In 2021, President Joe Biden declared that June would be observed as National Ocean Month, an important step in acknowledging the impact global warming has on our ocean ecosystems, and finding solutions to overfishing. Read the full action here.

The first public presentation and preview of music from the Earth Requiem was a resounding success. Paintings from Diana Wege's "Fragile Environments" series made for a dramatic backdrop as the choir entered singing from all sides of the stage. Toxic Communities author Dorceta E. Taylor painted a grim history of environmental racism from her lectern, and the choir sung "Is this what we want?" from Earth Requiem's fourth movement. But there was light too as Wege spoke of acknowledging the indigenous lands we walk on and repairing our relationship with Earth's cohabitants. Music director and conductor Malcolm J. Merriweather led the choir in an eclectic program of music with themes ranging from the beauty of nature to deference to creation. More documentation of the performance is yet to come, but you can watch a livestream of the full concert below.

Sylvia Earle is known worldwide as the Ambassador for the Ocean. She is also TIME magazine's first "Hero for the Planet" and National Geographic's first Explorer in Residence. She is former NOAA Chief Scientist, and the first person to walk untethered at the lowest depth ever—1, 250 feet. She is a major force in the establishment and growth of the world's marine sanctuaries and was personally responsible for convincing President Bush that the recently named sanctuary in Hawaii should be protected. She is founder and director of Deep Ocean Research and Exploration, which designs instruments for deep-sea exploration. She is author of 15 books on the ocean.