Part Five / What We Must Do Now

5.6 Remembering the Ocean

All online sources accessed on

  1. the ocean has absorbed about 30 per cent of the carbon dioxide National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, ‘Ocean acidification’, 1 April 2020, https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/ocean-coasts/ocean-acidification.

    the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation … has slowed Caesar, L., et al., ‘Observed fingerprint of a weakening Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation’, Nature, 556 (7700), 2018: 191–6, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0006-5.

    ocean ecosystems and biodiversity are getting pummelled IPBES, Global Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, ed. E. S. Brondizio et al., 2019, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3831673.

  2. A hotter ocean is causing fish to flee Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ‘Summary for policymakers’, Global Warming of 1.5°C: An IPCC Special Report on the Impacts of Global Warming of 1.5°C above Pre-industrial Levels and Related Global Greenhouse Gas Emission Pathways, in the Context of Strengthening the Global Response to the Threat of Climate Change, Sustainable Development, and Efforts to Eradicate Poverty, ed. V. Masson-Delmotte et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/chapter-3/.

    we can no longer rely on wild fish to feed the world Food and Agriculture Organization, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020: Sustainability in Action, 2020, https://doi.org/10.4060/ca9229en.

    Much of this overfishing is fuelled by … subsidies ‘Regulating fisheries subsidies’, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, https://unctad.org/project/regulating-fisheries-subsidies.

  3. the offshore wind industry could generate over 200 gigawatts Musial, W., et al., Offshore Wind Market Report: 2021 Edition, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy, August 2021, https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/articles/offshore-wind-market-report-2021-edition-released.

    the potential to grow into an industry Bjerregaard, R., et al., Seaweed Aquaculture for Food Security, Income Generation and Environmental Health in Tropical Developing Countries, World Bank Group working paper, July 2016, http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/947831469090666344/Seaweed-aquaculture-for-food-security-income-generation-and-environmental-health-in-Tropical-Developing-Countries.

    up to 1 billion tons … of carbon dioxide being released annually Pendleton L., et al., ‘Estimating global “blue carbon” emissions from conversion and degradation of vegetated coastal ecosystems’, PLOS One, 7 (9), 2012: Article e43542, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043542.