If we don’t protect the ocean, humanitarian disaster awaits

Overfishing and climate change threaten the vital food supply of more than one billion people. They are the driving forces behind the deteriorating health of the ocean, which is the world’s largest ecosystem and the source of oxygen and climate regulation for our entire planet, not to mention jobs and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people.

The ocean is the world’s largest ecosystem and
the source of oxygen and climate regulation for
 our entire planet.

If we do not take urgent action to restore and protect our ocean we will soon face an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. We can fix these problems. The ocean has an immense capacity to heal itself, and there are proven methods available for us to help it.

Read the World Economic Forum story by Isabella Lövin, who is the Minister for International Development Cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden - “If we don’t protect the ocean, humanitarian disaster awaits.”

Arctic drilling collapse good news for World Oceans Day

It’s often hard to find good news when it comes to the world’s oceans. Overfishing, coral bleaching, dead zones, acidification, pollution, oil spills, melting sea ice, sea level rise, the odd Cold War-era Russian rocket crashing into Baffin Bay with some leftover toxic fuel in the tank: There are as many marine bad news stories as there used to be fish in the overfished sea.

So on World Oceans Day a bit of positive news is a breath of fresh air — or gill-full of clean water.

Repsol, a Spanish oil company which owned a significant portion of the drilling leases for Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, abandoned 55 of them last week and plans to drop the remaining 38 next year.

“Repsol is in the process of relinquishing its Chukchi Sea acreage position offshore Alaska,” Repsol spokeswoman Jan Sieving said in a statement.

Read the ClimateProgress story - “Last Oil Company Pulls Out Of Arctic Offshore Drilling Efforts In Chukchi Sea.”