Shailene Woodley Opens Up About Working to Save the Ocean

Shailene Woodley is working to save the seas.

The 27-year-old Big Little Lies actress outlined her summer on an expedition with Greenpeace in an article for Time on Wednesday (September 4).

“Our seas are in deep, deep trouble. They house an extraordinarily diverse eco-system of marine life, and are crucial to the well being of land-based ecosystems. And as of this moment, they may as well be the Wild West for corporations and governments to pillage as they please,” she wrote.

“Enter Greenpeace, the worlds largest independently funded environmental NGO. As part of the worldwide initiative to protect 30% of the worlds oceans by 2030, Greenpeace set sail this summer on their largest vessel, the Esperanza, to explore the bodies of water most vulnerable to corporate and governmental attack.”

“I was asked to join a leg of their year-long expedition this summer. We would be traveling through the Sargasso Sea, a place I had never heard of before…I was also weary because as a proper millennial with cynical views on real accountability and because I have seen too many influencers with the promise of change, I had been left to wonder many times what real change they had been able to accomplish. I decided to join alongside my photographer friend Emory Hall, with the understanding that we would be following this mission through until the UN had made their final decision in the spring of 2020. We would not let the exposure and publicity garnered come and go as quickly as most ‘activist’ hype does,” she continued.

“We have until March of 2020 to convince the UN to protect our seas. If all of you who read this change your lifestyles just a tiny bit, if you put pressure on the right corporations and politicians, and if we all continue to find a little more space in our hearts for kindness, we may just be able to sway our global leaders to conserve 30% of our oceans by 2030, and in turn, continue the evolution of the human race.”

For more about Shailene‘s discoveries, head to Time.com.