Rising seas: facts, fictions and aquaria

Filosofia,, 2022

The ocean with its coastal seas is under increasing anthropogenic pressure, severely threatening ocean health and marine life. Human dependency on and management of the ocean are disconnected, which is in part why the United Nations (UN) is launching the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, 2021-2030 ("Ocean Decade"). Here we investigate how philosophy and literature can inspire us to change the relationship between humans and the ocean. The starting point is natural science and human exploration of the sea. Then we consider philosophy, starting from Aristotle's forms of knowledge-episteme, techne, and phronesis-focusing particularly on phronesis, or practical wisdom. Referring to Homer's Odyssey, we investigate the threats that the ocean may face during the UN's Ocean Decade. From this, we identify several things that will make for a successful Ocean Decade: practical wise leadership, clear vision, societal involvement, information sharing, admitting the vulnerability of both the ocean and humans, and storytelling.

Oceanography, 2007

Education, 2008, 394 pages, ISBN 0073016543, Paperback, $117.90 US REVIEWED By CyNTHIa CUDaBaCk A college-level introductory science textbook should have three purposes, two of which are often underserved. First, it should present large quantities of information, which results in a text that is bulky and expensive. Second, it should help students understand the nature and process of science, and allow them to practice scientific techniques such as critical thinking and inquiryguided learning. Third, in the case of an oceanography text, it should help students understand the complex interdependence of humans and the ocean. The new text by Chamberlin and Dickey is the first I have seen that promotes all three purposes equally. The interdependence of humans and the ocean is at the heart of ocean literacy, as defined by a national consensus of marine scientists and educators (see Ocean Literacy pamphlet available online at http://www.coexploration.org/ oceanliteracy). The ocean literacy definition includes lists of topics that students should understand, and also describes what students should do with that understanding. An ocean-literate person is one who (1) understands the science of the ocean, (2) is able to communicate clearly about the ocean, and (3) can make informed decisions about policy and behaviors that affect the ocean. The consensus was made in the context of ele-mentary and high school education, but

The Blue Book Copernicus for A Sustainable Ocean, 2019

Published by Mercator Ocean International, implementer of the Copernicus Marine Service of the European Union, the Blue Book is a report to inform all European citizens including policy-makers, students and youth, about the role the Copernicus Marine Service plays for the blue economy, for the environment and for society at large. Among its contributors are decision-makers, entrepreneurs, experts, concerned citizens, and scientists from all over the world that are directly involved in ocean-related issues. They share with the reader factual and easily accessible information on pressures affecting the global ocean and the subsequent impacts on the Earth’s climate, environment and biodiversity and how they mitigate them by using information and data from the Copernicus Marine Service. Their testimony also highlights the tremendous potential of the ocean for the blue economy, education, etc. and the way it can be harnessed by using information and data from the Copernicus Marine Service.

Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 2019

1. Throughout human history, the ocean has occupied myriad cultural meanings, mythologies and practices, which were often founded on a notion of the sea as being so large and 'powerful' as to be immune to human impacts. These conceptions were grounded in observations from the surface or shoreline, and in periods when human activities in the ocean were more technologically and spatially limited than they are today. 2. Advancements in science and technology have significantly altered how humans interact with and access the ocean, allowing exploration and exploitation of ocean areas and processes that were previously incomprehensible. This new capacity to understand and extract from the ocean might be expected to profoundly alter human relationships to it and conceptions of it. 3. As public support and engagement with marine conservation and 'blue economies' stem from value and belief systems, future marine management will benefit from recognizing our historical marine relationships as context for changes in understanding, use, and the increasing environmental degradation faced by the ocean. This review focuses on perspectives of the ocean that have been held historically and queries their future persistence at this potential turning point in our relationship with the ocean.

2018

Underwater Worlds throws open a new area in the emerging field of “blue” environmental humanities by exploring how subaqueous environments have been imagined and represented across cultures and media. The collection pursues this theme through various disciplinary perspectives and methodologies, including history, literary and film criticism, myth studies, legal studies and the history of art. The essays suggest that, since the nineteenth century, technologies of underwater exploration have generated novel sensory experiences that have destabilized conventional modes of representation and influenced new aesthetic forms from fiction and television to virtual reality. The collection also examines how representations of underwater environments have reflected and critiqued humans’ relationships with marine ecology and life-forms. It reflects on the deeper cultural and symbolic resonances of mythical figures such as mermaids, sea monsters and the ghosts of drowned seafarers. The contribut...

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2023

In March 2023, the United Nations agreed on a legal framework to protect biodiversity in international waters. Covering almost two-thirds of the ocean that lies outside national boundaries, the treaty will provide a legal framework for establishing vast marine protected areas (MPAs) to protect against the loss of wildlife and share out the genetic resources of the high seas. It will establish a conference of the parties (COP) that will meet periodically and enable member states to be held to account on issues such as governance and biodiversity. The international enthusiasm greeting this treaty, coming from governments, environmental groups and many other organisations, is justified, given the time it took to reach this agreement (almost 20 years of talks), and the fact that it builds on previous international agreements and commitments, from the recent Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at COP15, to the longestablished UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS). Why are the oceans important? They cover 71% of our planet's surface. We rely on them to support human life and our economic, cultural, social, and environmental wellbeing. They host 95% of the biosphere. But our oceans are under threat. With the effects of climate change increasingly evident, sea water temperatures are rising rapidly. Continued ocean warming is projected to lead to marine ecosystems disappearingsystems which are essential for biodiversity, and also provide food and livelihood for millions of people. Around half the world's population relies on fish as a major source of protein, and the fishing industry employs over 56 million people across the globe. Yet the way we fish is unsustainable, boosting carbon emissions, depleting wildlife, and polluting our oceans. We must find new ways to protect fish stock numbers, whilst sustainably feeding populations. Why now? The environmental and human issues have been steadily building up over the last decades. 2021-2030 is the United Nations (UN) Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and yet, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 'Life Below Water' is one of the most underfunded SDGs by both Official Development Assistance and philanthropic development funding. The complexity of our ocean systems makes it difficult for us humans to comprehend the scale of interventions and investments required to restore them. This report serves as a summary of the event series Our oceans: a deep dive, hosted by The University of Bath Institute for Policy Research (IPR) throughout 2021-2022. This series engaged with experts, advisors, policymakers, and the general public to address the role our oceans can play in our collective action to reach net zero; how we can protect Indigenous communities and our oceans from pollution, overfishing, and fish farming; the role and opportunities of nature-based and geoengineering solutions; and the geopolitics of our oceans. Now is the time to act for the protection of our oceans for future generations. The following report shows how. It provides a collection of summaries of the public lectures delivered as part of the IPR events series 1 . The perspectives presented here

