THE BAD NEWS

NASA’s satellite imaging states that the mass of phytoplankton plants has been reducing by 1% year on year over the last 20 years. Research by Dalhousie University, published in NATURE, confirms a reduction of more than 40% during the last 50 years (Up to 2012).

Given that plankton provide more than 70% of our oxygen and remove most of our carbon dioxide, this is BAD news.

Over the next 25 years we will have lost 75% of all plankton, the oceans will become more acidic, and the ecosystems will crash. We will lose most of the whales, seals, birds and the fish, and along with them a food supply for billions of people. Life on Earth is going to change, in fact life on earth may become impossible.

It doesn’t take science to tell you we cannot survive without healthy oceans, common sense tells us we need to stop poisoning them with toxic chemicals and plastic. If we had not killed more than 50% of the plankton with toxic chemicals since the chemical revolution during the 1950’s, then we would not have had elevated CO2 and climate change.

Did You Know?

Every other breath you take comes from the world’s oceans. In fact, the science indicates that 70% of the planet’s oxygen is generated by plankton. The microscopic plants and animals, drifting throughout the oceans, use photosynthesis to generate oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. They are the basis of our food chain and the lungs of the planet. Quite simply, plankton is the foundation of our existence, and all life on Earth depends upon plankton.

Over 10,000 tonnes of sunscreen gets dumped on corals each year. At 62 parts per trillion it is highly toxic to coral and plankton.

THE GOOD NEWS

The GOES Foundation is taking urgent action to lead the essential sea change needed to restore plankton levels and it is this action that can address ocean acidification and global warming. We’re a team of thinking, breathing, well-connected human beings and we believe it is possible to prevent a catastrophic collapse of our life on earth, but we need to take decisive action over the next 10 years or it will be too late.

GOES is working worldwide to halt the poisoning of the oceans by advocating that we should all take a non-toxic approach to how we live: design out and ban all toxic chemicals, hazardous waste and plastics. By preventing toxic chemicals entering the ecosystem,
we can accelerate the recovery of the plankton, health of the oceans and start absorbing more carbon dioxide out from the atmosphere.

Universal sea change requires global engagement. AND it’s easy for you to help. Whether you’re in a position of influence, sailing the oceans or you are simply eager to change a few bad buying habits and protect the world you live in, it’s time to change — go non-toxic!

A 100g tube of toothpaste containing 0.5% triclosan would kill all plankton life in a volume the size of 50 Olympic sized
swimming pools.

It is a grim road towards catastrophic ocean system breakdown in 25 years...
Because all freshwater pollution eventually ends up in the oceans.

Lipstick, toothpaste, sunscreen, detergent.

When it comes to the failing health of our planet, the prevailing focus has been increasing carbon dioxide levels from burning of fossil fuels. It is important to reduce carbon emissions, but we must also eliminate toxic chemical pollution. The oceans are the lungs of the planet but since the Chemical Revolution in the 1950’s and the production of herbicides and pesticides, the oceans are suffocating under a toxic chemical cocktail. Marine toxic chemicals are in every type of household cleaner and personal care product. The world now manufactures thousands of different toxic chemicals that are killing the plankton and halting their ability to produce oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

It is the GOES team’s strongest held belief that If we had not poisoned the oceans, we could have prevented climate change.

It’s absolutely and completely impossible to overestimate the importance of photosynthesis in the maintenance and now  delicate balance of life on Earth. We are all witness to the lose of phytoplankton, the decline in oxygen production and the well published CO2 increase — our oceans are already more acidic and climate change is accelerating at a much faster rate than previously predicted.

We must restore our oceans.

It’s not just about saving whales and dolphins – WE cannot survive if we keep poisoning them. If we don’t address this, they’ll become too acidic and we’ll witness a cascade failure of the wider planetary ecosystem. Terrestrial life on earth will become impossible unless you have an oxygen tank on your back! At the current rates of decline, we will reach this tipping point any time in the next 25 years. It will happen quickly, be impossible to reverse, and we will have run-away climate change and mass starvation on a global scale, unless we act now.

The GOES team have a huge breadth and depth of knowledge and practical experience and expertise encompassing all aspects of the science and its real-world application, from the environmental to the social, economic and the political.

Leading, internationally acclaimed marine biologist, Dr Howard Dryden, takes the helm as Chief Scientific Officer of GOES. As an academic and successful business man, Howard’s 30+ year career has been focused on one vision — to make the aquatic environment safer and cleaner for humans and all the other organisms on which our life depends.

Dr. Dryden has exceptional knowledge and experience of combining biology, chemistry and physical sciences and their application to the real world impact of chemical pollution. His work ranges across every aspect from the supply of safe clean drinking water to fish farming, industrial wastewater management and large-scale environmental disaster control. When he isn’t working, advising on water policy or speaking at conferences around the world, Howard is sailing its coastal and open oceans!

Howard, along with his team of marine biologists, and an experienced globally-connected group of policy makers, communication experts and management consultants are the driving force behind GOES.

Alongside those who work with us, GOES will mobilise its ethical, scientific, economic and political influence to create ecologically sustainable, healthy oceans.