Sustainability
#Oceans

Protect our oceans

What if we treated the oceans like they matter?

From climate change and plastic pollution, to mining and overfishing, the threats facing our oceans are getting more urgent every day. The oceans produce half of our oxygen, and food for a billion people. And because they soak up huge amounts of carbon dioxide, they’re also one of our best defences against climate change. Our fate is bound to the fate of our oceans. If they don’t make it, we don’t either. Now though, there’s a ray of hope. There’s a new treaty in the works that could pave the way for new ocean sanctuaries all over the world.

Protect Oceans

A sea of issues

Without the global ocean there would be no life on Earth. It is gravely worrying, then, that we are damaging the oceans on a scale that is unimaginable to most people. Find out how you can help today.
1
A treaty to protect our oceans

Scientists have drawn up a rescue plan for our oceans. The plan is bold, and brilliantly simple: we cover the planet in ocean sanctuaries, putting a third of the oceans off-limits to fishing, mining and other destructive industries. Here’s the problem: at the moment, there’s no way to create new sanctuaries outside countries’ national waters. We can’t protect these huge areas of the ocean without an international agreement on how this protection would work. Governments have started work on a UN Ocean Treaty, and if they get it right it’ll gives us the tools we need to make these sanctuaries happen. The oceans need your support.

SIGN THE PETITION
2
30×30 A Blueprint for Ocean Protection

This ocean sanctuaries scientific study maps out how to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, a target that scientists say is crucial in order to safeguard wildlife and to help mitigate the impacts of climate change. 30×30: A Blueprint For Ocean Protection is the result of a year-long collaboration between leading academics at the University of York, University of Oxford and Greenpeace.

READ THE REPORT
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Be an Ocean Defender

Fundamental changes need to be made in the way our oceans are managed. This means that we must act to make sure that human activities are sustainable, in other words that they meet human needs of current and future generations without causing harm to the environment.

LEARN MORE
1 A treaty to protect our oceans

Scientists have drawn up a rescue plan for our oceans. The plan is bold, and brilliantly simple: we cover the planet in ocean sanctuaries, putting a third of the oceans off-limits to fishing, mining and other destructive industries. Here’s the problem: at the moment, there’s no way to create new sanctuaries outside countries’ national waters. We can’t protect these huge areas of the ocean without an international agreement on how this protection would work. Governments have started work on a UN Ocean Treaty, and if they get it right it’ll gives us the tools we need to make these sanctuaries happen. The oceans need your support.

SIGN THE PETITION

This ocean sanctuaries scientific study maps out how to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, a target that scientists say is crucial in order to safeguard wildlife and to help mitigate the impacts of climate change. 30×30: A Blueprint For Ocean Protection is the result of a year-long collaboration between leading academics at the University of York, University of Oxford and Greenpeace.

READ THE REPORT

Fundamental changes need to be made in the way our oceans are managed. This means that we must act to make sure that human activities are sustainable, in other words that they meet human needs of current and future generations without causing harm to the environment.

LEARN MORE