Taylor will attend the Youth Carnival to motivate young people to do more. Without the ocean, which covers 70 per cent of the planet, there was no future. “We are going to kill the planet. And that will be that. And we are doing it at an increased rate. And if the ocean dies, we die. The big problem is today that we humans are a destructive greedy race,” she told a luncheon at the Opera House in Sydney.

Adam Cutri, a lawyer and the inaugural chair of the Youth Ocean Carnival Foundation, said change had to start with youth who were passionate about ocean conservation and sustainability. To be held at Luna Park, the carnival will include a day long educational event for students from more than 50 schools with arts and other events at night.

The event, coinciding with World Ocean Day, is being organised and led by young people, including Sam Fricker, a 20-year-old Olympic and Commonwealth diver, and 17-year-old Sophie Way, a year 12 student at Santa Sabina College.

Fricker was compelled to do more to protect marine life when he saw the now famous video of a turtle with a straw stuck up its nostril. Realising many other turtles suffered similar plights, he launched a line of eco-friendly straws called Samsstraws.com, which are made from wheat.

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In Australia for the launch, Bill Mott, the US-based founder of the World Ocean Day, said he hoped Sydney’s inaugural Youth Ocean Carnival would spread across the world.

“There is nothing that has been as effective as getting young people in the room and telling you about it, and keeping policymakers and decision makers’ [feet to the fire]. They’ve helped shape World Ocean day into a growing movement across the world.”

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