In this weeks’s reading of The Ocean Reader, the author exposes how terracentrism, our land-centered worldview, has pet us from recognizing the ocean as a dynamic and vulnerable place that requires human awareness and action. They write how human struggle to “…think of the Ocean as a place” largely because we cannot visibly shape the sea in a meaningful manner in the same way we alter the land. We can plow or pave the earth but changes to the ocean tend to happen out of sight, creating an illusion that it is “changeless, inexhaustible, and impervious to the onslaught of harvesters”. This misunderstanding has greatly contributed to the staggering overuse of the oceans resources each year, such as the 90 million tons of fish.
By introducing the concept of terracentrism, the text calls out the bias that treats the ocean as secondary to land when it in reality covers more than the majority of the planet. The idea that human actions can’t truly affect it due to its vastness has allowed environmental harm to go unchecked. A small but symbolic decision to capitalize the ocean pushes the reader to rethink this bias and view it from a new perspective. Rather than seeing it as a generic feature of the globe, the author argues that capitalizing the term recognizes the ocean as proper place with respect equal to that of continents and nations.
Ultimately, this passage calls for a shift in how we see the world. The ocean is not the empty space we tend to think it as, rather, it is a living interconnected system that is facing an unprecedented crisis. Acknowledging the ocean as a place is the first step to take in protecting the future we share with it.
Great post. I’m particularly struck by your last paragraph, as it sums up the reading and everything we’ve been trying to learn this semester. That paragraph truly is a thesis statement for the learning outcomes I was hoping to impart in this class. Thanks for writing this up!
Hi Adrian,
I like what you had to say about humans having a “land-centered worldview”, and we don’t have the capability to comprehend what value the ocean holds. I’ve mentioned it before in discussion and in my post, but its honestly disheartening that an area of the planet, so large and full of history, does not register as an important place for the majority of humanity. If there were a way to live in the ocean, or use its resources to the fullest, maybe then humanity will attempt to understand it.
Hi Adrian! This is a wonderful consideration of our relationship and treatment of the Ocean, especially about reconceptualizing it. This “small but symbolic decision” is a way of acknowledging that language, and the way we speak about the Ocean is an important step in that direction and shifting away from terracentrism.