No creature on Earth ever has organized themselves in ways that we have, with the capacity to alter the nature of nature the way we have.

It's taken us a short time to change the nature of nature. In my lifetime, more change than during all preceding human history put together.

Ocean acidification - the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is turning the oceans increasingly acid - is a slow but accelerating impact with consequences that will greatly overshadow all the oil spills put together. The warming trend that is CO2-related will overshadow all the oil spills that have ever occurred put together.

Even our rules and regulations, our laws, our policies, favor the destructive nature of taking too much from the ocean and using techniques that are horribly destructive. We know they don't work. We know it's not sustainable.

If you think the ocean isn't important, imagine Earth without it. Mars comes to mind. No ocean, no life support system.

You should know what is taken out of the ecosystem in order to give you a moment's sustenance.

Santa Monica Bay is less polluted today than when I first moved to the area in the 1970s, because actions have been taken to avoid putting some of the noxious materials into the sea. I think people are more aware than they once were, the air is cleaner, water generally is, in spite of the fact that there are more people.