Seemingly infinitely bountiful, ever awe-inspiring, our blue planet's in crisis

O

ur ocean – that seemingly infinitely bountiful, ever awe-inspiring blue that defines our planet from space – is in crisis.

When I wrote the foreword to the 2014 edition of WWF’s Living Planet Report, I said it was not for the faint-hearted. This edition – a deep dive into the health of marine species and the habitats on which they depend – is equally if not more sobering.

The marine Living Planet Index (LPI) presented here is roughly in line with the global LPI, which shows a 52 per cent decline in vertebrate populations since 1970. That alone should set off alarm bells. But it’s what’s hidden in the overall marine LPI that foretells an impending social and economic crisis.

Read more of what the Director General, WWF International, Marco Lambertini, had to say in the forward to the 2015 report and then, beyond that, the whole report -  “Living Blue Planet Report: Species, habitats and human well-being.”