As the world responds to the Covid-19 crisis, we must safeguard the resilience of the largest ecosystem on the planet.
The ocean is one of our greatest allies in the fight against climate breakdown. Aside from being home to millions of creatures – from the charismatic giants of our seas to the undiscovered mysteries of its depths – the ocean is also a heat and carbon sink, one without which we’d already be in far hotter water.
According to a study from the University of Oxford, the ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the heat gained by planet Earth between 1971 and 2010. It also absorbs about 40% of the carbon dioxide we emit.
The ocean has been buffering us from the worst of climate change for years. As Josh Willis, oceanographer for NASA puts it: “the ocean is delaying our punishment.” Indeed if it wasn’t for big blue, we would already be in even deeper climate shit.
The special report Oceans and Cryosphere, released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last year, brought together thousands of scientific studies on how climate change is affecting our oceans and frozen regions. It was a bleak read.
It showed how the ocean’s efforts in sucking up all that carbon and heat has come at a steep price, with the sea now experiencing extreme heat waves and increased acidity, and as such is less hospitable to species like kelp and coral.
As these vital species die off, with them go the oceanic communities that found homes within their branches. The fish and the crustaceans, the mammals that feed on them in turn.
That’s a problem because marine life can actually help us tackle climate change, and has been doing so all along. It naturally absorbs and stores carbon, locking it away deep in the ocean.
Plants in coastal areas, such as mangrove forests and seagrass meadows, trap carbon in underwater sediment and soil. Sea creatures capture it in the food chain, most of which eventually sinks to the deep ocean seabed in the bodies of dead animals.
But if we mine and disturb our ocean, if we overfish, pollute and dredge it – we prevent the ocean being able to perform its vital climate mitigation work to its best ability. At a time when we need carbon sinks more than ever, the largest one on the planet has been compromised by human activity.
Covid-19 has tested all our systems for their resilience. The majority of them have been found lacking.
But amid the misery of this crisis, we have learnt some important lessons. One of them is that nature cannot continue keeping viruses or climate change at bay if we don’t give it the space to do so.
While we strive to rebuild a green and peaceful future for the post Covid world, it is imperative the natural systems that balance us are protected too. Without these natural systems, we won’t have much hope of controlling the climate rollercoaster we’re already on, even with a clean energy revolution tomorrow.
The hour is late when it comes to saving the ocean, as it is for the rest of the climate fight. Alarm bells have been ringing, unanswered, for as long as I’ve been alive.
Because of this, piecemeal adaptation is not going to cut it. What we need is a rapid decarbonisation of our economy, and for thriving, functioning ecosystems to be put at the heart of decision making on ocean management.
Putting a third of the global ocean into sanctuaries – free from human interference – is one of the core pieces of work that needs to happen now. Scientists agree that protecting 30% of the ocean is what’s needed to allow them to build resilience and safeguard biodiversity.
Ocean sanctuaries have a proven track record of success. There are many stories about how fish populations have thrived, at-risk species have returned, entire communities been restored, simply by putting areas of ocean off limits to human activity.
We are seeing during Covid lockdowns how quickly marine ecosystems can appear happier and healthier within short periods, but real change is going to take a longer term outlook.
Rolled out on an international scale, sanctuaries could allow the seas to recover and thrive as they once did, and recent research shows we wouldn’t have to wait long to see results. A recent scientific review from Nature concluded that not only is ocean recovery possible, it’s doable within thirty years.
A Global Ocean Treaty with the power to create ocean sanctuaries has been on the table at the UN for over a year. This could be a framework for ocean protection across the globe, and we still have the chance to get it right.
When the year began I was full of hope that in 2020 we would get a Global Ocean Treaty across the line. Along with three million individuals worldwide, Greenpeace has been campaigning hard to get the strongest Treaty possible, for the well-being of both people and planet. Doing this would be nothing short of historic.
As part of this campaign, Greenpeace spent 2019 sailing pole-to-pole, showcasing areas of ocean most in need of our protection. But on the final days of the voyage, as the Arctic Sunrise prepared the leave Antarctica, the last stop on the trip, it became abundantly clear just how urgent this Ocean Treaty is. At the Esperanza science base on the Antarctic Peninsula scientists had just recorded the highest Antarctic temperature ever of 18.3C. Climate change is warming the frozen regions of our planet faster than anywhere else, and that knowledge alone should make us determined to protect them.
Delegates from across the planet were due to meet in April 2020 to negotiate the terms of this vital Global Ocean Treaty, but as with so many things, Covid-19 has forced this to be postponed. And while we don’t know when giant international meetings like this one will be on the agenda again, it is my hope that when they are one thing is front of mind. We cannot let the Covid crisis be a reason to let this historic conservation opportunity pass us by. Instead, we must ensure ocean protection is part of the global rebuild towards a more green and peaceful future for all.
From climate change and plastics, to deep sea mining and overfishing – the threats facing our oceans are growing and becoming more urgent by the day. Here’s how we protect them.
