We don't have to be that greedy generation that just continued to take down the underpinnings of what makes the planet work in our favor.

With knowing comes caring.

Our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels and the corporate mandate to maximize shareholder value encourages drilling without taking into account the costs to the ocean, even without major spills.

My parents moved to Florida when I was 12, and my backyard was the Gulf of Mexico.

This much is certain: We have the power to damage the sea, but no sure way to heal the harm.

Historically, girls have not been encouraged to be scientists, to be explorers, and there's a social kind of constraint, of course. Having the responsibility, a disproportionate part of the responsibility, for caring for families, caring for children. I know this challenge from firsthand experience because I have three children and four grandsons.And some of the time I have spent as a scientist and as an explorer has meant choosing to not be with my children and grandchildren as much as I might otherwise have done had I not been a scientist, an explorer.

With care and protection, with safe havens in the ocean, there is still a good chance that we can turn things around.