Advocacy assignment: A call to action

After reading the assignment requirements and having a discussion with Paula, I feel a lot better now that I am ok with my role in advocacy.  I thought at first I wouldn’t know what to do or where to start but after some reflection, I realize that I am a listener and helper.  I do this with my own children when they feel the need to put a call to action in listening to their thoughts and helping to support them in the cause. I might not feel the need to “picket” but I am helping them look up information and preparing them for a favourable outcome. I like to think of my role as a bit of a “campaign manager” of sorts. In my professional life as a childcare provider, I advocate for the parents and children who express a need to do so and after a great conversation with Paula, I learned there is room for everyone in advocacy. I personally take great interest in nature and especially when there are habitats being threatened by humans or ocean acidification, this gets me thinking about what I can do for those creatures, being a helper to animals is a bit trickier than humans so I go to information nights and community events that interest me and make me inspired to help in any way I feel I can.  This leads me to an advocacy topic that isn’t so much about advocating for families but an opportunity for a conversation about our oceans and by providing information, families can take part or learn more about how they can help to ensure a sustainable future for generations to come.

Ocean Acidification

Some of you may know I spend a lot of time on the ocean, boating with my family as we love to be out on the water. Over the years we have seen changes in the ocean health and the more we learn about the negative effects of global warming due to human consumption, the graver the prognosis is for the largest part of our earth, the Ocean. I cannot imagine a world without a thriving ocean and many communities rely on the ocean as their main food source. There is no big answer as of yet to stop this process but there are many ways to be informed about projects happening and research being done to better understand how we can lessen the impact we have from day to day consumption to research projects we can choose to help fund. Our current local NDP MLA Gord Johns is a very informed advocate for our oceans and supporting him to get re-elected is a great place to start. Please have a look at the youtube video at the end, from our Ocean and Fisheries Department of Canada to better understand how Ocean Acidification works.

Here are a few websites; the first being a local look at our oceans in the Georgia Straight, the second is a world organization doing great work you could choose to financially support and the third is an article explaining the science of the impact of acidification.

https://georgiastrait.org/issues/climate-change/ocean-acidification/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwg8n5BRCdARIsALxKb94Nwapio_g6jwLgPDA9Asho8Il_loMOoOW3QvxlCw8iOQQx891nb0saAnccEALw_wcB

International Ocean Acidification Initiative

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24861020?seq=1