World Ocean Day 2021

Jun 8, 2021 | News

The long road to recovery

As the global vaccination programme gains momentum, the world is starting to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic with our focus firmly fixed on recovery. It’s not just the effects of the pandemic that require amelioration, however. What we’re also seeing emerge is a refreshed emphasis on the mitigation of climate change. As today marks World Ocean Day, there’s no doubt that if we are to save our planet from the effects of human activity, further protection of our precious oceans is required.

The UN Environment Programme elected to concentrate this year’s World Environment Day (June 5th) on resetting humanity’s relationship with nature and launched the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration – a global push to prevent, halt, and reverse ecosystem degradation. On this day, the UK government also pledged over £8 million towards projects to boost international conservation in the UK Overseas Territories.

Protecting our oceans

Regardless of where on the planet we live, every one of us depends on the health of our oceans and cryosphere – whether for food and fresh water, renewable energy, general health and wellbeing, or trade and transport. One of the key roles played by our oceans is the natural sequestration of anthropogenic carbon dioxide, which is produced as a result of human activity. Through sequestration, our oceans capture and store CO2 in sea grasses, algae, soil, and phytoplankton.
Ocean life is declining the world over, through habitat destruction, overfishing, and of course, the effects of climate change. The ocean covers some 70% of the Earth’s surface, yet a mere 8% is currently being protected. With the oceans thought to be able to assist with as much as a third of climate change mitigation, it’s vital we press forward with increasing the protections afforded to our oceans. This World Ocean Day, we stand by the 2021 Conservation Action Focus for protecting the minimum 30% of the Earth’s oceans by 2030.
World Ocean Day

Solidarity in support.

Overfishing, pollution, deforestation, vessel strikes, and noise pollution all result in environmental changes in our oceans, including rising temperatures and biodiversity loss, which can impact entire ecosystems and threaten marine species. Over a third of the world’s population lives within 100km of the coast, and nearly 40% depend upon marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. And, with the oceans producing as much as 80% of the oxygen we breathe, it’s clear just how important it is that we achieve our minimum goal of 30% protection by 2030.

Join the OceanWeb team as we show our support for this wonderful cause and help us to protect this invaluable asset which means so much not just to those in our industry, but to the whole of humanity.

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