Small steps taken by many people in their backyards add up.

Most of the damage suffered by the ocean up until now has been caused by local insults - overfishing, pollution, and destruction of habitats. If we tackle these problems now, we buy ourselves time to work on climate change.

I watched the coral reefs that I studied as a student vanish in the blink of an eye, and for decades I wrote and spoke of ocean obituaries. But big scary problems without solutions lead to apathy, not action.

Small steps taken by many people in their backyards add up.