The Ocean at Risk

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Nothing exists in isolation. Even if we live miles away from a coast, the issues that affect our oceans deeply affect our lives.

The choices humanity has made in how we obtain, engineer, consume and dispose of resources in our industrial age threatens the health of our planet’s environment, including the ocean. According to a study published in Science, less than 4 percent of the oceans remain unaffected by human activity.

Signs of dis-ease are evident in changes happening to the ocean’s ecosystems and environment that are disrupting the balance of nature. Science is discovering more every day about the complex issues that are impacting the sea itself, our coastlines, livelihood and food supply for humankind and other species, and most critically, our global atmosphere.

All the issues are part of three over-arching yet interconnected concerns that provide a framework for understanding the most-pressing problems we face and potential solutions we can embrace to sustain the ocean and, hence, our own future.

The Ocean Food Web

Much of the food, supplements and medicine we have come to rely on are sourced from life in the ocean, that is, from the less than ten percent of it within easy access that we’ve managed to explore. Awareness of our impacts on the ecosystems in these areas is the first step in preserving the “web” of ocean life that supports the food chain that feeds and heals us.

The Ocean Environment

Most of us humans live on land, yet about 95% of the living space on planet Earth is in the ocean! Get informated about issues impacting the environment and biodiversity of the ocean and how they affect us.

The Ocean and Climate Change

Our ocean is inextricably linked with our climate and bears a major brunt of global warming, which in turn impacts all life on earth. This interelationship between oceans and climate is more immediate than we realize and one of the most complex areas of research for long-term forecasting.