Hundreds of species of marine life are facing mass extinction as pollution, climate change and overfishing threaten to create a catastrophe “unprecedented in human history”, according to the latest report by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
''The findings are shocking,'' said marine biologist and scientific director of IPSO, Alex Rogers. ''We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime and, worse, our children's and generations beyond that.''
Some of the key scientific conclusions in the report include:
1. Human actions have resulted in warming and acidification of the oceans and are now causing increased hypoxia
2. The speeds of many negative changes to the ocean are near to or are tracking the worst-case scenarios from IPCC and other predictions
3. Resilience of the ocean to climate change impacts is severely compromised by the other stressors from human activities, including fisheries, pollution and habitat destruction.
4. Ecosystem collapse is occurring as a result of both current and emerging stressors.
View a TEDtalk by coral reef ecologist Jeremy Jackson on how humanity is wrecking the ocean
According to the report, overfishing alone has reduced commercial fish stocks and by-catch species by more than 90 percent.
The global fishing industry generates US$246 billion a year but faces annual losses of over US$36 billion if current conditions persist.
According to Dr. Rashid Sumaila, director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia Fishery Centre, “Fish contribute significantly to global well-being through revenues, jobs and through household incomes.
"If you consider what the fish pump into an economy through processing, the restaurants and even agriculture, it's much more than just the landed value."
View an interview with Dr. Sumaila, , who talks about overfishing, its impact on the Ghanaian economy, and the global ramifications of a fish shortage in Africa.
Overfishing may be just one of the many problems that the world’s oceans currently face, but it is perhaps the easiest for governments and societies to solve.
With a traumatic implosion – economic, financial, political, and social – now taking place in Greece, we should expect heated debate about who is to blame for the country's deepening misery. There are four suspects – all of them involved in the spectacular boom that preceded what will prove to be an even more remarkable bust.
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Professor at Columbia University. Recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001 & the John Bates Clark Medal in 1979. Author of "Freefall: America, Free Markets", "The Sinking of the World Economy", "Globalisation and its Discontents" & "Making Globalisation Work".
Non-Executive Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia. Lecturer at Yale University's School of Management and Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Author of "The Next Asia".
Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. IMF’s Chief Economist from September 2003 to January 2007. Inaugural recipient of the Fischer Black Prize.
Professor of Economics & Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals. Founder & co-President of the Millennium Promise Alliance.
Mario I. Blejer is a former governor of the Central Bank of Argentina and former Director of the Center for Central Banking Studies at the Bank of England. Eduardo Levy Yeyati is Professor of Economics at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution.
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