Protecting the sea for future generations

The sea is a blessing and source of life as it provides about 3 billion people worldwide with almost one-fifth of their protein. Climatologists have admitted that the interaction between the sea, land and atmosphere shape global climate. Accordingly, the sea is strategic to life. And we all are duty bound to protect it for future generations.Without the sea, survival of humanity becomes difficult. Living with the sea, requires the human race to have the capacity to forecast when it would rise up against them. This is a big challenge which the sea poses to humanity as there is no formula to accurately predict what the sea will do at any given time. Although, there are sophisticated sensors to sense weather parameters, no man is endowed with the intellectual ability to provide adequately against devastating effects of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions or pestilence, or drought. Conversely, war could be averted in many instances provided that it is fully prepared for.

Paradoxically, the sea with abundant natural and mineral resources, has changed the history of humanity by killing millions of people and destroying properties worth millions of US dollars.While scientists and seafarers try to learn how to predict its motions. We have seen in extreme cases how winds push a huge volume of water into the coast in the form of a large storm surge as demonstrated in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina flooding New Orleans, USA. Haiti has had her own share of hurricane- the worst was Hurricane Hannah which brought untold misery to the Haitians in 2008. In 2012, it was the Tsunami in Japan. There are several other climate-related disasters too numerous to discuss in this column.

In order to accurately predict the power of the sea and its actions, man has to firstly, learn how the sea works; secondly, why it works the way it does in so many complex ways; thirdly, what drives those movements visible to man; and fourthly, where does it derive its power from. The power of the sea comes from the sun, moon and the earth.

Environmentalists have declared that “the capacity of the earth to absorb the impact of unfettered development is finite.Exceeding this capacity is to destroy the basis for future growth, and to send the development process into reverse”High winds have also threatened the success of naval operations in the past.An example is the Allied Amphibious landing at Normandy in World War II. The complex nature of the sea and its elements have been of concern to naval strategists.

The year 2015 according to scientists was the hottest year ever recorded by humanity, while the earth’s temperature increased by 0.85 degrees Celsius. Available data reveals that nine out of ten hottest years on global record occurred in the past decade. The rise in the earth’s temperature was disturbing that world leaders from nearly 200 countries converged in Paris at the United Nations climate talks. The aim was to find ways of keeping the increased global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Today, the world’s largest emitter is China, followed by the United States of America (USA). At the climate talks in Paris in 2015, it was agreed that developed nations will pay a compensation of about US$100 billion to developing countries by 2020. Is Donald Trump, the USA President, not willing to pay compensation? A decision to drop out of the Paris Agreement will put the USA at odds with nearly every other nation on the world. It is interesting to note that a large portion of this amount is to be spent adapting the world to climate change, rather than attempting to stop it. Most importantly, all world leaders at the UN climate talks agreed to pursue a goal of zero net emissions – removing as much greenhouse gas from the atmosphere as is being added to it- by the year 2050. Is this feasible? Your guess is as good as mine.

From the oceanographic and environmental standpoints, the power of the sea on a global scale is immeasurable, forcing weather patterns around the globe and changing the climate. That is, besides the depletion of the ozone layer, the sea plays a vital role in climate change. It is also the climate change that is responsible for coastal erosion. Any defenses that man may have against climate change is to evolve accurate prediction methods. Whether the cause of the current global warming is occasioned by increased carbon dioxide from the use of fossil fuels, or many years of deforestation or earth’s chaotic response to particular astronomical cycles or all of the stated reasons, the sea still plays a key role in climate changes experienced globally.

The effects of climate change are already evident in world oceans. Increases in storm intensity and rising sea levels will worsen coastal erosion and flooding with implications for both natural and man-made heritage features. Changes in sea temperature and salinity will have significant impacts on marine organisms and food chains, fishing and aquaculture activities.

William in his article titled “Man’s Inhumanity to Machines” talks about environmental impact assessment that man’s activities at sea through sound pollution, oil spills, exhaust emissions, sewage dumps, and discharge of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes have serious environmental consequences. It has been estimated that carbon dioxide emissions from shipping is about 4 to 5 percent of the global total, and estimated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to rise by up to 72 percent by 2020 if no urgent action is taken.

If current progress is not to deplete the natural resource on which future growth is predicated, we must de-couple economic growth from environmental pressure. The implication is that social and economic developments must be pursued in a manner that do not prejudice options available to future generations for the use of the sea and its features.

MA Johnson