At the Intersection of Activism & Commerce

Sometimes I wonder if all the signs I see of increased awareness of ocean-health issues are simply a function of my own interest in the subject. I had an interesting conversation with a young man this week that suggests the subject really is gaining traction.

"And now," this man in his early 20s said, somewhat skeptically, "we're supposed to stop eating fish because the oceans are running out. It's always something."

I contrast this young man's skepticism with a different kind of skepticism from my 75-year-old Dad. After sitting through the film The End of the Line, my Dad - a lifelong fisherman - said, "The problem with this kind of movie is that you're preaching to the choir. The only people watching it are people who already know and care about the problem."

Add to these two different brands of skepticism the fact that this week's Science study on the state of the world's fisheries is being reported on in mainstream news magazine Time (Can the World's Fisheries Survive Their Appetite?).

I don't know what exactly it all says, but I think it says something.

Maybe it says the marine-activist world has begun to make enough of a dent in our collective consciousness -- allowing the idea that the condition of our oceans IS a problem to start to take hold -- to believe we may be on the verge of a shift in values. When a new value emerges, the material expression of that value is: What will I pay for it?

For the activist, the cost of building awareness is time and energy -- the anticipated payoff tends to be far enough off that the activist may never see it in his or her own lifetime. The activist plants seeds for trees whose fruit and shade he or she may never enjoy.

Enter commerce: We are not yet selling social or environmental responsibility, but the IDEA of social or environmental responsibility. We are willing to pay for the belief or the perception that we are being responsible. Witness the oohs and ahhs over putting bamboo floors and hemp throw rugs in a 3,000-square-foot McMansion with two Hummers in the garage. Witness greenwash. Witness "body wash" (ie., liquid soap) in plastic bottles invoking the pure ocean on their labels.

But something is happening. Time finds overfishing worth writing about. The great Pacific garbage patch is becoming part of ordinary conversation. People seem to know about shark finning and the environmental damage it causes.

Concern about sustainability has even reached the sushi world.

Something's happening.

People's values are getting involved. When people value ocean friendliness, their economic behavior will shift. They will buy (or not) differently than they did (or did not) before.

Are you ready for this?