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A Big Deal for Our Ocean
Mar 28, 2016
Today governments from all over the world will meet at the United Nations in New York to develop a new treaty to save our oceans. We will be there to ensure clear rules for the creation of sanctuaries that will give our oceans the protection they desperately need.
The ocean belongs to all of us. There's no other place on the planet that is as rich in diverse, beautiful, weird and wonderful creatures. This fragile treasure is threatened by overfishing, habitat destruction and expanding extractive activities such as oil and gas exploitation and deep-sea mining. The added pressures of climate change and increasing ocean acidification is damaging our ocean's ability to perform its vital functions. As the first UN Oceans Assessment points out: urgent global action is needed to protect the world's oceans from the many threats they face.
Two thirds of our oceans are outside national borders and belong to all of us. Currently there is nothing in place that could create and manage ocean sanctuaries in these waters. It's like the wild west, where the ocean and the seabed are open to reckless exploitation. The existing ocean laws focus more on the right to exploit, than on the duty to protect.
As a result, less than one percent of these waters are protected. This is far from what scientists say; that 30 percent or more of the oceans should be protected through a global network of 'ocean sanctuaries' if we want to stop the loss of marine life, rebuild fish stocks and resilience to climate change.
Starting today we have an extraordinary opportunity to turn this situation around and protect the vast expanses of ocean which are currently so vulnerable. After ten years of dragging their feet, governments are finally going to assemble the building blocks for a new ocean treaty. A treaty that must change the current system from one that focuses on exploitation to one that ensures the conservation of ocean life for generations to come.
You made this happen.
For far too long, the future of our oceans has been discussed away from public scrutiny with very little progress. Greed has driven the opposition of countries profiting from ocean exploitation. But you stood up and said NO MORE to this.
And they listened.
There's still a lot of work to be done in the coming years to get this deal in place and make sure it's as strong as it needs to be. We need you to keep up the pressure and demand that ocean protection is at the heart of this treaty.
Stay tuned and follow us (#ThisWay2Treaty) as we will be at the UN headquarters on your behalf. We will be your ears and voice during these negotiations, showing decision makers that people are watching and expect them to take action to protect our ocean.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
© 2023 Greenpeace
Today governments from all over the world will meet at the United Nations in New York to develop a new treaty to save our oceans. We will be there to ensure clear rules for the creation of sanctuaries that will give our oceans the protection they desperately need.
The ocean belongs to all of us. There's no other place on the planet that is as rich in diverse, beautiful, weird and wonderful creatures. This fragile treasure is threatened by overfishing, habitat destruction and expanding extractive activities such as oil and gas exploitation and deep-sea mining. The added pressures of climate change and increasing ocean acidification is damaging our ocean's ability to perform its vital functions. As the first UN Oceans Assessment points out: urgent global action is needed to protect the world's oceans from the many threats they face.
Two thirds of our oceans are outside national borders and belong to all of us. Currently there is nothing in place that could create and manage ocean sanctuaries in these waters. It's like the wild west, where the ocean and the seabed are open to reckless exploitation. The existing ocean laws focus more on the right to exploit, than on the duty to protect.
As a result, less than one percent of these waters are protected. This is far from what scientists say; that 30 percent or more of the oceans should be protected through a global network of 'ocean sanctuaries' if we want to stop the loss of marine life, rebuild fish stocks and resilience to climate change.
Starting today we have an extraordinary opportunity to turn this situation around and protect the vast expanses of ocean which are currently so vulnerable. After ten years of dragging their feet, governments are finally going to assemble the building blocks for a new ocean treaty. A treaty that must change the current system from one that focuses on exploitation to one that ensures the conservation of ocean life for generations to come.
You made this happen.
For far too long, the future of our oceans has been discussed away from public scrutiny with very little progress. Greed has driven the opposition of countries profiting from ocean exploitation. But you stood up and said NO MORE to this.
And they listened.
There's still a lot of work to be done in the coming years to get this deal in place and make sure it's as strong as it needs to be. We need you to keep up the pressure and demand that ocean protection is at the heart of this treaty.
Stay tuned and follow us (#ThisWay2Treaty) as we will be at the UN headquarters on your behalf. We will be your ears and voice during these negotiations, showing decision makers that people are watching and expect them to take action to protect our ocean.
Today governments from all over the world will meet at the United Nations in New York to develop a new treaty to save our oceans. We will be there to ensure clear rules for the creation of sanctuaries that will give our oceans the protection they desperately need.
The ocean belongs to all of us. There's no other place on the planet that is as rich in diverse, beautiful, weird and wonderful creatures. This fragile treasure is threatened by overfishing, habitat destruction and expanding extractive activities such as oil and gas exploitation and deep-sea mining. The added pressures of climate change and increasing ocean acidification is damaging our ocean's ability to perform its vital functions. As the first UN Oceans Assessment points out: urgent global action is needed to protect the world's oceans from the many threats they face.
Two thirds of our oceans are outside national borders and belong to all of us. Currently there is nothing in place that could create and manage ocean sanctuaries in these waters. It's like the wild west, where the ocean and the seabed are open to reckless exploitation. The existing ocean laws focus more on the right to exploit, than on the duty to protect.
As a result, less than one percent of these waters are protected. This is far from what scientists say; that 30 percent or more of the oceans should be protected through a global network of 'ocean sanctuaries' if we want to stop the loss of marine life, rebuild fish stocks and resilience to climate change.
Starting today we have an extraordinary opportunity to turn this situation around and protect the vast expanses of ocean which are currently so vulnerable. After ten years of dragging their feet, governments are finally going to assemble the building blocks for a new ocean treaty. A treaty that must change the current system from one that focuses on exploitation to one that ensures the conservation of ocean life for generations to come.
You made this happen.
For far too long, the future of our oceans has been discussed away from public scrutiny with very little progress. Greed has driven the opposition of countries profiting from ocean exploitation. But you stood up and said NO MORE to this.
And they listened.
There's still a lot of work to be done in the coming years to get this deal in place and make sure it's as strong as it needs to be. We need you to keep up the pressure and demand that ocean protection is at the heart of this treaty.
Stay tuned and follow us (#ThisWay2Treaty) as we will be at the UN headquarters on your behalf. We will be your ears and voice during these negotiations, showing decision makers that people are watching and expect them to take action to protect our ocean.
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