“Thousands have lived without love,” wrote the poet WH Auden, “not one without water.” This line was quoted by the oceanographer Sylvia Earle at the TED talks in February as part of her ongoing campaign to raise awareness of the despoliation of the world’s oceans, and to drive home the urgent need for conservation efforts to prevent the loss of  hundreds of marine species and the widespread destruction of underwater ecosystems. The TED talks are an annual forum at which public intellectuals give short presentations on their area of expertise. In her fifteen minutes, Earle pointed out that while the green movement has made most nations aware of their contribution to, and responsibility for, climate change, relatively few of us know anything about the health of our oceans. Even though they occupy nearly four-fifths of the planet and contribute in countless ways to the life of the planet less than 1% of our oceans are currently protected from overfishing and other forms of environmental degradation. In fact the subject is scarcely noticed by the media except for the occasional article about the horrors of whaling or politically sensitive questions about maritime boundaries.

Earle summed up the oceans’ value in four words: No Blue, No Green. Without the vast underwater currents which function like a global thermostat, or the billions of tons of food which we harvest from them each year, life on earth will quickly deteriorate without healthy oceans. However, pollution, overfishing and our laissez faire attitudes to marine conservation have created unsustainable pressures on many marine ecosystems. Since we have always imagined them as an infinite resource, and one that could never be harmed by human activity, we find it difficult to grasp just how extensive our impact has been in just a few generations. Consider, for example, the production of fish-oil used for the Omega-3 fatty acid dietary supplements which are said to reduce the risk of heart attacks. A recent editorial in the New York Times points out that the production of fish oil has helped to endanger a pivotal species of herring, called menhaden. “Today, hundreds of billions of pounds of [menhaden] are converted into lipstick, salmon feed, paint, “buttery spread,” salad dressing [and] omega-3 supplements…  All of these products can be made with more environmentally benign substitutes, but menhaden are still used in great (though declining) numbers because they can be caught and processed cheaply.”  The overfishing of sharks, often solely for the brutal removal of their fins, is even more striking in its impacts. Environmental groups currently estimate that one shark is killed every three seconds, almost always unnecessarily.

Overfishing has become so widespread that even the most commonplace species will soon be officially endangered by the relentless exploitation of the oceans which industrialized nations have indulged in for decades. Part of the problem is the wastage which commercial fishing entails. For every pound of seafood that reaches a consumer, several more are thrown back into the sea, dead, because they are too small, or of the wrong species, while even more end up rotten and unsaleable in fish markets and warehouses. Lobster, cod, herring, salmon, snapper and dozens of other species which have become a staple in many diets may soon become rarities unless there is a concerted effort to ease overfishing and allow their declining stocks time to recover.

From our perspective this problem has two faces. Every schoolchild learns that Guyana is the land of many waters. As such, we cannot allow ourselves to remain indifferent to water conservation. Our symbiotic relationship with our rivers is plainly visible in every part of the country, even though many of us still treat them with a casual disregard, littering and polluting with hardly a second thought. Mercifully, many of our lesser  rivers are naturally sheltered by their inaccessibility in the interior, but those which are not have visibly suffered the ill-effects of gold mining – permanently altered flow patterns, mercury dumping – and other forms of development. Even the grand Essequibo River proved surprisingly vulnerable during the spectacular cyanide leak a few years ago. If our rivers are to have a viable future, both our attitudes and practices will have to change.

As the Copenhagen summit’s ongoing wrangles have shown, environmental questions eventually require complex political answers. Developed nations are full of high rhetoric when it comes to reducing carbon emissions and preserving the rainforest, but reluctant to make meaningful commitments when these require real economic sacrifices.

Protection of the world’s oceans and waterways will be no easier, but that makes it no less urgent. But if we would like future generations to enjoy the benefits of our large reserves of fresh water, and to continue eating the same variety of seafood we grew up with, the challenge of water conservation will have to be taken up sooner rather than later.