How To Rethink & Reintegrate The Role Of The Ocean In The Fight For Climate Change
In our fight for climate change and this climate crisis we’ve created for ourselves because of carbon emissions, we usually think of a plethora of ways of how we must save the ocean in order to stop climate change and its effect on us.
However, according to conservationist and former diplomat Susan Ruffo who is the senior advisor for Ocean and Climate at the United Nations Foundation, we need to rethink of ways to incorporate the ocean into our climate strategy instead of working to save it.
The ocean is a complex, physical, chemical and biological system which makes up 70 per cent of the planet and we’re only just beginning to understand it.
It produces at least 50 per cent of the oxygen we breathe; that’s more than one in two breaths, and it also regulates the Earth’s temperature.
The usual consensus is to save the ocean from plastic, oil spills, overfishing, destruction of coral reefs etc. However, Ruffo argues that we need to change this thought process and instead, complement the ocean in its natural way of saving us & the planet from climate change.
How The Ocean Regulates Climate
The ocean plays an even more significant role when it comes to carbon absorption. It’s currently absorbing 25 to 30 per cent of the CO2 that’s released into the atmosphere, making it the world’s largest carbon sink.
It also absorbs 90 per cent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse emissions and helps in keeping the planet habitable.
The ocean is a core part of our climate system, and it provides us with natural solutions to help us reduce emissions and adapt to this new climate reality that we’ve created.
Saving The Mangroves & Its Benefits
Coastal ocean ecosystems like mangroves, sea grasses and salt marshes are some of the most effective carbon sinks on the planet. Acre for acre, they can absorb 10x times more carbon than a forest on land. And that carbon goes very deep in the soil where it stays for hundreds of years.
However, we’re destroying these mangrove ecosystems. We’ve lost 20 to 50 per cent of them already and we lose more every year and as a result of that we are creating more emissions.
If we protect these coastal ecosystems and restore them, then those emissions reduce and we can absorb even more carbon.
Mangroves also protect coastal communities by buffering them against turbulent coastal storms and slowing down the wind and waves.
This is why protecting and restoring them should be a natural and vital part of our climate strategy.
The Possibilities Of Harnessing The Ocean Into Our Climate Strategy
The National Oceanic And Atmospheric Association of the United States estimates that 80 per cent of the ocean is unmapped, unexplored and unobserved according to its data as of 2021.
This makes for a vast range of possibilities when it comes to harnessing the ocean and using and incorporating it into our strategy to fight climate change.
There are so many diverse possibilities of harnessing the ocean in the future and we’re still grappling to get our heads around them at the moment.
For example, we could harness the power of the ocean’s wind and waves to produce power. This would be completely carbon-free and can produce enough power for the planet for the foreseeable future and help reach islands and coastal places which don’t benefit from our existing grids.
We can also plan and design systems so that we can create artificial reefs that could support wildlife, aquaculture, and help in growing food and sequester carbon.
These are just few of the ways we can work along with the ocean and integrate it into our fight for climate change instead of harming it.
That comes down to a fundamental change in mindset, which is, instead of thinking about how to save the ocean, we need to think about how we can help the ocean save us.
In her TED Talk, ocean conservationist Susan Ruffo argues that from storing carbon to providing protection to coastal communities, the ocean provides numerous ready-made solutions to the climate crisis and further asks that with more than eighty percent of the ocean still unexplored, what new solutions are waiting to be discovered?
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