If you were treated for COVID with Remdesivir or have had AIDs medication or know anyone whose life was saved by these miracle drugs — you should become a fierce, grateful, protector of the oceans.
Why? Because a deep-sea sponge is the source of that medication, made in nature, extracted, then patented (as if they invented it, which is nonsense), and sold for millions of dollars.
Now, ask yourself, this: What else is under the water that will change lives? What else is there that can change survival and quality of life? Whatever is there — and we mostly have no idea — belongs to who, exactly?
An astounding 70% of our planet is covered with oceans.
Only 3% of that vast space on the seabed has been properly explored and most commercial fishing is contained within 10% of the surface near shores.
And what’s more, only 1% of that entire water surface is protected, whilst the rest can be overfished, polluted, and generally, in our ignorance of what’s there, considered free property for anyone who wants to try and go there to use it.
Why else would we simply go offshore, outside of continental national boundaries, and dump everything from toxic waste sewage to garbage to radioactive material?
The oceans encompass 90% of the available living space on the planet for all creatures. The beaches, mountains, plains are all two-dimensional living areas.
The ocean has many layers, all habitable. The bio-capability of the oceans is nine times larger than all the living space on dry land. And yet, that space is unregulated, a free-for-all, and, what’s worse, we still have little idea of the impact our misuse of that bio habitat will have for all life on earth now and into the future.
Scientists have measured that 60% of the world’s oceans are being adversely affected by our pollution, plastic dumping and general disregard for what lives there. It’s like taking all the garbage from Manhattan, dumping it in Central Park, and assuming the trees and plants will continue to thrive.
Remember the little sponge that saved all those lives, millions of humans across the planet? How many other ocean miracles are waiting to be discovered and their secrets shared?
There is a place underwater called “The Lost City,” where astrobiologists believe life on this planet likely developed. It’s a place of towering carbonite mounds. It is truly a miracle site and yet it is currently threatened by industrialists who want to pillage it for minerals — before we truly know how life on earth began or have a chance to learn more. Earmarked for Heritage status by the U.N., big bucks are trying to prevent its protection.
So, if you just focus on one issue here, remember that a single sponge gave up its secrets and saved millions of people. What else is there underwater now, what else needs our protection now before it is lost, and its benefits are lost, forever?
Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now resides in New Mexico.
Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.L. Tomaino 
