{"id":4825,"date":"2019-08-22T12:25:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T09:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=4825"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:29","slug":"ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/08\/22\/ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ocean And Us In The Wake Of Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The urgent\nneed to ramp up global efforts to tackle the climate crisis has and will remain\nto be top of the agenda at a series of major international events over the\ncoming years. But it is likely that one key dimension of this vitally important\npolicy dialogues \u2013 oceans – will continue to be relegated to the sidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is, of\ncourse, essential for governments and businesses to continue focusing on how\nbest to reduce emissions to keep to global warming below 1.5 degrees. But the\ncontinued emphasis on mitigation strategies instead of a more balanced\nmitigation and adaptation approach has resulted in insufficient attention and\nresources flowing towards vulnerable communities and sectors. These sectors are\nalready feeling the destructive impacts of global warming and climate\nvariability-destructive impacts that are primarily being felt through the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the\nalready underwhelming progress on adaptation continues to be skewed towards\nforests. Little attention being accorded to ocean conservations which are equally\nimportant climate responses \u2013 which must be at the heart of the climate agenda.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a report from the Blue Economy Conference, there is no doubt that climate change is going to exacerbate threats to our oceans, rivers, and wetlands, and the timing, quantity, and quality of the world’s water supplies. But there is also no doubt that oceans can help mitigate local and global climate risks \u2014 that it is an under-recognized and under-valued lever for adaptation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related Article: Save The Reef<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ocean shore. Photo by wallpaper mania <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The world has\none ocean and its health is critical. Despite its crucial role in contributing\nto poverty eradication, global food security, human health, economic\ndevelopment and curbing climate change, our ocean is increasingly threatened,\ndegraded or destroyed by human activities, reducing their ability to provide crucial\nsupport to our ecosystem. Today, pressures on coastal and marine ecosystems\ncontinue to increase, as more communities live along coasts, putting an unsustainable\nstrain on coastal resources. This trend is foreseen to continue given the\npredicted global population growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Polluted water\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Already today, 30 percent of the world\u2019s fish stocks are\nover-exploited, while more than 50 percent are fully exploited. Coastal\nhabitats are under pressure, with approximately 20 percent of the world\u2019s coral\nreef lost and another 20 percent degraded. Plastic waste alone kills up to one\nmillion sea birds, a hundred thousand sea mammals and countless fish each year.\nAn estimated 80 percent of marine pollution comes from land-based activities.\nMoreover, vulnerable groups, including the poor, women, children and indigenous\npeople and coastal communities and countries with a high dependency on the\noceans and their marine resources are particularly affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our oceans\ndefine our planet. It sustains us and is home to all the life on earth today.\nThe presence of the ocean touches every living thing no matter where it lives.\nThe air we breathe; the water we drink are ultimately linked to the seas. The\nocean drives our weather and stabilizes our climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nature is more\npowerful and unforgiving, yet more beautiful and endlessly fascinating.\nHowever, for too long, we have taken the ocean for granted. Our actions have\npushed species to the brick and have had an impact on every ocean habitat no\nmatter how remote or how deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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: waterpollution.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We have not yet understood what the ocean does for us. The effects of climate change have been suffered by the ocean. But now, we are facing the consequences. The seas are warm, rising and becoming more acidic. It is a scary thought that coral reefs may be lost within the last century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all need a healthy ocean. So we must change our ways. Together with the right management, we can repopulate the sea. We can reduce marine pollution and minimize the impacts of ocean acidification. The ocean’s power of regeneration is remarkable if we just offer it the chance. It is not too late. We are in reach of a whole new relationship with the oceans, wiser, more sustainable relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The choice lies with us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The urgent need to ramp up global efforts to tackle the climate crisis has and will remain to be top of the agenda at a series of major international events…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}