organization:global ocean commission

Oceans in grave danger: Poor governance threatens one of the planet’s most vital ecosystems
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/oceans-grave-danger-poor-governance-threatens-one-planet%E2%80%99

http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/4cols/leading_images/goc.jpg

Our seas are under threat from #pollution and other harmful practices, although they are an extremely important ecosystem. (Photo: #Global_Ocean_Commission) Our seas are under threat from pollution and other harmful practices, although they are an extremely important ecosystem. (Photo: Global Ocean Commission)

The seas and oceans are the earth’s largest ecosystems. They contain more than 1.3 billion cubic kilometers of water and represent more than 90 percent of habitable space on the planet. And yet, oceans are one of the least understood ecosystems. While #Lebanon contributes a tiny share of the pollution in the Mediterranean, particularly through the landfill in #Saida, and wastewater and industrial waste, drilling for oil (...)

#Series_and_Features #Articles #Burj_Hammoud #habitats #overfishing #Tripoli #united_nations #United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea

Climate science ‘is beyond argument’ | Climate News Network

▻http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/2014/03/climate-science-is-beyond-argument

The Global Ocean Commission says climate change is one of the key threats to the health of the world’s marine life, which it says faces multiple pressures in a warming world.

HONG KONG, 17 March - South Africa’s former Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel, has derided those who deny the scientific argument that climate change is an urgent problem caused largely by human activity.

He told journalists here: “The science is now incontrovertible. There are a few people in the world who deny it, but they are mainly in lunatic asylums.”

Mr Manuel is one of three co-chairs of the Global Ocean Commission, a panel of global leaders who have just ended a meeting here to finalise the proposals they will present to the United Nations in June.

The meeting agreed that another key threat to the world’s oceans is overfishing and the subsidies which help to make it possible. It says this, and the other factors causing ocean degradation, threaten the food security of as many as 500 million people.

#climat