Anne Readel, New York Times, March 28, 2022
In a small midwestern town in Minnesota, at a small liberal arts college, Gustavus Adolphus, the biggest and most important topic in the world was recently discussed: oceans. Attended by the world’s leading ocean scientists and explorers, The Nobel Conference on Oceans accomplished the monumental task of schooling Midwesterners, a demographic somewhat removed from an everyday consciousness of the ocean, on the dire and mounting threats to our oceans. Here is the speaker line-up from the event:
Dr. David Gallo, an ocean explorer, and Dr. Maya Tolstoy, a marine geologist, set the stage for our entrance into the incredibly vast and largely unexplored ocean world. They explained how our knowledge of the oceans, compared to our understanding of Jupiter’s topography, is frighteningly small, considering that Jupiter is light-years away and the ocean sits comparatively right outside our front door. They ended with a call to action
Stanford University Marine Sciences professor Dr. Barbara Block emphasized the need for smarter consumption of seafood. Supported by her research on Blue Fin tuna population and migration studies, she advocated choosing responsibly caught or farmed seafood. This choice, she explained, could be the beginning of restoring many of our near-extinct populations of large fish. (Online at seafoodwatch.org)
Dr. Christopher Sabine, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory Director, explained the exorbitant cost of fossil fuel use in CO2 accumulation in our atmosphere and oceans leading to increasing ocean acidification and global warming.
Dr. Ove Hoegh-Guldber, from the Global Change Institute of Queensland, Australia put the effects on coral reefs from ocean acidification into perspective with the fact that nearly 50% of the Great Barrier Reef, our largest coral reef ecosystem, is dead due to coral bleaching.
Oregon State Professor of Philosophy Dr. Kathleen Dean Moore posed important questions for us to take home and apply to our own lives. How are we responsible for the state of our oceans? How do our daily choices reflect our responsibility to stewardship of our planet? What type of ocean do we want for our children and their children? Don’t we have a moral and ethical responsibility, regardless of where we live, to care for and nurture the gift that has been given to us?
Dr. Carl Safina, the keynote speaker and noted marine author, followed the relationship between human consumption and the measured effects of the devastating impact it has on the oceans. The ocean is warmer, more acidic, and the commercial fish populations are close to being depleted, all due to human consumption habits. He finished with this message: Our global oceans are not a source for short term profit. They are a home worth saving and sharing.
Watch the lectures and see the science for yourself here.
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