<
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/fishing-communities-create-marine-refuges-to-protect-chiles-biodiversity/>
"Protecting the oceans is crucial to societies’ survival because, as the United
Nations has recognized, they “drive the global systems that make the Earth a
habitable place for humans.” The world’s oceans regulate the climate, provide
rainfall, produce oxygen, and are the main source of protein for more than a
third of the global population: more than 3 billion people around the globe
depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. Oceans also
absorb more than 90% of the excess heat due to climate change, and a quarter of
human carbon dioxide emissions, so they are also essential to stabilizing the
planet’s climate.
So far, though, humanity’s increasing carbon dioxide emissions have affected
the health of the oceans by warming and acidifying seawater. The U.N. says this
has not only “led to dire changes for life underwater and on land,” but also
“reduced the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide and protect life on the
planet.”
In this scenario, coastal waters are the hardest hit, since nearshore pollution
compounds climate change stressors. Small-scale fisheries are located closer to
the coast and are therefore the most affected. According to the U.N., “Without
concerted efforts, coastal eutrophication” — the increase in inorganic
nutrients from human activities, which causes accelerated algal growth, among
other things — “is expected to increase in 20 percent of large marine
ecosystems by 2050.”
To address the problem, the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals include
creating effectively managed marine protected areas. In Chile, artisanal
fishers from five communities have decided to help this global effort by
protecting areas of the sea where they have historically fished and harvested
shellfish."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/goodnews-water-vietnam-stunting-indonesia-conservation-ecuador/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
