According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “the ocean produces over half of the oxygen we breathe and absorbs 50 times more carbon dioxide than our atmosphere.”
The ocean is our first line of defense against runaway climate change, it regulates heat around the globe to control our weather patterns, circulates nutrients, provides the primary source of protein for over a billion people, and serves as a highway that carries more than 90% of the goods and materials that move internationally. It is a resource unique in the known universe and represents the fundamental building block without which life as we know it could not exist.
As the ocean temperature is increasing year by year as a result of climate change so are extreme weather events like Hurricanes, Typhoons, and cyclones a direct result of the temperature increase. An old estimation by NOAA put the cost for one hurricane hitting the US mainland at 21 billion USD, how many such events do we have worldwide in a year? In 2021 we are estimating that around 10 billion USD goes to fund research and development targeting Oceans, out of that a big part goes towards resource exploration, the gap between just this particular gap of Hurricane cost per event and how much we spend to prevent is quite alarming. If we look at each segment of climate impact on oceans the amounts increase, even more, none sustainable fishing, shipping, plastics, and overall pollution, all of which come at a daily cost for all of us.
The University of Sussex looked at how much of the research spending between 1990 and 2018 was allocated towards climate change and they found that it was less than 5%, In monetary terms around 6.5 billion USD.
One of the most pressing and significant challenges of our time is restoring and safeguarding our oceans and waters… [They] are often overlooked. Even though they are crucial to our very existence, the level of public and political concern has not matched the urgency of the situation.
So while we are all aware that for example weather starts in oceans we tend to spend very little to find out how we can mitigate, influence, or prevent these occurrences. CO2 storage is another factor we know well and those large quantities are stored by algae and seaweed around the world, yet very little is being done researching or developing solutions to increase or maintain these amounts.
On average, States devote only 1.7% of their research budgets to sciences of the ocean (0.03% to 11.8%, depending on the country), much less than they spend on other major scientific fields. This is incomprehensible considering the fundamental role of the ocean in regulating the climate and its rich biodiversity.
As our understanding of the ocean’s systems and rhythms increases, and available space and resources on land become scarce, the world is increasingly looking to the ocean for answers and opportunities.
Coastal countries, states and communities have started to see that teamwork and joining forces will be essential to making the most of opportunities and benefits from increased development in the ocean. Furthermore, there is a growing understanding of the necessity to have a better grip on water resources that have been stretched or overused in various places–an issue that is only becoming more pressing with longer periods of drought.
As Figure 1 illustrates, the blue spheres depict all the water on Earth in relation to the size of the Earth. The volume of the largest sphere encompasses all water on, in and above the Earth. The middle-sized sphere represents all freshwater found in groundwater, lakes, rivers and swamps. The third, much smaller sphere denotes the freshwater found in all lakes and rivers. The image emphasizes how minuscule ocean water is in comparison to the size of the Earth and, more specifically, how little fresh water that is accessible is available.
It’s critical to human health and well-being, the future economic development of our nation it is imperative that we promote sustainable use of this unique resource.
The 2016 OECD report entitled The Ocean Economy in 2030 reported that conservative estimates pegged this global industry at 1.5 trillion dollars and projected its growth through 2030. Surprised perhaps by its role as a primordial entity, the ocean has recently begun garnering attention from international policymakers which should help improve water conservation efforts across nations around our planet.
The total value of all businesses operating within water-related industries across OECD countries would have been nearly 2 trillion dollars if we had included fish farming too.
The UN’s estimate for 2015 numbers put it at $3 trillion, making up the 5th largest economy in the world.
The large discrepancies between estimates from reputable organizations underline that we don’t know enough about its size and growth. For example, ocean-based industries like fishing or tourism may not be captured by government economic data globally for some countries or regions which leads us into thinking these areas are less significant than they actually are – so society must recognize this challenge when thinking about how best protect our oceans from pollution while still ensuring adequate food supplies too
Fish farming is an area where countries now are looking into sustainability which is good, be that shrimp farms in Bali or fish farms in Korea and Japan, anything that limits their negative climate impact is welcome.
The Ocean Economy: Why should we care? This report offers up some interesting statistics regarding just how much value exists underwater:
The size of the ocean and the coastal economy is expanding rapidly, for example NOAA was able to track growth in recent years in the US. As of 2020 they have released a report that found GDP from this sector grew 5-7 between 2014/2015 more than twice as fast than national rates which only increased by 2.
The European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) supports the implementation of the Policy, the EU Maritime policy, and the EU agenda for international ocean governance.
So there are solutions, there are innovations and there are products out there that are being used to help with the ocean related climate change issues, but still no global ocean focused cluster organisation.
