Paul Nelson and Lorraine Barrow,
Institute of Marine Affairs
There is something about the start of a new year that can bring a whiff of green optimism and a breath of fresh ocean air. It affords us the opportunity to pause and revisit occurrences and experiences of the past year and make new resolutions. One thing that stood out in 2021, against a backdrop of the unrelenting covid19 pandemic, were the extreme weather events signalling that climate change is real. As the year 2022 gets into its stride with New Year resolutions, let us include self-empowerment with sound information and data to go green as we make every effort to conserve our blue ocean resources/spaces.
The deadly floods in Belgium and Germany that claimed the lives of more than 200 people, the severe flooding that triggered fatal landslides in Uganda, Canada and Indonesia, to the unprecedented flooded subways in China and New York City – all within the span of just a few months during the summer of 2021, serves as a wake-up call that climate change is here.
Around the same time, as if that was not enough of climate-fuelled severe weather events, some countries in the Pacific Northwest region suffered severe heat waves, while the Mediterranean region experienced intense droughts. According to recently published scientific reports, these catastrophic weather events are a result of a warming earth as increasing amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) trapping heat near the earth and warming our oceans are producing changes in climatic patterns. Our oceans are in decline.
In an effort to reverse the decline in ocean health, the years 2021- 2030 have been declared, "the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development" by the United Nations (UN). The decade seeks to deliver "the science we need" in order to transform "the ocean we have" to "the ocean we want." The UN has identified the importance of information and data enhanced by enabling technologies and platforms as key to restoring ocean health and transforming the ocean we have to the ocean we want – a healthy ocean. This is evident in its sixth societal outcome which states, “a transparent and accessible ocean made possible by applied knowledge derived from trustworthy data and information through the utilisation of enabling technologies and innovation.”
Scientists around the world depend on the data and information unearthed by their colleagues and the various intelligences of cultural and recreational users of ocean resources to build robust management systems that will support ocean health.
Importance of oceans
Humans depend on oceans for our psychological and physical well-being, nutrition, economic prosperity and the sustainable development of nations, more so coastal communities. This point is well established in a 2020 UNESCO Report, which states that at least three billion people depend on oceans. Further, a 2016 report of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stated that the ocean economy is estimated to generate US$3 trillion in 2030 and US $1
