Takeaways from the Our Ocean Conference
I traveled to Norway last week to attend the 6th Our Ocean conference. John Kerry created this international conference as Secretary of State (after he and I tried but ultimately failed to pull off a big, multi-committee oceans hearing in the Senate). Years later, his conference is still going to huge success. Bravo, John!
At the conference, politicians, scientists, and corporate leaders sounded the alarm about the plastic trash and other marine debris polluting our oceans. One penny per pound of plastic would give the world $6.8 billion every year to help clean up the ocean plastics mess. But for now, it’s cheaper to pollute and we are abusing our oceans, our wildlife, and our health.
Don’t just take it from me:
- Filmmaker and renown environmental activist Alexandra Cousteau: “The ocean my grandfather knew is filled with ghosts” — lost fisheries, dead zones, crumbling coral reefs, vanishing species.
- Foreign Minister Soreide of Norway: “when fish eat plastics and we eat fish, you can do the math.”
- Former Secretary of State John Kerry: “If we want to protect oceans we have to stop climate change, and to stop climate change we have to fix our politics.’ He cited Naomi Oreskes’s “Merchants of Doubt” about crooked fossil fuel denial schemes and called to politicians to “wake up” to this problem.
Indeed, it is time for my Republican colleagues to wake up. There is a path to climate action in Congress, but it will take political effort by corporate America. So far, corporate America has let Congress be run by the fossil fuel industry and made zero effort for climate action (or less, if you count negative effort by trade associations, NAM and U.S. Chamber).
The Pepsi representative was disappointing at the Our Oceans conference; nothing specific that they support. The U.S. is “just learning” about collection — yea, because Pepsi and others fought bottle bills! One thing he did well: master of the speaking panel dodge.
By contrast, the representative from Unilever committed the company to cleaning up more plastic every year than it creates, to be a net reducer not a net adder to the plastic waste calamity.
Real action requires real support from corporate America and from Republicans.
If you can read it, notice bullet two of U.S. commitments at Our Ocean conference: it’s my coastal fund and the already-appropriated $77 million I fought for. Considering the lack of support, talk of veto, etc. as we fought for fund, this is pretty rich. I hope it portends future support!
The Our Ocean conference fostered an important discussion on the health of our oceans. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to attend and to speak. We are making progress, but there is still much more work to do.
