UNEP Celebrates and Educates About the World's Oceans with their Video Series: Two Minutes on Oceans with Jim Toomey!

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has partnered with cartoonist Jim Toomey – of Sherman’s Lagoon fame – in developing a series of six two-minute videos intended to raise awareness of the importance of oceans and the coastal environment. The videos use animation and humor to explain in clear and simple language the role oceans play in our lives and our very survival. If you would like to be notified when the videos become available, please email: monika.thiele@unep.org

The True Value of our Oceans

It is well known that industries such as fisheries, shipping and tourism derive great economic benefits from our oceans. But what most people don’t know is that oceans also provide a lot of other benefits that don’t even get counted. Watch this video to learn what they are!

The Climate Change Connection

Oceans are essential for regulating the earth's climate cycle, yet substantial warming trends in the earth's atmosphere are causing dangerous changes including a rising sea level, increased extreme weather events and polar ice melts. This video connects human activities with the changing climate. Find out what’s happening and what you can do!

Marine Litter

A lot of our trash ends up in the ocean - even trash discarded far upstream. Marine litter can travel hundreds of miles via rivers and waterways to even the most remote parts of the planet. It causes billions of dollars in damage, is a threat to sea life and even to human health. Learn more about this growing problem, and how you can be part of the solution! Click here to watch!

Blue Carbon

With atmospheric carbon on the rise, the role that nature plays in sequestering it has become more important than ever. Forests are not the only ecosystems that absorb carbon dioxide, mangroves and other ocean plant life do a lot of that work too. This video tells you how!

Nutrient Runoff

The use of fertilizers in agriculture has increased the productivity of our farms. However, this increase has come with a price. Fertilizers and other chemicals end up in our streams and rivers, and eventually in our oceans. The run-off from these chemicals creates algae blooms that result in dead zones and destroy our corals, fish and mangroves. Watch this video and learn what you can do to help!

Ocean Acidification

The ocean is absorbing a great amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that is being introduced into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels. As a result, oceans are slowly and steadily becoming more acidic and may reach a point where they become saturated. Learn how this chemical change is threatening the survival of sea life from crustaceans to corals.

Jim Toomey

Jim Toomey is one of North America’s premier syndicated cartoonists and famous for his comic strip Sherman’s Lagoon which appears
in more than 150 North American newspapers.