Thanks to Jason Hall Spencer
Evolving the narrative for protecting a rapidly changing ocean, post COVID-19 – Major collaborative paper and resources that look at the challenges and actions we need to restore the oceans (continue)
Abstract
- The ocean is the linchpin supporting life on Earth but is in declining health, due to an increasing footprint of human use and climate change. Despite notable successes in helping to protect the ocean, the scale of actions is simply not now meeting the overriding scale and nature of the ocean’s problem that confronts us.
- Moving into a post-COVID-19 world, new policy decisions will need to be made. Some, especially those developed prior to the pandemic, will require changes to their trajectories; others will emerge as a response to this global event. Reconnecting with nature, and specifically with the ocean, will take more than good intent and wishful thinking. Words, and how we express our connection to the ocean, clearly matter now more than ever before.
- The evolution of the ocean narrative, aimed at preserving and expanding options and opportunities for future generations and a healthier planet, is articulated around six themes:
(1) All life is dependent on the ocean;
(2) By harming the ocean, we harm ourselves;
(3) By protecting the ocean, we protect ourselves;
(4) Humans, the ocean, biodiversity and climate are inextricably linked;
(5) Ocean and climate action must be undertaken together; and
(6) Reversing ocean change needs action now.
- This narrative adopts a ‘One Health’ approach to protecting the ocean, addressing the whole Earth Ocean system for better and more equitable social, cultural, economic, and environmental outcomes at its core. Speaking with one voice through a narrative that captures the latest science, concerns, and linkages to humanity is a precondition to action, by elevating humankind’s understanding of our relationship with ‘planet Ocean’ and why it needs to become a central theme to everyone’s lives. We have only one ocean, we must protect it, now. There is no ‘Ocean B’.
Click here to read the report
A series of resources for this project can be accessed here.