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.
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.
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 theChemical 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 loss 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.
UNIVERSAL SEA CHANGE
The GOES Foundation is taking urgent action to lead the essential and universal sea change needed to address climate change. We are working worldwide to hold back the toxic wave that is poisoning our oceans.
GOES engages people and organizations at every level of society, from children to world leaders and intrepid adventurers who help by sailing over the oceans at high and low latitudes to collect our plankton samples.
GOES uses all the digital technology and AI tools it can to demonstrate the need for the urgent ban of all toxic chemicals, hazardous waste and plastics from households and industry.
We should really just take a precautionary approach, or a reality check and just stop using highly toxic chemicals. GOES will endeavour to collect thousands of samples to provide indisputable evidence to help policy makers accelerate their decision making and help get these chemicals out of our lives.
Join Our Global Team Today
Calling all thinking, breathing human beings! Join our growing team of partners and supporters. Wherever you are and whatever you do, please get in touch with us. Whether you are an interested individual or part of an organisation, please contact us. Together we can create the sea change needed to hold back the toxic wave and safeguard the health and wellbeing of every living creature, from people to plankton and everything in between.
Join UsEducation
Plankton-inspired living
Through public awareness and easy access educational and learning resources, GOES inspires, mobilises and supports adults and children to change the way they live, and to choose the least toxic products to eat, clean or use in the shower.
Advocacy
Speak plankton to everyone, including those in authority!
GOES exists to communicate the urgent need for a change in the global procurement and use of ocean toxic chemicals at every level of society. By engaging with key players in industry, government, science, media and education, we equip those who can make industrial and social change with the information they need to make informed decisions.
Sampling
Plankton citizen science
It is the ocean sailors around the globe who traverse the open seas who make the GOES project utterly unique. They are at the heart of our research community and their contribution to the GOES metadata which will inform us on the presence of specific persistent chemicals. The GOES Global Oceanic Environmental Survey is our practical and immediate response to the often financially, logistically challenging scientific surveys. By harnessing the ocean-loving enthusiasm of the international sailing community and providing them with plankton sampling kits, GOES will collect thousands of vitally important samples of plankton from remote places all around the globe.
Woke to the Planet
Will future generations get to see this photo without a trace of microplastics?
Microplastics are abundant in our oceans. From microscopic creatures all the way to giant mammals, microplastics have been found in all.
Take action today and say no to single use plastic! 🛑
Together we can make a change for the better. Make sure future generations don't have to deal with your mess
Partners
