Sylvia Earle is one of the ocean’s staunchest defenders. A National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence and former chief scientist with NOAA, Earle has spent a lifetime documenting the rapid decline of the world’s oceans and calling for more action to defend the body of water that cradles the world’s continents.
Her most recent undertaking, dubbed Mission Blue, is to set-up a global network of Marine Protected Areas to safeguard and restore much-degraded marine habitats. A new Netflix documentary, also titled Mission Blue, follows the life and work of Earle, culminating with her recent efforts to implement marine parks across the world’s oceans, dubbed Hope Spots.
Long thought invulnerable to human kind’s impacts, marine ecosystems have been plagued by overfishing, pollution, and poor management. Now, global warming and ocean acidification—both caused by burning fossil fuels—are threatening to upend whole ecosystems.
The new documentary is available on Netflix to stream.
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