Leila Monroe, Staff Attorney, Oceans Program, San Francisco

June 8 is World Oceans Day, and I’m thrilled to celebrate it from Rio de Janeiro, where I’ve just arrived for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development.  50,000 people are expected to visit in the coming two weeks for this global landmark event.  As my plane approached Brazil from the sky, thick cloud-cover obscured any sign of land or sea below us.  Even after deplaning, the clouds and thick drizzle shrouded the City.  Not until late afternoon did I catch a view of the water from my 11th floor apartment in the Center of the City.  There, in Port, my eyes landed on the massive tower of a floating offshore oil and gas rig. 

In the haze, it could have been mistaken for a wayward mountain, but this astonishing floating compound is a testament to the economic and environmental realities we face in 2012.  Humans have incredible technological skill and drive to produce and expand.  This skill and drive, however, is not yet matched by a drive to collectively curtail the massive environmental damage we are wreaking to the Earth and the systems that keep us alive -- but it needs ...

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