Introduction
Earth
is a blue planet where marine ecosystems thrive unless humans take and
pollute marine ecosystems to extinction and everyone’s loss.
Over the past sixty years, the residents of central coastal California
have seen a gradual decline to the thrivability of marine life and
essential marine ecosystems.
“The Chumash are the First Peoples of this land and have
thrived as a maritime culture along this coastline enjoying its
magnificent beauty.” Thrivability of ocean ecosystems is an
extremely important Chumash value from which we all can learn. See
Northern Chumash Tribal Council. (See:
Nothern Chumash)
“Learning about the ways in which the indigenous people of
California appropriated plants and animals for cultural uses while
allowing them to flourish can help us to change the ways in which we
interact with nature today.” M. Kat Anderson, Tending the
Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of
California’s Natural Resources.
The concept of sustainability, while considered a lofty and progressive
ideal within the wider philosophy of environmental protection, has a
major flaw. Given the actual political process with its gives and takes
among the variety of vested interests, the bench mark for sustaining a
particular area at its current level is where political compromise
begins. That is to say, the variables required to actually sustain a
system become unreachable. Thus, the very attempt to work for
sustaining the planet at its current state actually maintains the
downward spiral.
The following video by musician, Brian Jeffery, is a visual way to
describe thrivability of marine ecosystems. In August 2012, humpback
whales, hundreds of marine birds and other marine life came into San
Luis Bay near Avila Beach in central coastal California. This event
lasted a few days and caused a viral social media explosion of wonder
and enjoyment around the world.
