Sarah King: Picking a fight with the sea won’t end well
Credit to Author: Stephen Snelgrove| Date: Fri, 04 Oct 2019 01:00:52 +0000
Humans are picking a fight with our oceans and it’s not a fight we can win.
That is the key message in the latest report from the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the impacts of human-caused climate change on our oceans and the icy parts of the planet. The findings add yet more support for an emergency response to the climate crisis.
The health of our oceans is vital to young people’s futures, so how we safeguard our blue planet should be a key consideration for every voter and candidate in the federal election.
The launch of the IPCC’s Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere details how the oceans have absorbed over 90 per cent of the heat and 20 to 30 per cent of the carbon dioxide that humans have pumped out since the Industrial Revolution, so seawater is warmer, more acidic and has lower oxygen levels. These fundamental changes in the marine environment have sweeping, and in many cases irreversible, consequences for ecosystems and species.
The climate crisis is burning holes in the marine web of life, and causing shifts in species movement and behaviour, all part of a whole new underwater world.
This isn’t just a problem for the fish, however, because all this extra heat also wreaks havoc on coastal environments and human communities. Hurricanes get super-charged because they can draw more energy from warmer water. Destruction from these storms costs money, and lives. Meanwhile, melting polar ice caps and glaciers disrupt weather-controlling ocean currents, while eliminating critical habitat for ice-depending species and peoples.
Last year, the IPCC scientists said that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius would require “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society,” but would bring “clear benefits to people and natural ecosystems (and) could go hand in hand with ensuring a more sustainable and equitable society.”
The new IPCC report highlights how the impacts of climate change on the oceans, ice shelves and polar ice caps can be lessened by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The Pact for a Green New Deal, put forward by Greenpeace and many other groups in advance of the federal election, addresses how we can make this necessary transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy while protecting affected workers and communities.
But cutting carbon pollution is no longer sufficient, for past emissions have locked-in far-reaching changes. That is why the new IPCC report also addresses how we can blunt the effects of change by restoring and protecting critical ecosystems, and investing in adaptation measures. Blue carbon is the new black. Ocean life can absorb and bury carbon in the deep blue sea, but it needs to not face destruction and disruption if it’s going to do it efficiently.
Currently, only one per cent of the oceans are protected from industrial fishing and exploitation. Scientists have said that we urgently need to get to at least 30 per cent by 2030 to safeguard marine biodiversity and help mitigate climate change.
A new Global Ocean Treaty, covering the parts of the oceans beyond the jurisdiction of coastal nations, is being negotiated at the UN. It could enable the creation of a network of ocean sanctuaries that would give ecosystems the space and time they need to survive and adapt to the changes that can’t be avoided.
The next round of negotiations are this spring and we need Canada to show leadership more than ever before. With a growing number of Canadians acutely attuned to what’s at stake given the climate crisis and the state of biodiversity, it’s little wonder that tens of thousands of them have already called on the federal government to support a strong Treaty. Young children have sent drawings of the protected oceans they desire to relevant ministers.
But the outcomes from recent negotiations suggest that they haven’t heard our call.
The climate crisis, the oceans biodiversity crisis, it’s all connected. We must protect our oceans for a brighter climate future.
On Oct. 21, think about the oceans and vote for someone you believe will listen to the science and the heartfelt pleas from future generations.
Sarah King is the head of Greenpeace Canada’s Oceans and Plastics campaign, based in Vancouver on unceeded Coast Salish Territories.
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