class - which wasn't such a bad deal.
We have become frighteningly effective at altering nature.
Any astronaut can tell you you've got to do everything you can to learn about your life support system and then do everything you can to take care of it.
My parents moved to Florida when I was 12, and my backyard was the Gulf of Mexico.
My first encounter with the ocean was on the Jersey Shore when I was three years old and I got knocked over by a wave. The ocean certainly got my attention! It wasn't frightening, it was more exhilarating.
The concept of 'peak oil' has penetrated the hearts and minds of people concerned about energy for the future. 'Peak fish' occurred around the end of the 1980s.
Photosynthetic organisms in the sea yield most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, take up and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide, shape planetary chemistry, and hold the planet steady.
What we once used as weapons of war, we now use as weapons against fish.
Nearly all of the major kinds of life, divisions of life, phyla of animals, occur in the sea. Only about half of them can make it to land or freshwater.
There are some who would like to see the oil rigs removed right down to the ground once their job is done, and there are others, and I count myself among them, who think that once they are in place they begin to be adopted by life in the ocean as a habitat.
The Arctic is an ocean. The southern pole is a continent surrounded by ocean. The North Pole is an ocean, or northern waters. It's an ocean surrounded by land, basically.
'Green' issues at last are attracting serious attention, owing to critically important links between the environment and the economy, health, and our security.
