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A Generation Wasted
Global Food Crisis
Increasing Emission from Transport
Loss of Ocean Biodiversity
Resistance to Lifesaving Medicine
LOSS OF OCEAN
BIODIVERSITY
Uncontrolled seas – the
majority of the high seas is
common territory. Nobody
owns it and nobody protects it. Three billion people
depend on protein from fish,
but global ocean biodiversity
is suffering due to pollution
from land and ocean activities.
Three billion people depend
on protein from fish.
Marine and coastal biodiversity – ecosystems, species and genetic resources – provide enormous benefits for human well-being. Roughly 40 percent of the world’s
population lives within 100 kilometres of the
coast; fisheries employ approximately 200
million people, provide about 16 percent of
the protein consumed worldwide and have
an annual value estimated at 80 bn USD.
Coastal ecosystems provide services, including tourism and protection from storms, valued at nearly 26 bn USD annually. Not only
coastal ecosystems are important as oceans
create half of the world’s oxygen, store 50
times more CO2 than our atmosphere and
the deep ocean floor has one of the highest
biodiversities on Earth.
However, global marine ecosystems and
their biodiversity are under threat due to:
habitat destruction, overfishing and bycatch,
hydrocarbon and mineral exploitation,
marine litter and toxic chemicals, nutrient
pollution, and increased CO2 emissions
leading to warming waters and acidification
– all a result of human mismanagement and
lack of political will.
The marine Living Planet Index, an indicator
of the state of global biological biodiversity, shows a decline of 39 percent between
1970 and 2010. Coral reefs, the world’s most
diverse marine ecosystem, are projected to
disappear by 2050, illustrating the profound
changes that are likely as we continue to
warm and acidify the ocean.
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Global Opportunity Report
Habitat destruction has the biggest effect
on biodiversity loss. Unsustainable use of
the Oceans resources like destructive fishing
techniques, activities in the oil and gas sector and emerging industries like deep-sea
mining possess large risks on to habitat. For
coastal habitats residential development,
tourism, aquafarming, industrial development, and dams all have huge impacts.
In 2011, around 29 percent of marine fish
stocks were estimated to be fished at a biologically unsustainable level and, therefore,
overfished. Unless catches are reduced and
fisheries better managed in the future, fish
stocks will decline.
Because water is such an effective solvent,
much of the toxic pollution that humankind
generates eventually ends up in the ocean,
in fact over 80 percent of marine pollution coming from land-based activities. In
addition estimates show that more than one
hundred million tonnes of plastic might have
ended up in the oceans since 1950.
Nutrient pollution is the process where
too many nutrients, mainly nitrogen and
phosphorus, are added to bodies of water
and can act like fertilizer. This phenomenon
is known as eutrophication. In coastal and
marine ecosystems, eutrophication changes
the algal species composition. Currently
over 500 dead-zones have been reported
as eutrophic worldwide. Sources of nutrient
pollution include surface runoff from farm
fields, discharges from septic tanks and
feedlots, and emissions from combustion.
The massive amount of CO2 we are pumping
into the atmosphere isn’t just warming the
climate and changing the ocean temperature— a quarter of it ends up in the oceans,
where it works to lower the waters’ pH level
and increase its acidity. The oceans have
become 30 percent more acidic over the
past 200 years because of human activity,
harming coral reefs, dissolving the shells of
sea snails, an important part of the marine
food chain, and threatening fisheries.
Uncontrolled seas – the majority of the
high seas is common territory, but without
common governance. In Ocean governance
there is a fragmentation of jurisdictions and
decision-making. It means silo governance,
where each state only looks at its own waters
and even then, most is managed for variety
of human uses. But, oceans are fluid – so a
problem in one place can end up in another
place and threaten the biodiversity. To
“conserve and sustainably use the oceans,
seas and marine resources for sustainable
development” is an alament of Goal 14 in the
SDG draft document.
© 2015 Monday Morning Global Institute / DNV GL / UNGC
A Generation Wasted
Global Food Crisis
Increasing Emission from Transport
Loss of Ocean Biodiversity
Number of dead zones has
roughly doubled each decade since 1960’s
Dead zones are areas with oxygen levels too low to support most marine life.
DEAD ZONE LOCATION
Resistance to Lifesaving Medicine
PUSHING THE RESOURCES OF THE
SEA TO THE LIMIT
Global trends in the state of world marine fish
stocks. Light blue indicate biologically unsustainable levels.
100%
75%
50%
25%
0%
1974
2011
OVERFISHED
FULLY FISHED
UNDER FISHED
INCREASING CO2 LEVELS WIL ALSO
AFFECT MARINE LIFE
As carbon dioxide in the air and ocean increases
over time, the pH in the seawater decreases.
CO2
HIGH INCREASE IN
NUMBER OF DEAD ZONES
pH
500
2012: 371 �atm
1988: 8.12
1988: 325 �atm
2012: 8.07
400
300
200
100
0
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Sources:
World Map (above) – Secretariate of the Convention on Biological Diversity. ‘Global Biodiversity Outlook 3’. Report. 2010. Chart (upper right) – FAO, ‘The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture’. Report. 2014 .
Chart (lower right) – National Research Council. ‘Ocean Acidification’. 2013
© 2015 Monday Morning Global Institute / DNV GL / UNGC
Global Opportunity Report
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Bibliography
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Risk 4: Loss of Ocean Biodiversity
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EEA. ’SOE – Growing pressure on ecosystems’. Report. 2015
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© 2015 Monday Morning Global Institute / DNV GL / UNGC
Global Opportunity Report
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