Our public seas are being looted, and the receipt is coming due. From gutted ocean science programs to fast-tracked deep sea mining leases to a president who'd rather drill than let the wind blow past his golf course, the assault on America's blue frontier has been relentless — and largely unchecked by a Congress too compliant to say no. This November, that record doesn't just belong in the headlines. It belongs in the voting booth.

From Florida's sewage-stinking sands to Australia's dying reefs, the ocean is choking on its own overgrowth. Record marine heat waves and a flood of agricultural runoff are turning seaweed and algae—once the humble engines of life on Earth—into a global menace, smothering beaches, gutting fisheries, and carving out a dead zone in the Gulf the size of New Jersey. The good news: from kelp restoration to smarter farming, we already know how to turn the tide.

Along with ongoing coverage of the latest bombings and missile and drone attacks in Iran and the oil-rich Gulf states, extreme weather events are also providing lead segments on evening news programs this summer. What you don’t see in much of the TV coverage, at least not since the beginning of President Trump’s second term as president, is any mention of climate change. Without that link, watching people like ABC’s David Muir on “the most watched newscast in America” ask network meteorologists to explain the conditions — but never the causes of their nightly footage of burning, flooding landscapes and traumatized people — is excruciating.

On Thursday, July 23, a gathering of more than 50 people took a break from staring at screens and doomscrolling to enjoy pints and flights of locally brewed beer at Faction Brewing. They had come for Ocean Hoptimism, a monthly talk and get-together where participants discuss issues affecting our oceans.