The history of modern Western thinking about nature devolves into a stalemate between anthropocentrism and cosmocentrism. For the former, nature is there for our use; it is resource, and we, as lords and masters of nature, can do with it what we wish. For the latter, nature is a balanced order, regulated by its laws, and directed by its own agenda. It is does not belong to us, we belong to it. Failure to recognize this basic fact of earthly existence, cosmocentric thinkers maintain, has got us into the pickle we are in today. Applied to the sea, we get two alternative models: the sea as resource for human need and development; and the sea as world unto itself, as agent, with an agenda of its own. We can describe the two alternatives as the sea for us, or the sea for itself. It is important to recognize that these two obviously contradictory positions are rooted in ethico-religious assumptions about the human being and its place in the universe. Anthropocentrism is rooted in a certain form of monotheism; cosmocentrism is rooted in modern pantheism. The former is humanistic, the latter is post-human. The Anthropocene, the recognition of the human species as a geological force, and the convergence of deep geological time with human history, now makes it increasingly impossible to maintain either of these alternatives.

Environment and Society, 2020

How do scientists produce the ocean as space through their work and words? In this article, I examine how the techniques and tools of oceanographers constitute ocean science. Bringing theoretical literature from science and technology studies on how scientists "do" science into conversation with fine-grained ethnographic and sociological accounts of scientists in the field, I explore how ocean science is made, produced, and negotiated. Within this central concern, the technologies used to obtain data draw particular focus. Juxtaposed with this literature is a corpus by ocean scientists about their own work as well as interview data from original research. Examining the differences between scientists' self-descriptions and analyses of them by social scientists leads to a productive exploration of how ocean science is constituted and how this work delineates the ocean as a form of striated space. Th is corpus of literature is placed in the context of climate change in the final section.

2020

The human relationship with the ocean is diverse and complex. It is built on values that are often nonmonetary, and which contribute to non-material dimensions of well-being. These values are essential to broader human flourishing. They include contributions to cultural and social and legal identity; a sense of place; occupational pride and self-respect; spirituality; mental and bodily health; and human security. The plurality of these values and interests matters to individuals and societies and could be more strongly represented in high-level ocean policy discussions. A sustainable ocean economy must be built on these diverse relationships, in ways that encourage equity and inclusion and that recognise the non-material aspects of well-being. How we govern the ocean will determine who accesses and benefits from the ocean space. A heavily privatised, zoned and securitised ocean undermines the human-ocean relationship. Building upon existing institutional foundations, ones that provide livelihoods and well-being benefits to all citizens, will foster a more constructive long-term engagement with the ocean. There is no sole human relationship with the ocean with which all people will identify: each individual has different interests, experiences, economic stakes, emotional investments and cultural and social ties to different aspects of the ocean. To increase the ocean's contribution to both material and non-material wellbeing globally, we need to build a sustainable ocean economy based on this plurality of values. This paper identifies and focuses on the relationships with the ocean that contribute to human well-being. In doing so, it outlines these relationships in new ways and identifies the means to ensure that the plurality of 'ocean values' is represented in processes of planning and implementing a sustainable ocean economy. The paper suggests five key actions to assist states and international organisations in supporting and improving humanity's diverse relationships with the ocean by fostering participatory democratic governance: (1) humanise the new ocean narrative by focusing economic development on the objective of increasing human well-being; (2) foster diversity and inclusion in the sustainable ocean economy; (3) engage in partnerships with a broad constituency of ocean supporters, including small-scale fisherfolk, community elders and nextgeneration social and environmental activists, Indigenous Peoples, and women who work in the maritime economy and who steward marine environments; (4) build the capacity of meso-level institutions below the level of the national government and above the level of the individual citizen-consumer; and (5) ensure that responses to COVID-19 consider the well-being of ocean-dependent people and economic sectors. Governing the ocean is a 'collective responsibility of humanity' and can only be achieved by ensuring that those who have lived in, worked on and stewarded coastal and continental waters for centuries or millenniaprominent among them small-scale fisherfolk-are included in decisions on its future governance. These 'ocean citizens' and the institutions they have forged are pivotal to achieving a sustainable ocean economy. As such, maintaining ocean health and maintaining ocean access should be the dual aims of governing the future ocean .

Anthropogenically induced climate change has created a set of intriguing scientific problems pertaining to the Seas and the Oceans on earth that can be monitored, analysed, modelled and consequently understood at some level. The international research community is deeply engaged in this endeavour as exemplified by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030). Even so, the types of problems caused by human activity are inherently difficult to solve, if solvable at all, making them equally difficult to approach and manage. Here we address these as ‘wicked problems’ (first discussed by Churchman 1967, and later defined and formalized regarding social and natural sciences by Rittel and Webber 1973), posing challenges that currently seem to surpass our ability to tackle them.