Image: Unsplash/Naja Bertolt Jensen
- The UN’s IPCC report said climate change is widespread, rapid and intensifying.
- Detailed plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions and concrete commitments to invest in a sustainable blue economy are what’s needed, United Nations’ Special Envoy for the Ocean Peter Thomson said in an interview.
- “You can’t have a healthy planet without a healthy ocean,” he said.
- Ongoing changes to the ocean include warming, marine heatwaves, acidification and reduced oxygen levels.
- Officials attending the COP26 climate summit need to increase their ambition, he said.
“Ramp it up” and “deliver us from this nightmare.”
That’s the message Peter Thomson, the United Nations’ Special Envoy for the Ocean and and Co-Chair of Friends of Ocean Action, is sending to global leaders as they head to a crucial climate summit in November.
Detailed plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions and concrete commitments to invest in a sustainable blue economy are what’s needed to slow the decline in ocean health and put a brake on human damage to the planet, he said.
“You can’t have a healthy planet without a healthy ocean,” Thomson said. “The big emitters have to face up to the fact that they are poisoning us all. They are the ones who have to take the lead on drastically cutting their emissions.”
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Climate code red
His comments came after a major report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirmed ongoing changes to the ocean, including warming, more frequent marine heatwaves, acidification and reduced oxygen levels. The wide-ranging assessment of human impact on the planet said climate change is widespread, rapid and intensifying. UN Secretary General António Guterres called it a “code red for humanity.”
“The report is a huge alarm call for us all,” Thomson said. “From the ocean’s perspective, everything is connected. Think of it as one bathtub. So, what’s flowing off the Greenland ice sheet is causing a rising sea level in an atoll republic. If you’re burning coal to get your electricity, you’re contributing to the drowning of an age-old island culture.”
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Once a support for the planet as a key absorber of carbon, the ocean is now at grave risk.
Warming, acidification, deoxygenation, changing circulation patterns and rising sea levels threaten marine life and ecosystems and put at risk the future ability of the seas to indirectly support life on Earth, Thomson said.
“We can see there are going to be increasing marine heatwaves and this, along with acidification, really puts the survival of tropical coral reefs in particular into jeopardy,” he said.
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World Economic Forum, 12 August 2021. Full article.
