My action to save the world today was to help a dozen members of my community fall in love with the intertidal zone. A handful of us have been doing this for ten years now, studying four local beaches each summer, and tracking our findings.People love coming to the beach with us; becoming "community scientists" gives them new insights into the fragility of life - along with its wondrous diversity!! (There is no richer ecosystem on Earth than where the land meets the sea.)
As we input our data, we're starting to notice some trends ... and not happy ones. We might need someone with a degree in statistics to help us figure this out, but we sense that we're starting to see changes — and possibly due to a changing climate. (We haven't had any oil spills or other events that would explain the drop in numbers of some usually abundant species.)
Anyway, every once in a while in the big fight to save the big world, it's important to spend a local day remembering why we love living in this place.
Check out this book I wrote with friends on the intertidal zone in our part of the world — Get Your Feet Wet! Intertidal Notes from the Pacific Northwest.
